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Research interests
My main research interests are concerned with the communication and representation of environmental issues. I investigate these concerns using a combination of theory and practice in digital media.
I am a dedicated media studies scholar and practitioner who draws on interdisciplinary insights from geography. My key research lies in continuing my enquiry into environmental issues through these two domains.
I am published in high-impact journals and international conferences. I also have a track record of securing internal and external funding. I have recently secured funding for a desk study that investigates how digital cultural practices can communicate environmental issues in novel ways.
Funded research
I am delighted to announce that I have recently been awarded a research grant by the Environmental Protection Agency to perform desk research and field work on how cultural practitioners communicate environmental data in novel ways. Project details will be added when the project commences. It is due to commence in January 2019.
Postdoctoral project: Going Green Digitally?
This project critically evaluates the potential role of the domains of journalism and advertising to provide new and necessary discourses around environmental challenges. It also uses practice-based approaches in the form of digital animations. The final report, no. 215, was released by the EPA in 2017.
Funder: Environmental Protection Agency of Ireland
Call Details: EPA Research Programme 2014-2020, Strive programme
Project Details: Postdoctoral fellowship titled Going Green Digitally? Environmental crisis, consumption patterns, and the evolving role of media.
Amount awarded: €150,653
Project website: www.oneplanet.ie
Report download (PDF): Going Green Digitally?
PhD research: Innovation in Digital Media Artistic Production in Ireland
Funder: Irish Social Sciences Platform
Project Details: Funded PhD scholarship titled Innovation in Digital Media Artistic Production in Ireland. This project informed the ‘Knowledge Society’ strand of the Irish Social Sciences Platform, an inter-institutional and interdisciplinary all-Ireland research programme. It investigated the role of non-commercial production of digital media in Ireland.
Amount awarded: to the value of 3.75 years fees, €16,000 p.a. stipend, book allowance, travel allowance
Internal funding awards
Funder: Dublin City University
Details: 1. DCU faculty journal publication scheme
Successfully secured funding in 2016, 2017 and 2018 to avail of teaching remission in order to submit research papers to Scopus Q1 journals
Amount: €1800 x 3
2. DCU faculty conference travel scheme
Successfully secured funding in 2016, 2017 and 2018 to avail of conference travel support to attend international conferences
Amount: €900 x 3
3. DCU QuID (Quality Improvement & Development) funding
Successfully secured funding in 2018 for the School of Communications at DCU to develop an interactive media space for the department. The project, titled Promoting student engagement with research and practice in the School of Communications through the utilisation of transitional spaces in the Henry Grattan building is scheduled for development in Q3-4 2018, and will showcase the diversity of practice-based work undertaken in the school.
Amount: €2,500
Peer-reviewed journal articles and reports
Morgan, T., 2018. The techno-finance fix: A critical analysis of international and regional environmental policy documents and their implications for planning. Progress in Planning, Volume 119 (Jan 2018): 1-29 doi:10.1016/j.progress.2016.06.001
Download here: The Techno-finance Fix
Morgan, T., 2017b. Alienated Nature, Reified Culture: Understanding the Limits to Climate Change Responses under Existing Socio-ecological Formations.Political Economy of Communication, 5 (1) :30-50
Download here: Alienated Nature, Reified Culture
Morgan, T., 2017a. Going Green Digitally? Environmental crisis, consumption patterns, and the evolving role of media. Report prepared for the Environmental Protection Agency of Ireland (2013-SD-FS-1).
Download here: Going Green Digitally?
Morgan, T., 2015. Growing Ourselves to Death? Economic and ecological crises, the growth of waste, and the role of the media and cultural industries.Human Geography, 8 (1):68-81
Download here: Growing Ourselves to Death?
Morgan, T., 2013. Adorno and the political economy of communication.The Political Economy of Communication, 1(2), pp.44–64.
Download here: Adorno and the political economy of communication
Morgan, T., 2013. Sharing, hacking, helping: Towards an understanding of digital aesthetics through a survey of digital art practices in Ireland. Journal of Media Practice 14: 2, pp. 147–160
Download here: Sharing, hacking, helping
Conference presentations
Space and Praxis: ecological sound art towards an understanding of sustainability – paper presented at the RGS-IBG conference, Cardiff University, August 2018
Dredging the river – exploring ecosystem crisis through sound art – paper presented at the Conference of Irish Geographers, Maynooth University, May 2018
Sensing our world: Art, data and meaning-making – paper presented at the Building City Dashboards workshop, Maynooth University, May 2018
Sustainability/climate change discourses in state TV news and current affairs programming in Ireland – a political economy approach – paper presented at the Mediating Climate change conference, Leeds 2017
Climate change: fake news or ideology? An interdisciplinary take combining insights from geography and critical communication theory – paper co-presented with Professor Paschal Preston at the Conference of Irish Geographers, Cork 2017
Alienated Nature, Reified Culture: Understanding the Limits to Climate Change Responses under Existing Socio-ecological Formations – paper presented at IAMCR conference, Leicester 2016
Bridges or Boundaries? The contested role of mediated communication in modern Europe – paper co-presented with Professor Paschal Preston at the ECREA communication history Venice 2015
Scientific consensus or ‘techno-finance fix’? A critical analysis of international climate policy reports and the role of corporate media – paper presented by proxy at IAMCR conference, Montreal 2015
Communicating New and Urgent Responses to Climate Change : Are all media and cultural domains equal? – paper presented by proxy at IAMCR conference, Montreal 2015
Growing Ourselves to Death? Dual economic and ecological crises, the ‘growth fetish’ and the role of the media and cultural industries – paper presented at IAMCR conference, Hyderabad 2014
From Economic Self-Interest to Ecological Altruism? New ecological imaginaries and the role of the media and cultural industries in their dissemination – paper presented at IAMCR conference, Hyderabad 2014
Culture and Crisis, Crisis in Culture – structures and contexts of power and labour in the field of cultural production – paper presented at IAMCR conference, Dublin 2013
Digital Spaces Both Virtual and Visceral: Digital Art Practices in Ireland – paper presented at MeCCSA Conference, Derry/Londonderry January 2013
Online Spaces, Walkspaces and Makerspaces: Exploring Innovation in Digital Art Practices – paper presented at ECREA Digital Culture and Communication workshop, November 2011
Using Someone Else’s Shoes in the Classroom – Workshop given with Dr Miriam Judge at CESI conference, PortLaoise, February 2011
Culture as rescuer through ‘Brand Ireland’ – discourses in public media – preliminary research findings presented at ISSP conference, Limerick, December 2010
Producing culture, empowering citizenship: interrogating the role of the artist-citizen as a catalyst for social change – paper presented at ‘Beauty Will Save the World’ conference, Bristol, September 2010
Producing culture, empowering citizenship: interrogating the role of the artist-citizen as a catalyst for social change – paper presented at IAMCR conference, Braga, Portugal, July 2010
Research Methodologies and Theoretical Frameworks for Digital Media – paper presented at IMRN postgraduate conference, NUI Maynooth, November 2009
Technology and Meaning in the ‘Digital Moment’ – Challenges for the 21st century artist – joint paper co-authored with Professor Paschal Preston presented at Image 2.0 conference, University of Falmouth, September 2009