Academic Service

Peer Reviewer, Journal of Creative Research Methods (Policy Press / Bristol University Press)

Publications

Journal Article- Helmi, X. (2026). HOSPITAL NOISES: Sonic Autobiography and the Embodied Experience of Autistic Auditory Perception – A Transdisciplinary Arts-Practice Inquiry Journal of Creative Research Methods, 2(1), May 2026. Early View: end of March. Policy Press / Bristol University Press View HERE

Poetic Inquiry- Helmi, X. (2025). To Be Unmade. Indelible Literary and Arts Journal, Issue 9 (Theme: Awakening). London Arts-Based Research Centre. View HERE

Presentations

2026

May 16th-17th, University of Oxford, The Numinous Ear: Autistic listening and aural diversity as a gateway to the divine and sublime. Sacred Arts 2026, London Arts-Based Research Centre,

2025

Helmi, X. (2025, September). The Numinous Ear: Autistic listening and aural diversity as a gateway to the divine and sublime. Aural Diversity Conference, MediaCity, Manchester.

Helmi, X. (2025, May). The Numinous Ear: Autistic listening and aural diversity as a gateway to the divine and sublime. Sacred Arts 2025, London Arts-Based Research Centre, University of Oxford.

Helmi, X. (2025, June). The Numinous Ear: Autistic listening and aural diversity as a gateway to the divine and sublime.

University of Salford, English Research Day, Manchester.

Research Areas

Transdisciplinary and practice-led artistic research
Aural diversity, autistic listening, and neurodivergent sonic perception
Phenomenology, embodiment, and sensory experience
Sonic agency, affect, and relational consciousness
Numinous and transcendent dimensions of autistic sonic experience
Critical and decolonial arts praxis

About

My PhD sits at the intersection of aural diversity, neurodivergence, music, film, poetic inquiry, and phenomenology. My research challenges disembodied models of knowledge by treating sensory experience as a legitimate site of inquiry. Rather than understanding sound as a fixed object of analysis, I approach it as a relational event emerging through the interaction of body, perception, and environment. Through arts practice, I develop creative and conceptual ways of articulating auditory experience that exceed the limits of verbal language.

My academic background spans music, broadcasting, sociology, documentary film, education, and psychotherapeutic counselling. My research draws on transdisciplinary arts-based research, heuristic inquiry, autoethnographic reflexivity, and composition as primary methods.

Supervisory Team

PhD Supervisor- Prof. Ursula Hurley, University of Salford

Poetic inquiry, autoethnography, practice-as-research, disability studies, and feminist research

Co-Supervisor- Dr. Pavel Prokopič, University of Salford

Experimental film, expanded cinema, affect theory, semiotics, and film-based practice-as-research

External Advisor: Prof. John Drever Director, LAURA, Cambridge Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge

Advisor for the core project and Hospital Noises. Soundscape studies, acoustics, sonic arts, listening practices, and sound art

External Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Jon Robson, Philosophy, University of Nottingham

Advisor for The Numinous Ear. Aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion

Current Research Projects

The Numinous Ear: Autistic Listening and Aural Diversity as a Gateway to the Divine and Sublime — Exploring Sonic Consciousness through Phenomenology, Panpsychism, and Process Philosophy

This project explores how autistic hearing can give rise to intense sonic encounters with the numinous — the mysterium tremendum et fascinans — as experiences of awe, terror, and sublimity. Drawing on Rudolf Otto’s concept of the numinous and Carl Jung’s later engagement with it through archetypes and individuation, it considers how neurodivergent auditory experience may evoke transcendental and affective states of consciousness.

Autistic listening often involves heightened sensitivity to sonic textures, patterns, and intensities that neuromajority perception filters out. These experiences parallel Otto’s numinous qualities: overwhelming power (tremendum), profound mystery (mysterium), and compelling fascination (fascinans). Being simultaneously overwhelmed by and drawn to sound mirrors the paradoxical nature of these encounters, inducing awe and even terror beyond ordinary sensory experience.

By reframing neurodivergent auditory perception as a form of knowledge rather than disorder, the project asks how sound mediates between perception and the vibrational substrate of reality. Informed by Merleau-Ponty’s embodied perception, Ihde’s phenomenology of listening, Nancy’s resonance, panpsychism, and process philosophy, it asks: is sound an external force, or a co-creator of inner reality? .

Hospital Noises: The Hidden Orchestra of Hospital Machines — Autistic Listening and the Emergence of Music in Clinical Soundscapes

This project explores autistic auditory experience within hospital environments through a phenomenological, transdisciplinary arts-based research framework, contributing to aural diversity. It combines ward-based field recordings of hospital machine sounds, autoethnographic narrative, staff interviews, and intuitive music improvisation informed by Husserl’s epoché and Merleau-Ponty’s embodied perception.

The project explores hospital machine sounds as carriers of memory, emotion, and sensory meaning and how they can be transformed into compositions and multimodal creative work that convey sensory states shaped by noise pollution. By privileging the body as a site of knowledge, the inquiry considers hospital machine sounds as complex sensory and affective agents.

Scholarships

PhD Studentship- The Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Doctoral Research (LAURA)
BAFTA Reuben Scholarship- MA Filmmaking (Screen Documentaries) Goldsmiths, University of London.
Honorary MA Radio Student status, granted by Emeritus Professor Tim Crook, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Education

University of Salford (2024–2028)
PhD in Music / Film / Arts
Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Research Doctoral Hub (LAURA)

University of Greenwich (2022–2024)
PGCE (FE, QTLS), Level 7

Goldsmiths, University of London (2018–2020)
MA Filmmaking (Screen Documentary) – BAFTA Reuben Scholar
Honorary MA Radio Student (granted by Professor Tim Crook)

University of Cambridge (2016–2017)
PGCert Child & Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling

Goldsmiths, University of London (2009–2012)
BA Sociology

Teaching and Pedagogic Practice

I have over six years’ experience teaching across secondary, alternative provision, and further education, delivering courses in music, media, social sciences, humanities, and the creative arts.

I hold a PGCE FE (QTLS). My teaching is informed by constructivist and humanistic approaches, with a focus on student-centred learning, critical thinking, and inclusive practice. I have extensive experience supporting neurodivergent learners and students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), developing adaptive approaches that foster responsive and equitable learning environments.

I have worked as Course Lead, Programme Manager, and lecturer across a range of Level 3 programmes, including Access to Psychology, Access to Social Sciences, Access to Teaching, the RSL Vocal Diploma, and UAL Diplomas in Creative and Performing Arts, with a particular focus on supporting progression to higher education.