About
Helen Brooks serves as Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Creative and Cultural History at Central Saint Martins, with prior leadership roles at the University of Kent and Northeastern University London. She is an Advance HE Senior Fellow and active member of the AHRC Peer Review College.
Her research centers on creative engagement with marginalised heritage through performance, digital art, and cultural histories. Key interests include gender/sexuality studies, popular culture, performance politics, and theatre as social engagement from the 18th to mid-20th century, often developed through community co-creation.
Notable awards include:
- Advance HE Senior Fellowship
She supervises postgraduate researchers and leads major AHRC-funded initiatives including Great War Theatre and Beyond the Binary: Performing Gender Then and Now. Her Gateways Partnership develops public-facing projects like Walking with Ghosts (30,000+ participants) with Imperial War Museums, and the upcoming De Weg Terug (The Way Back) with Belgium's Passchendaele Memorial Museum.
Current work integrates spatial augmented reality with live performance to explore refugee histories, demonstrating her commitment to translating academic research into immersive public experiences through sustained cultural partnerships.
