Poetry, performative poetry, music and dance performance, the concept of time in music and dance composition and performance, contemporary practice, somatic approaches to music composition, music education, early music and the philosophy of music, Gregorian chant scholarship, chant performance, medieval music theory and performance 

I have taught in the University of Limerick for the past 19 years at BA, MA and PhD levels. The teaching I currently do includes the subjects of improvisation and composition, Gregorian chant history, palaeography, semiotics and performance, inter-disciplinary practice in the arts, as well as music and dance history.Teaching PhilosophyTeaching is central to my practice as an artist and researcher. It does not differ in essence from the creative process I immerse myself in everyday, and in that regard, it is best represented as a constant flux that moves multi-directionally within all areas of my life - affecting them and effecting change as it flows. Change, or transiency, is thus central to my pedagogical practice, as are the concepts of space, time, nothingness and fragmentation: all of them products of change. As I enter the lecture room or the performance studio, I carry with me the spirit of wonder and discovery that I developed since my childhood, and always aim to share this with my students, as well as the passion and enthusiasm I hold so dearly for the things I discover and create. Teaching is not an activity separate from life, just as my artistic practice does not see a divide between daily activity and the creative process. It is never clear where one begins and the other ends. In that regard, my pedagogy is rhizomatic. That has helped me approach educational experiences with the same spirit as if I were working on a piece of music. This poetics of teaching has had a profound impact on my students, helping them realise the importance of being reflexive and aware of the multiple, intricate and intimate connections between what they learn in the classroom and what happens in the outside world. My teaching space encourages freedom of thought and practice towards the bringing forth of the unknown. Because of this, I make sure the students understand from the outset the importance of creating a space where 'nothing' is the initial premise that leads to infinite possibility, and where the traditional hierarchies of knowledge are seen as opportunities for de-construction and reflection. This creates new forms of learning about life and the way we experience it. As a result of these practices I developed 'A Class of Nothing', which is a radical and trans-disciplinary concept that stems from the need to create space. Through the idea of nothing as a starting point, and no-instruction as a pedagogical tool, teacher and student immerse in a space of waiting, of disconnection from the outside world, and, eventually, of discovery and making. Please see http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/HEAd19.2019.9072 for more information. Teaching Experience As well as my teaching activities at UL, I have been invited to deliver numerous teaching residencies and public lectures nationally and internationally. The most recent include: Three-day ERASMUS residency at the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Sheffield working with around 200 mechanical engineering/bioengineering students on inter-/trans-disciplinary approaches to creativity. Sheffield, England. November 2019. Public Lecture delivered during the Dance Talks We are all hybrids now. Organised by Dance Ireland. Dance Limerick. Limerick, Ireland. March 2016. Three-day ERASMUS residency at Coventry University working with around 40 music and dance students on inter-disciplinary performance. Coventry, England. January 2016. One-week residency at Aldeburgh Music working with 24 highly-skilled young musicians on inter-disciplinary approaches to performance. I was appointed course leader and led a group of four artists during this residency. Snape, England. July-August 2015. Public lecture on the creative process delivered during the 'Cultural Week' at the Faculty of Music of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Monterrey, Mexico. October 2013. Four-month residency (during sabbatical) at the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey (ESMyD), working with contemporary dance/composition students on inter-disciplinary performance. Monterrey, Mexico. September-December 2013. One-week residency working with around 35 students of contemporary dance, theatre, visual arts and composition, from the ESMyD and the CEDART Alfonso Reyes. Monterrey, Mexico. January 2013.

Óscar Mascareñasandnbsp;is a transcendental poet working in the fields of sound, light,andnbsp;movement and letters. He holds a PhD in Music, an MA in Chant and Ritual Song (both from the University of Limerick in Ireland), and a BSc in Industrial Physics and Engineering (from the ITESM, Mexico).andnbsp;andnbsp; He has published work and given concerts, conferences and master classes extensively in Ireland, the United States, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Russia, the UK, Slovakia, Hungary, Tunisia and Mexico. He was the founding course director of the BA in Voice and Dance, and was acting and assistant director of the MA Ritual Chant and Song at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. Heandnbsp;holds theandnbsp;Founding Cage-Cunninghamandnbsp;Chairandnbsp;in Contemporary Performance at the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey in Mexico.andnbsp;andnbsp; Óscar s research interests cover a wide range of subjects and disciplines (some of them viewed through an inter- and trans-disciplinary lens) and include, poetry, music and dance performance, somatic approaches to sound composition and performance, improvisation, monochromatic photography,andnbsp;radical pedagogy, Zen, early music and chant, the philosophy of music as well as the notions of nothingness, fragmentation, time and space in contemporary practice.andnbsp;He currently lectures and researches in music and contemporary performance at the Academy, and works independently as a composer and performer internationally.andnbsp; His recent works include theandnbsp;albumandnbsp;Songs for Jackson Pollock wasandnbsp;released in white vinyl in 2018,andnbsp;andandnbsp;for online streamingandnbsp;(Spotify, AppleMusic, iTunes, YouTube Music, Pandora, Shazam)andnbsp;in 2019); as well as music for contemporary dance theatre, such asandnbsp;Merlinandnbsp;(2019) produced by Iseli-Chiodi Dance Company in Ireland andandnbsp;La Fábrica de las Cosas Pendientesandnbsp;(2018/2021) produced and performed in Mexico with the support of EFI Artesandnbsp;and the Mexican Ministry of Culture.andnbsp;His bookandnbsp;Meditations on the Poetics of Experienceandnbsp; a series of reflexive essays on experience as expressed through the fundamental concepts of listening, silence, sound, time, movement, light and space was publishedandnbsp;in 2021 by ERÓS. More about his work can be consulted at www.ioscar.ieandnbsp;andnbsp;