Singing and social inclusion; music and migrant health; music and ritual; music and migration; music and new ritual communities in Ireland; arts practice research; arts-based research; ritual studies; performance studies; music and education; music and community, music education philosophy.

My teaching is primarily linked to the PhD Arts Practice programme where I teach theory and method modules in arts practice research. I teach modules in ritual studies and the documentation of arts practice to several taught MA programmes including ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology, ritual chant and song, Irish traditional music, Irish traditional dance, contemporary dance, classical strings and songwriting. I have designed a suite of modules in performance studies and research skills for undergraduate programmes in the performing arts, as well as a broadening module in arts, activism and awareness.

Helen Phelan is Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland. As Professor of Arts Practice, she is an internationally recognised advocate for the integration of artistic methods into research cultures. She is a multi-award winning Irish Research Council recipient for her work on music and migration, including her current IRC COALESCE award (ADD: The Arts, Data Literacy and Diversity) with Professor of Biomedical Statistics, Ailish Hannigan. She is founder of the UL Singing and Social Inclusion research group, co-founder of the medieval vocal ensemble Cantoral, and current Chair of IMBAS, a national network for artistic research in Ireland. Her books include Singing the Rite to Belong: Music, Ritual and the New Irish (Oxford University Press), and The Artist and Academia (Routledge) edited with Graham Welch. Here most recent research focus is around music, wellbeing and migrant health. She was appointed Principle Investigator for the Health Research Institute PART-IM (Participatory and Arts-Based Methods involving Migrants in Health Research) research cluster from 2019-2023. Since 2023, she is the co-director, with Professor Anne MacFarlane, of the Participatory Health Research Unit, a World Health Organisation collaborating centre.