Fatima Lahham

Fatima is a researcher and musician, and currently holds a Hallsworth Research Fellowship in Geography with External Engagement & Impact focus (2025-2028) at the University of Manchester. 

Fatima studied Music at Oxford University and recorder at the Royal College of Music (London) before completing a PhD in Music at Cambridge University. Fatima has held teaching positions at Royal Holloway's Music department and the Royal College of Music's Historical Performance department, and a postdoctoral research residency in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama's Music Therapy department. She also worked for two years as a researcher at Nordoff and Robbins, the UK's biggest music therapy charity. As a musician, Fatima is active as a soloist and collaborator in the UK and abroad, and has a solo album out called 'bulbul'. She regularly works as a music facilitator in community music and healthcare settings. 

Fatima has research interests in creative health's potential to address health inequalities, Islamic perspectives on music and sound, and feminist approaches to improvisation. 

Fatima's PhD was a historical project inspired by decolonial feminist theorists and writers. In it, she drew on Sara Ahmed's notion of the 'feminist ear' to attempt to hear what is not being heard in early modern English texts.

Aside from her historical work, Fatima has done ethnographic work using sketchbook research with people living with dementia, and community music research using music-making and zine-making as creative methods.  

Nordoff and Robbins (2023-2025): I taught the research module on the Music Therapy Masters course, and supervised dissertation projects. 

Royal Holloway, University of London (2022-2023): As Teaching Fellow in Music I lectured on the BA, Masters and Foundation year courses. I taught several historical topics including my own 2nd year BA course, Improvisation and the Practice of Freedom.

Royal College of Music (2016-2022): I developed and taught my own course in historical improvisation and also led staff training in incorporating improvisation into the curriculum