Dr Ciara Healy is an internationally recognised curator, writer, and researcher whose work operates at the intersection of environmental humanities, radical curatorial practice, and relational philosophies of place. Her research trajectory is defined by the sustained development of curating as a knowledge-producing research methodology, capable of engaging ecological, agricultural, cultural, and epistemic complexity. Across practice-based research, funded interdisciplinary projects, doctoral supervision, and invited curatorial commissions, she has advanced curatorial approaches that bring scientific, artistic, literary, spiritual, and vernacular forms of knowledge into critical relation.

Her trajectory was shaped by early engagement with postcolonial theory and questions of “multiple belonging” in contemporary Irish curatorial practice, developed through a funded MPhil scholarship at TU Dublin (2003–2006). This work laid the conceptual foundations for her practice-based PhD at UWE Bristol, awarded in 2016. Her doctoral research project, Thin Place: An Alternative Approach to Curatorial Practice, examined how curating might dissolve boundaries between disciplines, belief systems, and epistemologies, proposing curatorial practice itself as a liminal and relational research method.

The PhD culminated in the curation of a fully funded international group exhibition at Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Carmarthen, Wales, supported by an Arts Council Wales Major Award, and accompanied by an education programme, scholarly publication, and public symposium. Drawing on the folkloric concept of the “thin place” as a site where boundaries between worlds become permeable, this research reimagined the gallery as a space in which scientific, mythological, spiritual, and ecological ways of knowing could coexist without collapse. The project established Dr Healy’s signature methodological contribution of “thin curating”, a relational approach that embraces liminality and epistemic plurality as generative research conditions rather than conceptual problems.

Building on this foundation, Dr Healy’s subsequent research has developed at the intersection of art, ecology, agriculture, and rural knowledge. Grounded in environmental humanities and informed by animism, ecosophy, new materialism, and relational ontology, her work positions curatorial practice as a translational interface between empirical research, vernacular and Indigenous knowledge systems, artistic practice, and lived rural experience. A defining feature of her trajectory is sustained field-building and research leadership, particularly through the design and delivery of large-scale, funded interdisciplinary networks.

Her most significant leadership contribution to date has been The Rural Reimagined (2021–22), a bilateral Ireland–Scotland research network funded by the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The project connected artists, writers, farmers, scientists, and rural institutions through site-based research, symposia, exhibitions, and digital research fora, developing innovative practice-led methodologies for engaging publics with agricultural heritage, biodiversity, rural wellbeing, and environmental change. The network generated lasting institutional partnerships and directly seeded new doctoral research pathways.

Dr Healy has since secured multiple competitive doctoral scholarships through Research Ireland, TU RISE, regional development funding, and institutional President’s Scholarships, enabling her to supervise a cohort of fully funded PhD researchers working at the intersection of art, ecology, agriculture, and climate justice. Many of these projects emerged directly from The Rural Reimagined, demonstrating her capacity to translate externally funded research into sustainable research cultures and advanced training environments.

Her research trajectory is now consolidating through invited curatorial commissions, including a major exhibition and symposium at Lismore Castle Arts (2026–27) developed with Maria McKinney and Carol-Anne Connolly in collaboration with Teagasc, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Irish Film Institute Film Archive, alongside an international group exhibition (Homescar, 2027) currently in development. In parallel, her work has begun to extend into transnational contexts, including early-stage, dialogical research engagement in Chile exploring Indigenous cosmovision, agricultural practice, and multispecies ethics, forming part of a longer-term decolonial research ambition.

Together, these strands demonstrate a coherent progression from doctoral research to field-defining, internationally oriented research leadership, positioning Dr Healy to lead future large-scale interdisciplinary projects at AHRC and ERC level.

Selected Research Outputs

• Healy, C. (2019). Climate and Culture: Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Knowing, Being and Doing in a Warming World. Cambridge University Press.
  (Peer-reviewed monograph in environmental humanities.)
  
  
• Healy, C. (2015). Thin Place. Arts Council Wales / Oriel Myrddin Gallery.
  (Research-led publication accompanying a major international exhibition and symposium; Arts Council Wales Major Award.)
  
  
• Healy, C. (2022). A Growing Concern: Rurality in Irish and Scottish Art & Writing. Arts Council Ireland & Royal Society of Edinburgh.
  (Outcome of the Ireland–Scotland bilateral research network The Rural Reimagined.)
  
  
• Healy, C. (2025). “Public Space and the Sustainable Development Goals.” Edward Elgar Publishing.
  (Peer-reviewed publication addressing culture, sustainability, and policy.)
  
  
• Healy, C. (2021). “Light and Language at Lismore Castle Arts.” Open Rivers, University of Minnesota.
  (Peer-reviewed journal article on place, landscape, and cultural ecology.)
  
  
• Thin Place (2015–16), Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Wales — Curator.
  (International group exhibition, education programme, symposium, and publication; Arts Council Wales Major Award.)
  
  
• The Rural Reimagined (2021–22), Ireland–Scotland — Principal Investigator.
  (Royal Irish Academy / Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded research network; exhibitions, symposia, and digital research outputs.)
  
  
• Artist’s books by Ciara Healy, held in public collections including Tate Britain, the V&A, the British Library, and international museum collections.
  (Practice-based research outputs recognised through acquisition.)