Dr Rachel Beckles Willson is Reader in Music and Director of the MMus in Advanced Musical Studies. Her research on Eastern Europe and the sociology of  western classical music has been published in two monographs, over 20 book chapters and journal articles, and presented at conferences worldwide. She teaches undergraduate modules on music analysis, communism, performance and Orientalism, and teaches postgraduate courses in history and performance studies.

Dr Beckles Willson studied as a pianist at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, before reading for a PhD at Kings College, London. She taught at the University of Bristol from 1999, joining Royal Holloway in 2003.Between 2008 and 2010 she was based at the Humboldt University in Berlin, supported by a Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; during this period she wrote her forthcoming monograph, 'Orientalism and Musical Mission: The Case of Palestine'.

She is now studying the 'ūd.