The Arts and Health research network was formed by researchers interested in the relationship and interaction between arts and health. The cluster aims to create a hub for networking and collaboration between academics and practitioners in this field, facilitate collaborative research between arts and health disciplines and to promoted and develop interdisciplinary research between humanities and STEM experts. The cluster welcomes a diverse array of theoretical perspectives and research methodologies. To date there are 30+ members, from a diverse range of academic disciplines including music, dance, medicine, nursing and midwifery, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, visual art, law, music therapy, contemporary dance, traditional dance, sociology, theology and history as well as service user representatives. To join the group or find out more please contact the Chair of the Arts and Health Research Cluster, Dr Hilary Moss at Hilary.moss@ul.ie
The group aims to:
- Bring together an interested body of researchers, from a wide variety of disciplines, to share research interests in arts, health and humanities
- Facilitate trans-disciplinary research partnerships and research groups within UL and potential cross-departmental funding applications.
- Embed arts and health research at UL
- Connect the UL arts and health research group to the national and international field of research and practice
Terms of reference
- The group will be open to all research methodologies, actively encouraging artistic output as well as research activity.
- The group will keep person-centred care at the centre of their work and remit. Service user representatives will be sought to participate in the research group.
- The research network will be grounded in faculty teaching and learning in the arena of arts, health and humanities.
Keywords
Arts; health; well-being; arts and health; arts therapies; medical humanities; health humanities; narratives; narrative medicine; well-being.
Dr Hilary Moss: Hilary Moss is Senior Lecturer in Music Therapy at the World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland and previously the Director of the National Centre for Arts and Health, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin. She completed her PhD in 2014 on aesthetic deprivation and the role of the arts for older people in hospital at Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine under the supervision of Prof Desmond O’Neill. She is a musician and Music Therapist and has an MBA in Health Service Management. Her research interests include the role of music in chronic pain, dementia and the aesthetic environment of hospital; music therapy in mental health; health humanities and inter-disciplinary research. She has recently conducted a study of the benefit of health service workplace choirs and the role of music and music therapy in spirituality and health. She is co-founder and chair of the Arts and Health Research Cluster at UL. 
William T. (Billy) O’Connor: Foundation Chair and Head of Teaching and Research in Physiology at the University of Limerick Graduate Entry Medical School. Prior to this appointment, he was Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and Head of Neuroscience Research at University College Dublin. His research focus includes an understanding of illness of mind and brain as a disorder of the nerve network and in the emerging field of neuroeducation – the brain science of learning – which arose from his long-standing interest in education, particularly those factors which allow the human brain to learn optimally. Professor O’Connor has authored more than 450 original papers, chapters, editorials, reviews and one book; Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience (2001). He has collaborated with over thirty research scientists from seventeen countries, over the past 35 years. Billy retains a strong commitment to scientific outreach and communication. This is best illustrated through his popular Inside-the-Brain 
Dr Dorothy Morrissey: Dorothy is a lecturer in drama education at Mary Immaculate College, where she is course coordinator of the College’s MA in Education and the Arts (META). Her research interests include: gender and education; teacher identity; arts education; theatre for young audiences and partnership in the arts and education. She regularly employs narrative and arts-based approaches in her research; using them as both methods of inquiry and modes of research representation. Dorothy also worked for many years as a primary teacher and as a provider of Continuing Professional Development for primary teachers. She is interested in extending her expertise as an arts practitioner (in drama, dance and poetry) and arts-based researcher into the area of health and well-being.
Ms Sophie Lee: Sophie graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BA(Mod) in Music in 2015, achieving First Class Honours. She undertook an MSc in Performance Science at the Royal College of Music in London, graduating with Distinction in 2018. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Limerick where she is investigating the effects of music–based psychosocial interventions on the wellbeing and cognition of persons with early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease and their caregivers, supervised by Dr Hilary Moss and co-supervised by Prof Desmond O’Neill (TCD). Sophie worked for Breathe Arts Health Research in London in 2017 and currently works for the National Centre for Arts and Health at Tallaght University Hospital. She is a Musicianship Teacher at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and an avid pianist and chamber musician, winning the Senior Piano Competition and the Elsner Memorial Cup at Feis Ceoil, and attaining her LRIAM.
Tríona McCaffrey is a Lecturer on the MA Music Therapy at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (IWAMD). Her clinical background is in adult mental healthcare where established one of the first full-time music therapy posts in statutory health services in Ireland. She has also worked as clinical supervisor, guest lecturer and music skills tutor prior to becoming a full-time faculty member of the Academy in 2010. Her research is primarily qualitative and focuses on mental health and well-being. In 2014 she completed her PhD in service user evaluation of music therapy. She is particularly passionate about mental health recovery and the use of arts-based research methods to engage minority groups in health research. Tríona is a member of the Health Research Institute and co-founder of the Arts and Health Research Cluster(IWAMD) at the University of Limerick.
Deirdre Ní Loingsigh, Stiúrthóir na Gaeilge at the University of Limerick, is Director of Aonad na Gaeilge, the Irish Language Centre. She is the Principal Investigator of a Community-Based Research Project called BLÁTHÚ (Flourishing). In the current phase of this project, a strategic approach to Irish language planning and support in tandem with health promotion is being explored. The emphasis, in supporting language learning and a new kind of networking in the local community, is on flourishing and positive lifestyle in health and wellness terms. Coming from a background in adult education, Deirdre is particularly interested in the scope of participatory research methods in arts and health related research. CONTACT: deirdre.niloingsigh@ul.ie
Dr Jason Noone is a music therapist working mainly in the field of disability service provision. In his work with people with disabilities, Jason employs innovative and person-centred applications of mainstream music technology to facilitate access, inclusion and creativity in music making. His doctoral research explored these applications using participatory, arts-based and rhizomatic methodologies, identifying empowering potentials of music technology through improvisation, performance and workshops.
Dr Maggie O’Neill researches twentieth century and contemporary Irish fiction, medical humanities and cultural gerontology. She is currently Project Coordinator for the Gender ARC research consortium in the University of Limerick. She has taught in the University of Limerick, Maynooth University and Dublin Business School. Recent publications include a feature article entitled “Angina Pectoris, Emotions and Kate O’Brien’s Mary Lavelle” in the Irish University Review and three edited collections on the theme of women and ageing with Palgrave, Life Writing, and the Nordic Irish Studies Journal. She is co-editor of the Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists Journal.