Rachel Beckles Willson is Professor of Intercultural Performing Arts at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA). This chair was established by Codarts. Her current artistic research interests lie in ecological justice, relationships with the other-than-human, and multi-media technologies.

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Fields of interest

Prof. Rachel Beckles Willson has a hybrid professional arts practice, active as multi-instrumentalist, composer and scholar. Her current research interests lie in ecological justice, relationships with the other-than-human, and multi-media technologies. They have grown out of earlier work on decoloniality (Orientalism and Musical Mission: Palestine and the West (2013)), the cultural life of musical instruments (The Oud: An Illustrated History (2023)), and activist work with people on the move (‘Migration, music and the mobile phone: a case study in technology and socio-economic justice in Sicily’ (2019)). Her early career was as a concert pianist, following studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London and the Liszt Academy, Budapest, while her career as a scholar began with PhD studies at King’s College London, and a focus on contemporary music of Hungary (György Kurtág, The Sayings of Peter Bornemisza (2004) and Ligeti, Kurtág, and Hungarian Music during the Cold War (2007)). 

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