Helena Caspurro

Helena Caspurro is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro (UA), an integrated researcher at INET-md, and a collaborator at CESEM (Nova de Lisboa). As a pianist, singer, and composer specializing in jazz and fusion, she has released three original CDs and directs transdisciplinary artistic projects that bridge music, design, and community engagement.

Her educational background:

• Doctorate from the University of Aveiro (2006) with a thesis on improvisation in musical learning.

Dr. Caspurro's research centers on transdisciplinary artistic co-creation in educational and community contexts. She investigates how collaborative music and design projects can foster social inclusion, combat mental health stigma, and enrich educational practices. Her work emphasizes improvisation, sound storytelling, and participatory art, engaging diverse groups such as school children, psychiatric patients, and university students through initiatives like Paluí and Massaiá.

She has led major projects including Paluí (2013) and Massaiá (2023), which have resulted in books, documentaries, concerts, and interactive installations. These initiatives, often in partnership with Casa da Música and other institutions, have involved over a thousand participants across Portugal through co-creative processes that transform artistic research into social impact.

Dr. Caspurro collaborates with a network of artists and educators, including designer Pedro Carvalho de Almeida and percussionist Brendan Hemsworth. She regularly involves University of Aveiro students in her projects, though formal PhD/Master's advisees are not individually named in the source. Her work demonstrates how artistic practice can drive curriculum development and address societal challenges through transdisciplinary methodologies.