Alan Grossman
Lecturer
Email: alan.grossman@tudublin.ie
Profile
Dr Alan Grossman is Director of the Centre for Socially Engaged Practice-Based Research in the School of Media, with extensive experience supervising written, practice-based and PhD by Prior Publication doctorates.
He represented the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice on the Centre-led FOMACS public media project (2007-2011), producing film, photographic, digital storytelling, radio, animation and print stories on the topic of immigration in Ireland. He was the recipient of a two-year Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences (2001-3) – the first award of its kind for non-fiction practice-based research at the postdoctoral level in Ireland.
He has a longstanding documentary production engagement with the cultural politics of identity, migration and diasporic formations across infra- and transnational contexts; his short performative documentary film 'Silent Song' (2000, UK) captures the perspective of the minority Welsh-language resistance movement in Wales and Kurdish refugee music in Scotland, while his co-directed ethnographic film projects 'Here To Stay' (2006, Ireland) and 'Promise and Unrest' (2010, Philippines) address questions of migrant political agency and long-distance motherhood.
He has published in numerous refereed journals including
- Space and Culture
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
- Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture
and has co-edited special journal issues in the
- Journal of Media Practice (2008) on the cultural politics of representation,
- Irish Journal of Anthropology (2013) on questions of contemporary ethnographic practice
He co-edited 'Projecting Migration: Transcultural Documentary Practice' (2008, Wallflower/Columbia University Press) – a combined book/DVD engaged with questions of mobility and displacement through the analytical prism of creative practice. His publications include a co-authored chapter titled 'Socially Engaged Practice: A Reflection on Values, Theory and Writing’ in Bell, D. (ed.) Mind the Gap: Working Papers on Practice-Based Doctoral Research in the Creative Arts and Media (2016, Distiller's Press), and an Irish Arts Council commissioned essay ‘Choreographing Her(selfie): Nothing Happens’ (2017) for ‘Becoming Christine’ exhibition, curated by artist Amanda Dunsmore. He is co-editor of a forthcoming publication titled 'Socially Engaged Art Across Ireland: Contested Narratives, Places and Futures' (2024, Cork University Press).
He has also participated in international conferences as a keynote speaker across the fields of visual, media and cultural studies, documentary film and visual anthropology. He was external examiner (2009-12) of the MA in Radio and Television, Centre for Media Studies, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
Lecturing Profile
Dr Alan Grossman supervises written and practice-based PhD projects across a wide range of socially engaged topics, situated across the disciplines of film and media studies, visual arts, cultural studies, visual anthropology, journalistic and architectural practice.