ABOUT

Helen took up a new post as Professor and Head of the School of Arts at York St York University in October 2022. The School of Arts includes: undergraduate degrees in Acting, Animation, Drama, Theatre, Film and Television, Fine Art, Games Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Design, User Experience Design, Journalism, Media Production, Music, Music Production, Music Business, Music Technology, Community Music, Musical Theatre, Photography, Product Design, and Sport Journalism; and postgraduate taught degrees in Theatre, Music, Film and Screen Studies, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Design, Media Production, Music Production, Photography, Theatre and Performance, Animation and Virtual and Augmented Reality. 

She is also currently a Visiting Professor of Artistic Research and Music Education at the School of Music, in Piteå, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden since January 2020, where she supervises doctoral candidates and has led the Research Methods Class for Artistic Research in Music.

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She is a trustee for York Music Hub since 2023 and a member of the Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra. As is also, the co-chair of the Aurora Champion Advisory Group for AdvanceHE.

Previously she was the School Head of Performing Arts and Associate Professor of Music at Kingston University, London where she worked for 13 years (September 2010 to October 2022), holding positions as Head of Music for a full term, prior to moving to the larger role as Head of Performing Arts, in which she managed the disciplines of Dance, Drama and Music. Helen was the Kingston University Institutional Aurora Champion, supporting training of women and non-binary people via this AdvanceHE programme. Helen remains a member of the national level Aurora working group.

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Helen is a musician, and in her role she enjoys doing many things. She is a performer, playing trumpet and singing in many ensembles. As a researcher she is a musicologist, artistic researcher, and researcher of higher music education, with a focus on EDI. She has published widely on European music of the last 100 years, on music and dance, and notably on multimodal artistic translation. As a DJ/Broadcaster, she has two weekly shows which are broadcast currently on Radio Wey, one is an audio book, and the other a classical music show dedicated to diversity, equality and inclusion. 

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Helen was elected chair (for 4 years as chair, 3 years as vice chair and 4 years co-opted member) of MusicHE, the subject association for Music in Higher Education in the UK until May 2022. She was the founder (2018) and first co-chair (2020-2022) of EDI Music Studies Network. Additionally, she is the series editor, for Routledge, of Music's Interdiscplines, Critical Practices in the Study of Music. She is external member of the Academic Board of the Royal Northern College of Music. She has been an external examiner for many universities including: Wolverhampton University, Reading University, Dublin City University, Middlesex University, KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, India, University of West London, and Singapore Raffles Music College. She has sat on many validation panels and subject reviews, including for music UG/PGT at Goldsmiths, University of London (2022) and Dundalk (2024).

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Helen is CI for the AHRC funded, Women's Musical Leadership Online Network (Jan 2022 - May 2024) and was CI of the AHRC funded project Translating Music (2013-2014). Was was co PI for Taking Race Live, funded over 4 years by the Office for Fair Access (2014-2018).

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