My name is Niels Chr. Hansen, and I have been looking very much forward to joining IMC as an Assistant Professor from 1 August. With degrees in music theory, classical piano, psychology, and neuroscience, I am a strong advocate for radically interdisciplinary research who takes advantage of behavioural experiments, computational modelling, corpus analytics, research concerts, and citizen science to understand what role music plays in our lives and why we can’t seem to live without it. I am general secretary for European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, co-founder of the global MUSICOVID research network, editor-in-chief for Empirical Musicology Review, member of the Danish Young Academy, and recently completed a 3-year fellowship at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies.

I have moved into office 1483-422 on the 4th floor and will be here on a 50% contract for the next 12 months to work on coordinating and strengthening ARTS’ efforts in the area of culture and health. Until June, I was a coordinator for a regional network consisting of AU and 12 municipalities in the Central Denmark Region (Netværk for Kulturinitiativers Sundhedsfremme). One of my primary tasks this next year will be to promote and oversee the continuation of this collaborative network now that the regional funding has ceased. We aim to initiate new and exciting research and development projects on the role of culture in human wellbeing and flourishing and hopefully raise further funds to fulfil this goal. So if you’re considering or already involved in activities relating to this topic, then please get in touch or simply come by for a cup of coffee and a friendly chat about your work and your ideas.

In addition to my position at IMC, I will continue teaching music theory and music history at Royal Academy of Music Aarhus. Just today, I am furthermore beginning a new part-time position as a researcher on the ERC project MUSICONNECT on music as youth empowerment at the Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body, & Brain at University of Jyväskylä in Finland. So whenever I’m not around at IMC, just look to the north!