Dr Karolien Dons is senior researcher at the Research centre Art & Society where she currently gives shape to the research group Music in Context. Her expertise consists of innovative music practices in social contexts. Recurring themes in Karolien’s recent research activities are a.o. participatory making processes, the engaged musician and ethical aspects, for example about inclusion and autonomy. Karolien was connected to the research group Lifelong Learning in Music where she substantially contributed to numerous research and innovation projects in capacity of researcher and project leader, such as Music and Dementia, Music at the Odense house, Meaningful Music in Healthcare (MiMiC) and Professional Excellence in Meaningful Music in Healthcare (ProMiMiC). Karolien studied musicology at Ghent University and music psychology at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). In 2019, Karolien obtained her doctoral degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (London) with an ethnographic study into the facilitation of co-creative musicking with vulnerable elderly people.

Innovative music practices, musical co-creation, new audiences, person-centred music making, culture participation, participatieve kunstpraktijk, ethnography

Member of the Ethical Review Board of the Hanze University (HEAC)