I am known as 'Henry', and have published under both 'Henry McPherson' and my full name 'Dougal H J McPherson'. My pronouns are he/him.

I am an artist-researcher, composer and improviser, originally from Herefordshire, but living and working since 2013 between Scotland and the North of England. I am a postdoctoral Research Associate with the Creative Manchester research platform, where I have worked since 2023.

My research focuses on improvisation and present-time creativity, mostly in relation to arts and health, environment, and social identity. I'm interested in how improvisatory practices and theories can help us to understand complex social, ecological, and political relationships. My independent postdoctoral project Improvising in the Field is mapping how practices of improvisation are applied across health and wellbeing initatives in UK music, dance, and theatre. 

I also have interests in environmental arts and ecopedagogy, particularly in plant-human relationships, and performance strategies oriented towards issues of climate and ecology. I'm a co-investigator on the UMRI funded Moss Worlds project (2024-25), which brings together an interdisciplinary team from literature studies, urban planning, history, biology, sound art, geography, and community arts practice to explore the botanical, political, and aesthetic properties of urban mosses and other bryophytes. I lead regular participatory workshops on environmental listening and ecological improvisation, with a focus on how kinesonic (sound and movement) performance can foster connection with the more-than-human world.

I was previously lead postdoctoral researcher on a NIHR SSCR funded project evaluating the implementation of an improvisation-based music-making training programme for care-home staff working in dementia care (2023-24), and a UoM UKRI Research-England Participatory Research Fund funded project exploring arts-based participatory research approaches in cultural partnerships with Creative Manchester (2023-24).

My PhD (2019-23) was a practice-led investigation into transdisciplinary improvising practices in music and dance, with a substantial component addressing intersections of embodiment, gender, racialisation, and identity in music and dance improvisation in America and Europe from 1950 to the present. My MA research project (2017-18) focused on expanded and experimental notations in contemporary western art music and interdisciplinary practice, particuarly text scores, graphic and illustrated notation.

Outside academia, I have an international portfolio as a composer and performer, writing music for concert and stage, and working interdisciplinarily in gallery and installation practice. 

• Improvisation as performance (music, dance, theatre)
• Free improvisation and experimental music 
• Postmodern theatre-dance 
• Environmental arts and ecopedagogies
• Plant-human relations
• Applied performance, arts and health
• Gender, body, and queer identity in performance
• Expanded notations (graphic, text, video)

• Artistic practice research (music, dance)
• Arts-based participatory research
• Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA)
• Narrative Enquiry
• Qualitative research
• Video essay and videographic methods