Current Research Areas
- Embodied Music Cognition
- Music and Dyslexia
- Music and Dementia
- Motor Learning and Neuroplasticity
- Music and Healthy Ageing
- Music and Disability
- Musical Identities
- Musical Improvisation
Current Collaborations
- Music4Change
ERASMUS+ project with the University of Bergen, University of Groningen, University of Thessaloniki, Gustav Mahler Private University of Music and the European Music Council. https://music4change.eu
- The Kónkóló Timeline in Yoruba Music
Interdisciplinary project exploring rhythmic, social and cultural features of Yoruba Music with Dr Oludare Olupemi, Olayinka Ogunlade and Dr Segun Damilolo Odusoro
- SCO ReConnect
With the Scottish Chamber Orcestra. Development and evaluation of group musical activities with professional orchestral musicians to improve quality of life for individuals living with dementia. https://www.sco.org.uk/join-in/health/reconnect
- Music, Cognition and the Brain
Collaboration and exchanges with the Don Wright Faculty of Music and Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, Canada
http://music.uwo.ca/research/research-groups/mlal/index.html
Music in the Community
Music in the Community is based around an undergraduate honours course at the University of Edinburgh, which includes a supervised weekly placement during which students deliver music workshops within a community setting. In recent years, students have also taken part in new site specific music theatre productions composed and created by course director Dee Isaacs. Over the past 12 years, eight music theatre projects involving large numbers of primary school children from areas of significant deprivation within the City of Edinburgh have taken place at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens, in 
addition to projects in other landmark locations across the city such as the National Museum of Scotland, Talbot Rice Gallery and Old College Quad. Participation in the delivery of such a large scale community music projects allows students to increase their repertoire of musical techniques, activities, and games, giving them the tools to become more effective music educators in the future.
Music in the Community projects also take place in The Gambia, West Africa and to date we have taken four groups of staff and music students to work at Deeper Life School in Kotu. Here the focus is on the links between music and development of language/literacy skills as well as introducing the concept of active learning and the benefits of using the arts across the curriculum.
To read more about the Music in the Community course please visit the course Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MusicInTheCommunity/?fref=ts