Research:

I am an Irish art historian and I write about a broad range of art, design, craft, film, fashion, textiles, photography, architecture and popular culture.  I have held individual research awards from the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences; An Chomhairle Éalaíon/Arts Council of Ireland; Arts Council of Northern Ireland; Irish Georgian Society; Esmé Mitchell Trust; and a Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Small Research Award.  I have also contributed to collaborative awards from the Leverhulme Trust; Arts and Humanities Research Council; and British Academy.  I have published widely on Irish art and design history and have authored books, book chapters, journal articles and catalogue essays on the visual and material culture of the Irish Revival, Irish Arts and Crafts and national romanticism, modernism and design reform in Ireland, gender/sexuality and Irish modernity and contemporary craft and design in Ireland.  More recently I have published on the intersecting global histories of masculinity, disability and the queer in modern art and design in several peer-reviewed journals, including The Journal of Design History, The Journal of Modern Craft and Textile: Cloth and Culture. I have written extensively on the small craft workshops associated with the First and Second World Wars as well as the presence of craft and design during the Northern Irish Troubles (1969-1998).  My most recent publication is the single-authored, peer-reviewed monograph, Queering the Subversive Stitch: Men & the Culture of Needlework, published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts in 2021.  My current book project, Evie Hone and the International Avant-Garde, is forthcoming from Four Courts Press. For this I have been awarded a Paul Mellon Centre Research Support Grant (2024-25).

Teaching:

I have taught at the art schools in Dublin and Belfast since 2000 and have extensive experience of teaching art history and design history.  I have served as a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees (2011-14) and Higher Education Committee (2021-24) of the Association for Art History (AAH).  I have also served on other numerous examining committees, advisory panels and peer-review boards in universities, museums, galleries and other public organisations (I am a member of the peer-review college of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and have peer-reviewed for the Irish Research Council/An Chomhairle um Thaighde in Éirinn and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council/SSHRC in Canada).  I have acted as external examiner at BA, MA and PhD levels in Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America.

Scholarly Biography:

I was educated, and have worked in, Ireland, Scotland and France.  I hold an MA (Hons) in art history from the University of Glasgow and a PhD in art history from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.  My publications include the single-authored books, Sophia Rosamond Praeger, 1867-1954: Art, Literature, Science (2007) and Northern Rhythm: The Art of John Luke, 1906-1975 (2012) [both accompanied major exhibitions].  I have published in, and peer-reviewed for, numerous academic and specialist subject journals (including: Art History; Oxford Art Journal; Fashion Theory; Home Cultures; Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture; Women’s History Review; Embroidery; Selvedge; Crafts; Text; The Medal; Journal of Stained Glass; Journal of William Morris Studies; Folklore; Folk Life; Ulster Folklife; Ceramics Ireland; Glass Ireland; Perspective: Journal of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects; and British Journal of Photography).  I have peer-reviewed for several publishers (Berg; Rouledge; Oxford University Press; Manchester University Press; Syracuse University Press; Bloomsbury; Intellect; Ashgate; Cork University Press; Irish Academic Press; and Four Courts Press).  I have also served as an Editor, and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards, of The Journal of Modern Craft, Textile: Cloth and Culture (both Taylor & Francis) and other journals; I have written extensively for the Irish art press, including Circa, The Irish Arts Review and Source magazine.  I hold membership of AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art), the AAH (Association for Art History), and the DHS (Design History Society).