Keynote: Ruth Herbert

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Ruth Herbert (University of Kent, UK)

Ruth Herbert’s scholarship is marked out by her significant contributions to topics including musical consciousness and imagination – domains which resist definition through disciplinarity. Whilst based on scientific principles of enquiry, her research into the psychological processes involved in everyday listening experiences and the phenomenology of musical experience is underpinned by her performance expertise as a professional pianist. Current work includes the AHRC-funded participatory research project, Playing A/Part exploring the identities and experiences of autistic girls and adolescents.

Biography: Dr Ruth Herbert is Senior Lecturer in Music Psychology and Music Performance and Director of Graduate Studies (School of Arts) at the University of Kent. Initially trained in musicology, she completed an MA in Performance Practice and was awarded a Munster Trust Scholarship to pursue advanced solo studies at the Royal Academy of Music, UK. As a professional pianist, her interest in audience experiences at live events, together with personal reflection on her experiences of music listening led to the completion of a PhD in Music Psychology focused on the psychological processes involved in everyday listening experiences. Much of Ruth’s work has focused on the phenomenology of musical experience. She has cross-disciplinary research interests in the fields of music and consciousness, trance and ASC, music health and wellbeing, music education, performance psychology and evolutionary psychology. Published volumes include Everyday Music Listening: Absorption, Dissociation and Trancing (Routledge, 2016[2011]), Music and Consciousness 2: Worlds Practices, Modalities (co-edited volume with Eric Clarke and David Clarke, (OUP, 2019)). Journal articles and chapters have centred on a range of topics, including musical daydreaming and trait/state understandings of absorption. Ruth has contributed to BBC Radio 4 & 5 features on music and consciousness, music and spiritual wellbeing, and music, food and multisensory experience. She is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Sonic Studies, is book reviews editor and an associate editor for Musicae Scientiae, and is a trustee for Beyond Divisions Education Trust and the National Youth Jazz Collective.

Respondents: Nate Holder, Royal Northern College of Music International Chair in Music Education, UK; Jan Stupacher, Institute of Psychology, University of Graz | Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, Denmark.

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