About

Bringing a creative and inclusive approach to research in education in order to collaborate with colleagues and professionals in interdisciplinary and diverse areas including: childhood, arts and music pedagogy, disability, co-research and children's music/music for children.

Senior Lecturer (Research) in the Institute of Education.

Currently leading the Research into Disability Education (RIDE) project looking at the benefits to major employers in the West Midlands of employing disabled people.

Also working on the impact and dissemination of the three-year Young Researchers Young Voices co-research project around special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support.

Previously, the lead researcher on the three-year Researching Arts in Primary Schools (RAPS) project led by Professor Pat Thomson at the University of Nottingham which examined 40 arts-rich primary schools.

Teaching responsibilities

Leading the Critical Writing workshops for doctoral students.

Currently supervising three doctoral students and welcoming others in the intersectional areas of education, music, the arts, SEND, childhood, inclusion and student voice.

Research interests

My main research interests include:

• The intersections of education, childhood, music, arts and media
• Arts education partnerships
• SEND education
• Music for children and children's music

Membership of professional bodies

• Higher Education Academy: Fellow
• BERA: British Educational Research Association
• IASPM: International Association for the Study of Popular Music
• EAS: European Association for Music in Schools
• Association for Research in Cultures of Young People
• Children’s Music Network

Qualifications

• PhD: Spinning the Child: How Records Made for Children Construct Childhood. Department of Music, University of Liverpool
• MA Popular Music Studies. Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Post Compulsory Education), Nottingham Trent University
• MPhil: Bioengineering, University of Wales College Cardiff
• BEng: Mechanical Engineering, University of Wales College Cardiff

Recent conferences

• Young Researchers Young Voices: The opportunities and challenges of young people with special educational needs and disabilities co-researching children and other young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Co-present with Jo Tolley.  International Children and Family Conference, University of Bristol. 17-19 June 2025.

• Productive partnerships: The highs and lows of using music to teach Shakespeare in schools. 32nd European Association for Music in Schools Conference, Evora, Portugal. 4-6 June 2025.

• Traditions in transformation: 32nd European Association for Music in Schools Conference,  Dublin, Ireland. 12-15 June 2025.
• Association of Colleges SEND Conference (Keynote). London. 11 December 2024.
• Traditions in transformation: 31st European Association for Music in Schools Conference,  Dublin, Ireland. 12-15 June 2024.
• Ways ahead for children’s music research (Keynote). Inland Norway University of Applied Science. Finnskogtoppen Spa, Norway. 8-10 August 2022.
• The value of children’s participation in Art, Craft and Design Education research. Hybrid Spaces: Re-imagining pedagogy, practice and research. iJADE. Online. 26-28 March 2021.

Experience in industry

18 years as a lecturer in Further Education colleges.

Full time major label artist in the music industry 1994-1998

Additional interests and activities

• Cycling
• Travel
• Music, culture, media and politics
• Sustainable living
• Songwriting, recording and performing music

Recent publications

• ‘Auto-Tuning Hannah Montana: Miley Cyrus’s Child Voice and the Technological Subversion of Girlhood’. In, (Eds.) Catherine Howarth and Beth Carroll. Singing Out: The Musical Voice in Audiovisual Media. University of Edinburgh Press. p.82-94.
• ‘“The way I know is by looking back”: English primary school children’s views of making progress in arts subjects’. Co-authored with Pat Thomson and Chris Hall. Education 3-13. 24 September 2023. doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2023.2253075
• ‘Research subjects, participants or co-researchers? Extending the involvement of students in art and design research’. Co-authored with Pat Thomson. iJADE 42(3): 353-366, 2023. doi.org/10.1111/jade.12470
• Spinning the Child: Musical Constructions of Childhood through Records, Radio and Television. London and New York: Routledge. 2021. doi.org/10.4324/9780203702680

For a full list of my publications, visit: www.researchgate.net/profile/Liam-Maloy/research