Research at BCA

Burren College of Art is home to a vibrant culture and community of research that is integral to our academic programme. We are a community of researchers and practitioners who collaborate and support each other to engage in world class artistic research. Our research degrees are practice-based. MPhil and PhD students conduct practice-based research into a range of chosen topics, Masters students apply the rigour and systemic focus of a research orientated practice to the development of their work, and faculty and Research Fellows share and facilitate discourse around current research projects. Research at BCA represents a plurality of approaches to contemporary praxis, is international, interdisciplinary and informed by collaboration across multiple communities of practice.

Additionally, we sustain and develop partnerships across academic, cultural and artistic contexts which reflect our commitment to collaboration and support for diverse creative cultures. Our institutional partnerships include the University of Galway, Royal College of Art, London and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Faculty and staff also actively participate in ELIA (European League of Institutes of Art);  The ELIA Working Group on Art & Ecology; PARADOX, the European Fine Art Forum and PALS (Partnership in Academic Leadership and Sustainability). 

Research Profiles

Fadwa Bouziane

Fadwa Bouziane

Phd in Studio Art candidate

Research question: How can Performance Art and Storytelling as narratives break down complex racial trauma intersecting with gender, thereby building resilience to challenge inevitable future traumatic events (encounters with racist institutions, discriminatory laws, systemic misogyny)?
Qi Chen

Qi Chen

PhD in Studio Art

Research Question: How can the status of marginalised groups be reclaimed through combining expanded portraiture, documentary, and VR?
Kate Collyer

Kate Collyer

PhD in Studio Art candidate

Research Question: How may walking as art practice foster collective stewardship with the natural environment?
Tanya de Paor

Tanya de Paor

PhD in Studio Art

Research Question: How can contemporary art practice contribute to a shared understanding of and response to the Anthropocene? through the use of eco-art, socially engaged art practices, art in education and theoretical scholarly research.
Katerina Gribkoff

Katerina Gribkoff

PhD in Studio Art candidate

Research Question: How might the principles and practices of permaculture influence the inputs, outputs, and organisation of an art-making system that sits between studio and garden?
Helle Helsner

Helle Helsner

PhD in Studio Art candidate

Research question: TEK; (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) materiality, landscape and memory – investigating ‘extractivism’ and transforming material understanding through ancient technology and traditional knowledge.
Joseph Hendel

Joseph Hendel

PhD in Studio Art candidate

Research Questions: How can performance art analyze, represent, and critique digital hegemonic masculinities?
Ling Liu

Ling Liu

PhD in Studio Art

Research Question: Acoustic layers: How can traditional ‘rules of rhythm’ in Chinese aesthetics be applied across contemporary creative practices in acoustic-visual space?
Josephine Turalba

Josephine Turalba

PhD in Studio Art candidate

Research Question: How can the use of play as a creative strategy in artistic research and production effectively address and communicate the complexities of geopolitical trauma, power imbalances, and the psychological effects on fisherfolk in the West Philippine Sea, while balancing the inherent playfulness of the medium with the gravity of the subject matter?
JD Whitman

JD Whitman

PhD in Studio Art candidate

Research Question: How can transdisciplinary research and socially engaged practice disseminate research on plastic particulates to facilitate informed eco-action?