DrHelena Robinson

Helena Robinson is a Senior Lecturer in the Transdisciplinary (TD) School at UTS and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her scholarship spans cultural heritage theory and practice, transdisciplinarity, and educational research. Across these domains, her work is distinguished by a systems-oriented approach, examining how knowledge, authority, and practice are produced through interactions across institutional, disciplinary, and technological boundaries.

Grounded in her professional experience as a curator and collection manager, Helena’s enduring research interests centre on museums and heritage as complex sociotechnical systems. Her work investigates how professional judgement, institutional governance, technology, cultural objects, and stakeholder participation interact to shape meaning-making, institutional capability, and public outcomes. Her PhD examined the convergence of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM), and this continuing body of research has explored cultural democracy, participatory practice, and the evolving role of museum education. It has made original contributions across museology, cultural policy, information science, and democratic theory, and is widely cited beyond its originating discipline.

Helena’s sustained focus on museums and heritage as complex systems has provided the intellectual foundation for her broader research trajectory. Across changing research contexts, her work continues to examine how knowledge, authority, expertise, and participation are negotiated in settings marked by complexity and uncertainty. This systems-oriented perspective now informs her research in transdisciplinary methods and transdisciplinary teaching and learning in higher education, including the design of collaborative research processes that integrate disciplinary expertise with the perspectives of stakeholders and community partners.

Helena’s leadership in transdisciplinary education is a natural extension of this research trajectory. Her educational scholarship examines how transdisciplinary approaches and methods can be taught in higher education, particularly at the undergraduate level. This work investigates how students learn and academics teach in transdisciplinary contexts, with particular attention to collaboration in multidisciplinary student teams, constructive dialogue, uncertainty tolerance, psychological safety, and curriculum design. It also informs her leadership in designing and delivering problem-based, experiential learning in partnership with industry, government, and community organisations.