Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice

Dr Aine O'Brien (Co-Director)

Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultural Studies and Lens-based Research Practice

PhD Film and Cultural Studies (University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee)

P: +353-1-4023048
E: aine.obrien@dit.ie
Campus: Aungier Street

Aine O’Brien is Co-director of the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice and Director of the Forum on Migration and Communications (FOMACS). Graduating from Crawford Art and Design College in film and installation practice (1985), O’Brien received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in Film and Cultural Studies, 1996, where she was an international Uhelein Fellow in the Modern Studies Programme. Appointed as Assistant Professor in Film, Media and Cultural Studies at George Mason University, Virginia from 1993-1998, where she was involved in the establishment of a Doctoral Programme in Cultural Studies, O’Brien then moved to the Photography, Film and Television Department at Napier University, Edinburgh (1998–2001). She joined DIT in 2001 and was Head of the Department of Media Technologies (2002-2004) before taking up her position as Co-director of the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice. Throughout her academic career she has taught and researched the intersections between ethnography, cultural studies methodologies and media production. Her work has been published in journals such as South Atlantic Quarterly, New Formations, Film Quarterly and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. She serves on the international editorial board of the Journal of Media Practice. She has co-directed a documentary film (Silent Song, 2000) on Kurdish lyrical protest in Europe and is co-director/researcher of a longitudinal documentary film on the subject of economic migration into Ireland (Here to Stay, 72 mins, 2006), funded by the Irish Film Board. She is co-editor with Alan Grossman of a combined book/DVD-ROM Projecting Migration: Transcultural Documentary Practice (2007, Wallflower Press). At present she is completing a documentary feature-length film Promise and Unrest (2010) on the subject of globalization, gendered migration and civil society activism. She is Co-director (with Associate Professor Allen Feldman, NYU) of 'The Global City and Media Ethnography' Dublin Summer School in Practice-led Transcultural Research and Media Practice.

Doctoral supervision includes both practice-based ethnographic projects and text-based scholarship on subjects such as: youth culture and masculinity; feminist discourse and reproductive technologies; race, class, ethnicity and the transnational migrant family; music, migration and living archives; the phenomenon of return migration; and childhood and migration.

Selected Publications

Books:

2007
Projecting Migration: Transcultural Documentary Practice (with DVD). Alan Grossman and Aine O’Brien (eds). London: Wallflower Press.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

2008
O’Brien, A., Grossman, A., McLaughlin, C. (guest editors), Journal of Media Practice (9.2), Intellect Books.

2007
‘The Politics of Storytelling’, Curatorial Essay for Glenn Jordan’s Mothers and Daughters: Portraits from Multi-Ethnic Wales, FOMACS, Dublin.

2006
‘Kurdish Lyrical Expression: The Terrain of Acoustic Migration’ (Special Issue on Music and Migration), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(2): 271-289.

2001
Migration and Location: Visual Media Research Conference Catalogue Essay, Co-Editor, 'Writing the Visual: An Interview with Larry Taylor and Maeve Hickey'.

2000
‘Notations: Framing the Kurdish Voice in Exile’, 292: Essays in Visual Culture, No 2: pp. 7-18.

1996
‘Marketing and Managing Colonial Spectacle as National History: In the Belly of the Archive.’ South Atlantic Quarterly (Special Issue on Irish Cultural Studies), Winter, 95:1, pp. 103-145.

1995
‘Derelict Histories: A Politics of Scale Revised’ (photo/text essay). Fugitive Images: From Photography to Film. Ed. Patrice Petro. Bloomington: Indiana Press, pp. 109-138.

1994
‘Money, Space and Culture’ Mediations, Spring, 25-30.

1993
'Review of Eamonn Hughes, ed., Culture and Politics in Northern Ireland: 1960-1990'. International Comparative Literature Association/Association Internationale de Litterature Comparée: Literary Research/Recherche Littéraire, Summer, 20: 19-20.

'Review Essay on Seamus Deane, ed., Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature'. Quarterly Review of Film and Video (Special Issue on ‘1992: Mediating the Nation’), December, pp. 121-127.

'Homeward Bound’: Space, Place and Gestures to a Heroic Defeat’ (photo/text essay). New Formations (Special Issue on the Question of Home), Summer, 17: 36-64.

Selected Films, Festivals, Screenings and Awards

Promise and Unrest (2010, Philippines/Ireland, 95 mins. Co-directed with Aine O'Brien, funded by the Irish Film Board):

Screenings

2010
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Real to Reel Section, Cineworld, Premiere Screening, February.

11th European Association of Social Anthropology (EASA), University of Maynooth, Ireland - ‘Visual Representation of Crisis Through Ethnographic Film'(in collaboration with CAFFE (Coordination of Anthropological Film Festivals in Europe), August.

DMZ Korean Documentary Film Festival, Paju City, Korea, International Competition, September.

'People on the Move', in collaboration with Gesher Multicultural Film Fund, Cinemateque, Tel Aviv, Israel, September.

16th International Film Festival ETNOFILM ČADCA 2010, Slovakia, Main Competition, October.

San Diego Asian Film Festival, Jury Competition, USA, October.

Here To Stay (2006, Ireland, 72 mins. Co-directed Documentary with Aine O'Brien, funded by the Irish Film Board):

2009
Seeing Cultures: Wellington Ethnographic Cinema 2009, University of Victoria, New Zealand (Travelling Gottingen International Ethnographic Film Festival).

2008
Delhi International Ethnographic Film Festival, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, India.

Anthropological Film, Video and New Media Festival, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), University of Ljublana, Slovenia.

'Bridges to Utopia' Conference, Utopian Studies Society, Ralahine Centre, University of Limerick, Ireland.

RTE Television Broadcast (Here To Stay, 52 min).

Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany.

World Witness Human Rights Film Festival, Limerick, Ireland.

2007
Media and Multicultural Broadcast Award (MAMA).

Green Cuts Film Festival, Berlin (Reel Ireland).

Waterford Film Festival, Ireland.

9th Cinemanila International Film Festival, Philippines.

Guth Gafa Documentary Film Festival, Donegal, Ireland.

'Human Rights Nights' (Migration and Diversity) International Film Festival, Bologna, Italy.

San Francisco Irish Film Festival, USA.

University of Ulster, Coleraine, Centre for Media Research Seminar Series.

University of Limerick, Ireland Tiger’s Eye Film Festival.

NUI Maynooth, Ireland, Department of Sociology Seminar.

Dublin City University (DCU), School of Nursing.

2006
Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival, Irish Film Institute, Dublin.

Queens University, Belfast, Department of Film and Imaging Seminar Series.

Silent Song (2000, UK, 15 mins, Co-directed Documentary with Alan Grossman):

2008
2MOVE:IRELAND Exhibition on Migratory Aesthetics, Film Screening, Silent Song, Belfast Exposed Photography and Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Ireland.

2004
Cinema and Migration Film Festival, University of Bergamo, Italy.

2003
Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, Tapei, ‘Stories of Migration’ Section.

2001
Arab Mediterranean Film Festival, Edinburgh Filmhouse, UK.

UK Refugee Week, Edinburgh Filmhouse, UK.

Galway Film Fleadh, Ireland.

Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival, Irish Film Institute, Dublin.

2000
Turkish Film Festival, London, UK.

Murphy’s Cork Film Festival, Ireland.

University of Wales, Swansea, ‘Writing Diasporas: Axial Writers, Plural Literacies, Transnational Imagination’ Conference.

The Memory Box (2007, Ireland, 6-min, Co-producer, Documation, FOMACS production):

2008
Galway Film Fleadh, New Irish Short Animation Section, Ireland.

2007
Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival, Irish Film Institute.
(Winner of Best Irish Short Audience Award)

Junior Galway Film Fleadh.

The Richness of Change (2008, Ireland, 7x1-min Shorts, Co-producer, Documation, FOMACS production):

2008
Broadcast on RTE (7-11 April), Intercultural Week.

Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival, Irish Film Institute, Dublin, Short Film Selection.

Living in Direct Provision - 9 Stories (9x3-5min Digital Stories, Co-producer, FOMACS Production):

2009

Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival, Gortahork, Donegal, Ireland.

Selected Conference Papers and Seminars

2009

'Multi-Mediated Engagements with New Publics and Communities', Glocal Imaginaries: Writing/Migration/Place Conference, Lancaster University and Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, UK.

'The Forum on Migration and Communications: A Multi-mediated Engagement with New Publics and Communities', Living Cultures Ethnography Conference, Institute of Communication Studies, University of Leeds.

'Undocumented Migration: Social Solidarity and Media Practice', Clandestino Workshop, London, COMPAS, University of Oxford and PICUM, Brussels.

2008
Co-organiser of 'Cultural Diversity, Media and the Creative Arts' Symposium, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Cross-Institutional Collaboration: CTMP, Goethe-Insitut, Alliance Francaise and School of Languages, DIT. Chair, Keynote address by Professor Kai Hafez, University of Erfurt, Germany.

“Bridges of Hope: Migration, Utopia, Dystopia in Contemporary Ireland’: Screening of Here to Stay’, Bridges to Utopia, International Conference, University of Limerick, Ireland.

‘Living Archives of Migration: Collaborative Politics/Competing Publics’, Investigating the Archive: Media, Migration, Archive, The Royal Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK.

‘Photography and Human Rights’, Imaging Human Rights, UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies, Dublin.

Chair: Panel Discussion on ‘2Move Ireland: Exhibition on Migratory Aesthetics’, Grosvenor House, Belfast.

'Situating Migrant Political Agency Through Documentary Practice: Here To Stay', Migration and Cultural Production Seminar Series, Centre on Migration Policy and Society, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.

‘Migration and the Politics of Collaboration: Public Projects/Competing Publics’, Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory Seminar Series, University of Cardiff, Wales, UK.

‘The Politics and Ethics of Digital Storytelling with Undocumented Migrants in Dublin’, European Migration and Trafficking Workshop, School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin.

2007
Cultural Studies Now: An International Conference. Keynote Speaker (Cultural Studies and Creative Practice), University of East London, UK.

2006
Queens University, Belfast, ’Practice as a Mode of Theory’, Seminar on Lens-based Practice.

New York University, Globalisation, Visual Culture and Violence Seminar Series. ‘Transcultural Optics: Mediating Migration and Public Policy’.

2005
National University of Ireland, Maynooth: Anthropology Seminar Series. ‘Projecting Migration: Transcultural Documentary Practice’.

2003
Convenor of Panel, 'Reframing Migration through the Prism of Practice-Based Research'. Visible Evidence X1 Documentary Conference, School of Cultural Studies, University of West England, UK.

Chair, Seminar Series: Transcultural Visual Research, Irish Film Centre, Dublin – An Initiative of the Transcultural Ethnographic Media Practice Research Cluster.

2002
Key Lecture: Harlan County, USA Documentary Series, Irish Film Institute, Dublin.

2001
Co-Curator and Director of Migration and Location: Visual Media Research Inaugural Conference/Exhibition, Project Arts Centre, Dublin: Keynote speaker: Professor Hamid Naficy, Rice University, USA.

Co-Curator of Tunnel Kids: Installation – a visual ethnographic account of research on the border-zone of Nogales, Mexico/USA, combining documentary photography and digital video.

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