Ciao!
My name is Laura Montanari. I am a postdoctoral fellow in music education at Montclair State University, an adjunct professor of Arts of Teaching Music at Westminster Choir College, an adjunct professor of songwriting and music & the American experience at NJIT, and music & movement at Bank Street College of Education.
My research focuses on embodied learning, body music, and the relationship between songs and history, namely how songs can serve as primary sources, illuminate pivotal historical moments, and reveal diverse cultural perspectives and non-hegemonic historical discourses.
My career as a singer-songwriter has guided my pedagogy and scholarship, relying on songwriting and arts-based methodologies to access different ways of knowing. My music is published under the pseudonyms Larthia and Cupra:Ring.
Articles
Montanari, L. (2026). From oral histories to archival songs: Rememory and a creative-critical pedagogy of imagination. Journal of Education and the Arts.
Montanari, L. (2026). Every body dance now! Re-inviting dance and creative movement in every music classroom and ensemble
— Tempo! (80)3, 22-24. https://issuu.com/njmea/docs/2026_march_tempo_2f58024e6ece68/22
Montanari, L. (2024). Songs and songwriting as transformative learning experiences: Three singer-songwriters reflect on their “Soul Work
— Journal of Transformative Education, (22)2, 201-217. https://doi.org/10.1177/15413446231181637
Book Chapters
Montanari, L. & Guarino, L. (2026). I see me when I see you: Artistic collaboration, friendship, and mirrors in the presence of the "Woman Hugging Self" archetype. In Music, spirituality and well-being. Authoethnographies volume I. Peter Lang
Dissertation
Montanari, L. (2024). Songwriting oral history interviews: Archival songs as critical-creative pedagogy in dialogue with women of the Italian Resistance.
https://doi.org/10.7916/bfy7-wk60
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“Living Voices” - first single from the research songs album.
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