Xsara Helmi welcomes Dr Helen Kara as external advisor to Transdisciplinary PhD Research

Xsara Helmi is pleased to welcome Dr Helen Kara as an external advisor to her doctoral research at the University of Salford’s Leverhulme Trust-funded Aural Diversity Doctoral Research Hub (LAURA).

Helmi’s transdisciplinary arts-based research PhD explores autistic listening, aural diversity, and embodied sonic experience through creative practice, autoethnography, and interdisciplinary enquiry. The research explores how creative methods can offer new ways of understanding perception, embodiment, and lived experience. 

Dr Kara is an internationally recognised researcher, author, and educator whose work has made a significant contribution to creative research methodologies. She is the editor of a widely recognised book series on creative research methods, published by Policy Press, which has supported researchers across disciplines in sharing innovative approaches to knowledge creation. Her expertise in creative and arts-based research, qualitative inquiry, research ethics, and innovative methodologies aligns with the foundations of Helmi’s transdisciplinary arts-based research. 

This collaboration builds on Helmi’s creative research methodologies, including her first article, Hospital Noises: Sonic Autobiography and the Embodied Experience of Autistic Auditory Perception," which was chosen as Editor's Choice and published in the Journal of Creative Research Methods (Bristol University Press). The article explores autistic auditory perception through sonic autobiography and practice-based research approaches. 

Dr Kara joins an interdisciplinary external advisory network that includes Em. Professor John Drever (University of Cambridge) and Assoc Professor Jon Robson (University of Nottingham), bringing together expertise across creative research methods, sound studies, philosophy, disability studies, and digital humanities. 

Dr Kara is the founder and host of the International Creative Research Methods Conference, established in Manchester as an international forum for researchers across disciplines to explore innovative approaches to creative, qualitative, and arts-based methodologies. The conference contributes to the wider creative research landscape of Manchester and the North West, bringing together scholars engaged in developing new approaches to research practice. 

The fourth conference will take place on 7–8 September 2026 at The Studio, 51 Lever Street, Manchester M1 1FN and tickets are still available to buy HERE!