MERYC in Reykjavík, Iceland, 2. - 5. June 2027
Keynote speakers MERYC 2027
Musical beginnings to social engagement, A multimodal perspective
Dr. Trinh Nguyen is a developmental psychologist and Research Associate at the University of Heidelberg. She earned her PhD at the University of Vienna and was previously a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Italian Institute of Technology in Rome. Her research explores how babies and young children get "in sync" with their caregivers, and how shared rhythms such as singing, movement, touch, and taking turns support this connection. To study these moments, she combines detailed video analysis and motion tracking with measures of brain activity and heart rhythm, recorded in parent and child at the same time.
Dr. Margaret S. Barrett
Young Children's World-making through singing and invented song-making
Margaret S. Barrett is Professor of Music and Head of the School of Music at Monash University. Her research investigates pedagogies of creativity, collaboration, and expertise across the lifespan and young children's music-making in family, community and school. She has held prestigious fellowships including: Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship (Smithsonian, Library of Congress), Beaufort Visiting Research Fellow (St Johns College Cambridge), Albi Rosenthal Fellowship (Bodleian Library Oxford). Recent publications include: Oxford Handbook of Early Learning and Development in Music (with G.F. Welch), Music Education, Ecopolitical Professionalism and Public Pedagogy (Springer with H.M. Westerlund) and, Creating Career Pathways in Contemporary Art Music (Routledge with K.G. Love).
Spaces of Wonder: Possibilities Through Creative Participation
Dr. Laura Huhtinen-Hildén works as a principal lecturer and researcher at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland. She is also an associate professor (Docent) at the University of Jyväskylä in the field of music education and cultural wellbeing. She has developed Finland’s Cultural Wellbeing, Research and Education Centre (CuWeRE) and established the Master’s programme Creativity and Arts in Social and Health Fields. She has contributed to international networks through board roles in MERYC and the International Society for Music Education’s ECME Commission. Currently she is an affiliated researcher in Jameel Arts & Health Lab founded by WHO Regional Office for Europe and New York University Steinhardt School.
