Why My Practice-Based Research Matters

My practice explores embodied memory and maternal legacy through innovative methodologies. By reimagining maternal relationships and engaging with transnational feminisms, it reshapes cultural memory and bridges academic inquiry with social responsibility and creative transformation.

My practice-based research contributes to academic discourse by challenging conventional structures and expanding disciplinary boundaries. Through the integration of transnational feminisms, embodied research, and diaspora studies, my work addresses the complex intersections of Irish maternal legacy, migration, and memory. By reimagining maternal relationships and engaging with embodied methodologies, I offer new insights into the affective legacies of shame and trauma. This innovative approach not only generates new engagements with knowledge but also fosters collaborative, transformative encounters, enriching feminist philosophies and cultural memory studies.

In today’s rapidly changing political and cultural landscape, I explore how the body—its breath, movement, and affect—carries stories of inherited trauma, embodied shame, and resilience. Breath is not merely a physical act; it is a medium of relational exchange, as articulated by Luce Irigaray’s concept of “shared air.” In simple terms, shared breath symbolises how we fundamentally connect and communicate, forming the basis for collective and creative transformation. My practice invites deep listening—through guided scripted readings, listening and reading groups, and the integration of filmic bodies—where our bodies breathe together.

By reimagining maternal relationships as transformative, my work opens new avenues for collaboration over competition. Rather than working in isolation, my approach emphasises horizontal teaching, where every voice is valued equally. For example, in my Corporate Photography for Beginners Course, I create learning environments that encourage collaborative thinking and collective reflection, empowering participants to engage creatively with their experiences and reframe their place in the world.

My practice extends beyond academia into real-world settings. In schools, I have integrated film into the curriculum and built extracurricular spaces through film clubs, courses, and community engagements, empowering young people to rethink the world through film. This work has been challenging—requiring deep thought to design structures that weave in and out of the rigid frameworks of traditional schooling—and has provided opportunities for students often written off academically (one such student is now studying at a top film school in the US). Similarly, a corporate course I curated, which combined photography, poetry, writing, and film, transformed workplace culture by fostering unexpected social connections among colleagues after they shared their own creative work with one another.

Rooted in the lived experiences of the Irish diaspora and informed by transnational feminist thought—and drawing on my personal encounters with dementia—my practice offers a vital critique of historical silences and established structures. Ultimately, my research invites us to reengage with our shared histories and imagine a future defined by resilience, inclusivity, and creative transformation—a future where academic inquiry, cultural memory, and social responsibility converge through the simple, profound act of breathing together. This work demonstrates that while the affect of shame is experienced by all bodies, it resonates even more deeply with those whose narratives have been historically controlled, yet its relevance remains universal.