Contact:mj3galla@uwaterloo.ca
Dr. Marina Gallagher earned her PhD in Musicology from the University of British Columbia in 2023. Her dissertation examined how music shapes players’ emotional responses to pastoral landscapes (forests and fields) and anti-pastoral areas (tombs, ruins, etc.) in the video games Final Fantasy X, XII, XIII, and XV. She also holds a BA in Music and Classical Studies (Languages Specialization) from the University of Waterloo and an ARCT in Piano Pedagogy from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Her research on music and landscapes in the Final Fantasy series was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) doctoral fellowship and a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. She has presented papers at the North American Conference on Video Game Music (NACVGM), the Toronto Graduate Music Conference, the Pacific Northwest Graduate Music Conference, and the Mozart Society of America’s annual conference. In addition, she has had the opportunity to speak with CBC Radio One, the Vancouver Sun, and UBC Media Relations about her research and the field of ludomusicology (the study of video game music) more generally.
Marina’s research interests include music, landscapes, and narrative in video games; ludomusicology; topic theory; and intersections between video games and Classical Studies, especially ancient epic and pastoral poetry.She is currently investigating anti-ludic music and lament in the NieR series, location and battle music in Final Fantasy XVI, music and humanity in Lies of P,and archaeogaming, music, and katabasis in Persona 5 Royal and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
When she isn’t playing video games or researching video game music, Marina enjoys creating digital resources for other music educators via her store, The Travelling Troubadour Music Resources, on TeachersPayTeachers (TpT) and Boom Learning. She also teaches video game music appreciation classes for teenagers and adults at the Laurier Academy of Music and Arts and maintains a small private piano and music theory studio.