BSc Hons (City University London), CTABRSM (London), PGDE (Trinity College Dublin), MMus (University College Dublin), PhD (University College Dublin)
Rebecca Uberoi
Programme Leader, Theology, Music and Worship Programmes
Lecturer in Music and Worship
Lecturer in Music and Worship
Rebecca is an ethnomusicologist with a particular focus on Christian worship music. She spent two months conducting fieldwork in Java and Bali for her undergraduate dissertation on Christianity, missionaries and music in Indonesia. Following completion of her music degree, she spent a year in West Java on an Indonesian government scholarship programme studying traditional Sundanese music.
Rebecca completed a taught masters in ethnomusicology at University College Dublin and was awarded a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship from the Irish Research Council to undertake her PhD. For her doctoral research she carried out fieldwork in a Nigerian Pentecostal church in Dublin, exploring the role of music in processes of identity formation in diaspora, the interaction between cultural and religious identities, the impact of music and culture on experiences of the divine, and how tensions arising in the context of migration are managed in the church’s music and worship.
Rebecca is an experienced music educator, having worked as an instrumental (piano/flute) and classroom music teacher for many years. More recent university teaching has included undergraduate music theory and musicianship classes, and postgraduate ethnomusicology classes. She currently teaches a range of music and worship modules at London School of Theology.
Rebecca has served in various capacities in local churches for well over two decades. Her ministry experience has included teaching/preaching, leading homegroups and Alpha courses, worship leadership, church leadership and church planting teams.
Outside of London School of Theology, Rebecca plays with Sekar Enggal (a gamelan degung group based at City University, London) and serves in the worship ministry at her local church.
- Ethnomusicology
- Worship Studies
- Ensemble Skills
- Creative Music Skills
- Worship Ministry in Practice
- Corporate Worship Studies
- Understanding Music, Vocation and Personhood
Uberoi, R. (2018) Dancing like David and Overcoming Enemies: Scripture and Culture in Christ Apostolic Church Dublin. In: Anderson, Bradford A. and Kearney, Jonathan (eds.) Ireland and the Reception of the Bible: Social and Cultural Perspectives. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark.
Uberoi, R. (2016) “Dance Your Sorrow Away”: Spirituality, Community, and Wellbeing in Christ Apostolic Church Dublin. Legon Journal of the Humanities 27 (2).
Uberoi, R. (2016) “If You Play the Talking Drum They Will Be Happy”: The Role of the Gángan in Christ Apostolic Church Dublin. Ethnomusicology Ireland 4.
The Talking Drum and Power Play in a Yoruba Migrant Congregation. Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Biennial Conference, Oxford, UK, 2019.
Sacred Dance and Spiritual Efficacy in Yoruba Christian Migration. Sounds of Heaven and Earth: Divine and Human Action in Christian Musical Worship, One-Day Conference, London School of Theology, 2019.
Lost in Translocation: Sacred Dance and Generational Transitions in a Yoruba Immigrant Church. British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Annual Conference, Newcastle, UK, 2018.
‘Thief – One with the Big Eyeball!’: Talking Drum Messages, Religious Ideology, and Micropolitics in a Yorùbá Immigrant Church in Ireland. International Council for Traditional Music World Conference, Limerick, Ireland, 2017.
‘How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds’ in England, USA, Nigeria and Ireland. British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Annual Conference, Chatham, UK, 2016.
“I Only Listen to Christian Music”: Ethnic and Religious Identities in Christ Apostolic Church Dublin. Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Biennial Conference, Oxford, UK, 2015.
“We are Pentecostal; we are Evangelical; we are an AIC”: Musical Indices of Group Identity and Belonging in an African Immigrant Church. British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Annual Conference, London, UK, 2014
“We are Pentecostal; we are Evangelical; we are an AIC”: Musical Indices of Group Identity and Belonging in an African Immigrant Church. International Council for Traditional Music (Ireland), Annual Conference, NUI Galway, Ireland, 2014.
Dancing like David: Scripture and Culture in a Yorùbá Pentecostal Church in Dublin. Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religion, Annual Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 2013.
Reverse Flow: Musical Expression and Missional Context in a Dublin-based Nigerian Church. School of Music, University College Dublin, Postgraduate Colloquium, Dublin, Ireland, 2012.
- Seed Funding Award (Dissemination and Outputs), University College Dublin, 2016, €891
- Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, Irish Research Council, 2013-2016, €69,640
- Indonesian Government Scholarship (Darmasiswa), 1997-1998