Hugh McElveen

EDUCATOR, ARTIST/VISUAL SOCIOLOGIST
with 20 yrs experience (7 at undergraduate level). In 1999 I designed and founded the Irish Gallery of Photography's digital imaging program before becoming the lecturer of Digital and Evolving Technologies on the BA Photography degree at The Institute of Art, Design and Technology (www.iadt.ie). At IADT I contributed to the development of the BA syllabus and became the photography tutor on the BA Fine Art access program. Increasingly my arts practice's concerns were moving closer to those of sociology and in 2012 I returned to full-time education for a MA Visual and Critical Studies, as a Practice Based Researcher (PBR). This interdisciplinary research positioned my work within the Humanities and Sociology.

PRESENTING & PUBLISHING
Recently I presented my research to undergraduate sociology students at University College Galway and facilitated Understanding Research Methods as a Teaching Assistant for the University of London. An adapted excerpt from my masters will be published as a chapter in The Creative City by Gower UK in 2015. I have been invited to present my research conclusions for a journal of Visual Sociology. Currently I am teaching Art & Design and Global Sociology in the UAE.

CURIOSITY & COLLABORATION
As a PBR and educator I have a keen sense of curiosity which is seen in a range of critical interests (qualifications, professional and personal). Curiosity helps me to understand people and situations as is evidenced by working with many nationalities in a variety of environments, making me a collaborative team player and supportive instructor. Curiosity fuels life-long learning, so that I have not forgotten what it is to be a student making my instruction student centred and empathetic to learners' challenges. A desire to enquire means I work hard to learn new systems and integrate into new environments as seamlessly as possible.