HUMANITIES AND HUMAN FLOURISHING PROJECT

Newsletter | February 16, 2026

Advancing the understanding, assessment, and cultivation of well-being by means of a deep and sustained collaboration between the arts, humanities, and social sciences

Spotlight on: Melissa Forbes

Melissa Forbes is Associate Professor of Contemporary Singing at the University of Southern Queensland and a leading advocate for the transformative power of music, particularly singing. Her music career spans performance, higher music education, research, and community engagement. Melissa’s work bridges research with practical community music leadership, demonstrating music's role in supporting social health.

What is a recent encounter with the arts that contributed to your flourishing in some way?

Recently, I had the most wonderful experience attending "Community Choir: The Musical" by Emma Dean and the Cheep Trill production team as part of the Brisbane Festival in Australia. It was a joyous, hilarious, and musically uplifting celebration that perfectly captured what I spend my research life trying to understand—the transformative power of singing for social connection. The cast were all amateur performers, some of whom had never sung in public before.

As someone who bridges practice and research in arts and health, I'm always seeking ways to translate evidence into experiences that truly resonate. While research consistently shows that group singing enhances mental health and wellbeing, this musical was perhaps the most convincing argument I've ever encountered for those benefits. The show didn't just tell the audience about community and connection—it made us feel the connection through killer band arrangements, outstanding chorus numbers, and touching solos by the amateur performers.

The stroke of genius came in the finale when the entire audience was invited to "join" the community choir for the closing number. The audience experienced firsthand that sense of something "bigger than you, bigger than me" that Emma Dean captured so beautifully in the lyrics to one of the show’s many bangers!

Tell us about your current research/work

My research sits at the intersection of positive psychology, music psychology, singing pedagogy, and community wellbeing, informed by systems thinking. I have a particular focus on singing as a pathway to human flourishing. I investigate how musical participation—especially group singing—creates social connection, builds psychological resources, and supports vulnerable populations.

I'm fascinated by the phenomenology of musical experience, and I’m currently writing up the results of a study on experiences of solo singing.  This research examines the psychological processes that shape solo singing experiences across various contexts, ranging from private moments to grand opera stages, and encompasses both amateur and professional soloists.

How did you first become interested in this field?

The turning point for me came when I helped establish "Park 'n Songs"—our community singing group for people with Parkinson's disease—in partnership with the local support group. Witnessing firsthand how music could transform not just individual wellbeing but entire social networks around chronic illness made me realise that musicians have a unique capacity to serve as positive change agents in their communities. Researching this led me to the work of Martin Seligman and the PERMA model, and the rest is, as they say, history!

Aside from your own, what research/work do you find especially promising, innovative, or illuminating for your field?

I'm particularly excited about the emerging "sociological turn" in arts and health research, especially the work of Katey Warran from the UK. Her recent piece "Towards a sociology of arts and health: How can sociology reveal 'that which is hidden'?" has really captured something I've been sensing in the field.

Arts and health research has been dominated by approaches focused on evidencing impact—which is understandable given funding pressures and policy demands. We've been very focused on showing that arts interventions "work." But as Katey argues, this narrow focus misses the bigger picture: the social structures, power dynamics, and cultural forces that actually shape how arts and health programs operate in the real world.

I'm eagerly awaiting the upcoming book from Katey and Norma Daykin. This kind of critical, sociologically-informed work is essential for moving our field beyond simplistic cause-and-effect models toward more nuanced understandings of how arts participation intersects with human flourishing in all its messy, contextual complexity.

What's on the horizon for your research/work?

My book Making Music That Matters: Positive Music Leadership for Social Health is coming out with Routledge on 22 October 2025, which establishes a framework for how musicians can intentionally create social benefits through their practice. Alongside this, I launched the Leading Notes Podcast earlier this year, funded by the Winston Churchill Trust, which profiles positive music leaders worldwide and seeks to build a global community of practice around music for social health.

The direction that has me most excited right now is exploring the possibilities of using "musical care" in healthcare workplace settings. We know that healthcare workers and those in caring professions face extraordinary levels of occupational stress, secondary trauma, and burnout. Together with a music therapist colleague, I'm developing a pilot project that will investigate how various forms of musical care—from collaborative songwriting to group singing to mindful music listening—might serve as practical wellbeing tools that can be integrated into workplace contexts

Melissa Forbes will be presenting as part of In Conversation (with Genevieve Dingle) TOMORROW, February 17 at 4pm ET. For more details, including registration, please click here.

HHF News

• On January 7, HHF Director James Pawelski was invited to give the opening keynote at the Art of Wellbeing Annual Summit at the Princeton University Art Museum, presented by Noom. You can find a recording of his talk here.

• Katherine Cotter, HHF’s Director of Research, was awarded the 2026 Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten Award for Outstanding Contributions for Young Scientists from the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics.

Upcoming Events

We are delighted to continue our fourth season of In Conversation, part of the HHF colloquium series. In Conversation brings scientists and practitioners into dialogue to discuss their work in the arts, culture, and well-being. This semester, we will hear from innovators working in research institutions and cultural organizations on how engagement in the arts can promote well-being in individuals and communities. We welcome you to join us for these virtual events and to take part in these important exchanges.

• TOMORROW, Tuesday, February 17, 2026 | 4:00 to 5:30pm ET - Genevieve Dingle (The University of Queensland) and Melissa Forbes (University of Southern Queensland) will be discussing arts-based social prescribing models and how musicians can develop positive leadership capabilities. More information and the registration page are available here. (Please note: if you're joining us from Australia, like our speakers, the talk will be 7:00 to 8:30am AEST on Wednesday, February 18.)

Couldn't make it to one of our past colloquia? Check out the recording on our HHF YouTube Channel.

Other Announcements

• The Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, & the Arts is hosting its third annual research conference in Omaha, Nebraska on March 12-14, 2026.

This newsletter was created by Sarah Sidoti, Katherine Cotter, and James Pawelski.