Iain McLarty – Doctor of Pastoral Music (DPM) programme at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas

Iain writes: For a number of years I have been looking for an opportunity to develop my academic interests in church music through doctoral study, with a particular interest in worship in an ecumenical context and in global song. I became aware of the Doctor of Pastoral Music (DPM) programme at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and this seemed like an excellent fit.
The DPM is a unique professional doctorate for  church musicians, similar to the Doctor of Ministry programme which many American seminaries run. It follows a format where students take taught classes for two weeks blocks on campus once a year while reading, assignments and individual research projects are undertaken in their home context. This taught component is very different to undertaking a PhD in the UK, where students are almost entirely focused on their own research for the entire course of study. The programme was established by Dr C. Michael Hawn, who still teaches on it in his retirement, and is now led by Dr. Marcell Silva Steuernagel. I have had two trips to Dallas so far and these have provided an excellent grounding for doctoral study, particularly since it is fifteen years since I last engaged in this type of academic work. The first set of seminars were taken together with the Doctor of Ministry students and explored vocation and leadership. This allowed us to explore ministry in the broadest sense, as church music in North America is normally viewed as a ministry unlike in the UK. These classes involved engaging with a wide range of theological material, something that particularly drew me to this programme as I wanted to have an opportunity to do more theological study alongside church music. The second set of seminars involved students across three years of the DPM programme and this was an excellent opportunity to learn about how individual research projects develop during the programme. We explored a wide range of methodologies relevant to church music research, with the recent field of Congregational Music Studies being particularly relevant for my own research interest. We also looked at the place of the arts in worship more broadly and the place of music within mission in contemporary society. The courses so far have offered an invaluable mix of academic content alongside the opportunity to root this in students’ context. I am the only student from outside the USA on the programme at present but other students come from a wide range of geographic, denominational and cultural contexts and this allows us to learn from each other's experience. I am looking forward to further classes over the next couple of years which  will include topics such as hymnology and liturgical theology. I am also excited to begin my own research in the coming months after the solid grounding in doctoral study which these first two sets of classes have offered. It would not have been possible for me to undertake this study without grants from a number of places. I am very grateful to the Trustees of the Pratt Green Trust for their support which subsidised the travel and accommodation costs involved in studying abroad.