Rate My Professor Helen Julia Minors

Helen Julia Minors is Professor and Head of the School of the Arts at York St John University, having joined in October 2022. She holds a PhD in Music from Lancaster University, awarded in 2007. Her career includes serving as Head of Performing Arts and Associate Professor of Music at Kingston University London from 2020 to 2022, Head of the Department of Music there from 2013 to 2017, Programme Director for Music and Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research at Roehampton University, and part-time lecturer in Music at Lancaster University. She is also Visiting Professor of Artistic Research and Music Education at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden since 2020. As a musician, she performs as Principal Trumpet of the Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra and singer in ensembles. Minors has extensive leadership experience, including as Aurora Champion, TECHNE Training Lead for Doctoral Students, and leads on equality, diversity, and inclusion initiatives at institutional levels. She founded and co-chaired the EDI Music Studies Network (2018-2022), chaired MusicHE (formerly NAMHE) from 2012 to 2022, and serves as trustee of York Music Hub.

Her research specializations encompass music and translation, multimodal translation in music, dance, drama, film, and sculpture, choreomusicology, women and leadership, inclusive music, art, and design education, interdisciplinary collaboration across arts disciplines, soundpainting, and improvisation. Minors has published eight books, including Music, Text and Translation (2013), Paul Dukas: Legacies of a French Musician (2019, co-edited), Music, Dance and Translation (2023), Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education (2024, co-edited), The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership (2024, co-edited), and The Routledge Companion to Choreomusicology (2025, co-edited). Articles appear in Translation Matters (2025), Dance Research (2009), Opera Quarterly (2006), and others; book chapters in volumes on women's leadership, multimodal translation, and intercultural arts. She has received funding from AHRC for networks on Women's Musical Leadership (2022-2024) and Translating Music (2013-2014), Arts Council England, and Co-PI for Taking Race Live (2014-2018). Awards include the Rose Award for Teaching, Learning and Assessment and Research (2016), CATE Finalist of AdvanceHE (2017), and Student Award for Employability at Kingston University (2021). She supervises doctoral students at multiple institutions, has examined over 20 PhDs internationally, and contributes to broadcasting on BBC Radio and her weekly show Helen’s Classical Journey on Radio Wey.