Biography

James Gerard Raphael Cronin is part-time Visual Resources Officer for History of Art and part-time Course Co-ordinator for the Diploma in European Art History, Centre for Adult and Continuing Education (ACE), University College Cork. James, the inaugural Visual Resources Officer, History of Art, received a Quality Improvement Fund Award in 2004. The Diploma in European Art History, Centre for Adult and Continuing Education, received a President's Award for Research on Innovative Forms of Teaching and Learning: 2003/04. As Visual Resources Officer, James co-ordinated the audio-visual support and recorded four international conferences for History of Art: Visual Literacy; W.G. Sebald; the Representation of Pain and Theories of Modernism & Post Modernism in the Visual Arts and the round-table discussions for the seven-volume Art Seminar  series edited by James Elkins (co-published by Routledge & Cork University Press, 2006/08).

For an overview of initial resource development see Cronin, J & Young, G. (2005). Using digital images in an art history department: the experience of University College, Cork. A still images case study. JISC Digital Media, formerly TASI Read.

Education:

James graduated from the National University of Ireland at Cork with an honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History (1991) and a Master of Arts in early Medieval iconography supervised by the Department of History (1992). He pursued postgraduate studies in journalism and media at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston (2000). He has since pursued studies in teaching and learning, graduating with a Master of Arts in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (2009), under the direction of Ionad Bairre: Centre for Teaching and Learning, University College Cork.

Experience:

James has acted as tutor and guest lecturer in the Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, St. John’s Central College, Cork, Department of History, History of Art, and Study of Religions, University College Cork. He has contributed to the educational programme, Glucksman Gallery, Cork. He currently teaches in the Centre for Adult Continuing Education, University College Cork.

Interests:

Interests include: transdisciplinarity, lifelong learning, reflective practice, digital literacy, education and the arts. In 2006, he co-ordinated the Honan Chapel & Collection Online. This web-based project was awarded a Quality Improvement Award to develop a multi-media digital repository to mark the 90th anniversary of the Honan Chapel, Cork, a unique case study of the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement (1894-1925). He is currently investigating representations of strategy and space in an eighteenth-century Irish edition of Walter's narrative of George Anson's circumnavigation (1740-44) for presentation at Ordinance: War Architecture & Space in September 2010.

Chapters:

(2009). Digital utopia or dystopia: should educators assume information literacy? In Jennifer Murphy and Bettie Higgs (eds). Challenging Assumptions: integrating research and teaching and learning in higher education. Proceedings of the NAIRTL second annual conference. Waterford Institute of Technology, 13-14 November, 2008. (pp. 127-134). Cork: NAIRTL. ISBN 978-1-906642-15-0 Details

With McMahon, J.P. & Waldron, M. (2009). Critical survey of information technology use in higher education -- blended classrooms. In Carla R. Payne (ed.). Information technology and constructivism in higher education: progressive learning frameworks,  (pp.203-215) Hershey and New York: Information Science Reference ISBN 978-1-60566-654-9 Details

Posters:

(2009, September 30). “Slow looking” as a tool for reflective practice in the study of art history in adult and continuing education [Poster]. NAIRTL’s 4th Bologna Symposium -- Integrating generic competences in the Curriculum. Aula Maxima, University College Cork.

(2008). Scaffolding the learner: Teaching for Understanding (TfU) and the adult learning experience, University College Cork. [Poster]. In Norma Ryan (ed.). International perspectives on teaching and learning in higher education. NAIRTL (National Academy for Integrating Research & Teaching & Learning) conference proceedings, November 2007.(pp. 86-87). Cork: NAIRTL. ISBN 978-0-9556109-4-3 Details

Talks:

(forthcoming). Fairytale and Fantasy: Harry Clarke (1889-1931) and the Irish Arts & Crafts movement. Libraries for Learning (Lifelong Festival), Cork Central Library, 1-2pm Friday 26th March 2010.

(2010, February 9). Narrative approaches to educational research [Guest lecture] MATLHE seminar, Ionad Bairre: Centre for Teaching and Learning, University College Cork.

(2010, January 20). Capturing and documenting teaching and learning using visual evidence [Guest lecture] PG6003: Teaching and Learning for Graduate Studies, Ionad Bairre: Centre for Teaching and Learning, University College Cork

(2010, January 18). Silence and secrecy on the south-seas: Re-reading George Anson’s A Voyage Round the World in the Years 1740. . .1744. Paper presented as part of the school’s research seminar series, School of History, University College Cork.

(2009, December 17). Emerging from the shadows: Disability and creativity. [Guest lecture] AD1801: Body Politics and the Media, certificate and diploma in Disability Studies, Centre for Adult Continuing Education, University College Cork. 

(2009, November 9). Making teaching & learning visible: Considering the role of space [Guest lecture] PG6003: Teaching and Learning for Graduate Studies, Ionad Bairre: Centre for Teaching and Learning, University College Cork.

(2009, August 5). Silence Breaking/ Silence Making. National Sculpture Factory, Cork. This talk was part of the frequencies summer lunchtime series. 

(2009, June 3). Lessons learnt in image capture from the Honan Chapel and Collection Online project. Digital Humanities Project Clinic - Introduction to Metadata and Digital Project Management. Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) workshop, University College Cork.

(2009, June 2). Overview of the Honan Chapel and Collection Online project. Digital Humanities Symposium - Digital Projects: Doing the Right Thing! Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) workshop, University College Cork.

(2009, April 30). Towards new understandings of silence. Paper presented to Eye & Mind research seminar, History of Art, University College Cork.

Conferences:

(2010, March 11). With D. Blackshields; B. Higgs; S. Kilcommins; M. McCarthy; W. O’Leary; T. Ryan. Integrative learning in practice: Irish Integrative Learning Project. International Integrative Learning Symposium. Centre for Integrative Learning, University of Nottingham.

(2009, September 7). Too much information: why facilitate media literacy? Digital Resources for the Humanities & Arts - Dynamic Networks of Knowledge and Practice: Contexts, Crises, Futures, 7 - 9 September 2009, Co-Hosted by Queen's University Belfast, the Royal Irish Academy and Swansea University in partnership with the National Library of Wales.

(2008, November 14). Digital utopia or dystopia: should educators assume information literacy? Teaching & Learning in higher education: challenging assumptions. Paper presented to the National Academy for Integration of Research and Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL), Waterford Institute of Technology. Details

(2008, September 15). Uncovering understanding: lifelong learners' experiences of e-moderation. Paper presented to Digital Resources for the Humanities and the Arts (DRHA) conference. New communities of knowledge and practice, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK. Blog

Reviews:

(In press). Review of Digital Images for the Information Professional by Melissa M. Terras Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (ISR) 35 (1), March 2010.

Current reviews in preparation for Interdisciplinary Science Reviews: Caleb Kelly Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction (MIT Press, 2009) and Carrie James Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media : A Synthesis from the Good Play Project (MIT Press, 2009).

Awards:

2009. Contributed to writing a successful grant proposal for History of Art, University College Cork to the National Academy for Integrating Research & Teaching & Learning (NAIRTL): Promoting a research culture in the undergraduate curriculum.

2008. Making Connections: Strengthening and Documenting Intentional Teaching for Integrative Learning. National Academy for Integrating Research & Teaching & Learning (NAIRTL).

2006. Honan Chapel and Collection Online (http://honan.ucc.ie), Quality Improvement Award, University College Cork.

Membership:

2009 to present. International Editorial Board Member, TEI Extramural Journal (TEI-EJ), Universität Trier, Germany & Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

2009 to present. Programme Committee Member, Digital Resources for the Humanities & Arts, UK.  (DRHA 2010)

2009 to present. Member of Cork Arts Audience Development Group (CAADG).

2009 to present. Digital projects advisory group member, Boole Library, University College Cork. 

2007 to present. Local representative for the Irish National Association of Adult Education (AONTAS).

2006 to present. Disability Support Liaison for History of Art, University College Cork.

2002 to present. Secretary to the Steering Committee, Diploma in European Art History, Centre for Adult Continuing Education, University College Cork.

Other:

Publicity photographs for Cork-based musician Cormac O Caoimh and Cork-based artist Ciaran Cronin, Backwater Artists Group. Invited exhibition reviews for Cork-based artists Ray Murphy and John Adams.

Links

My personal blog: Joining the digital dots 

A workshop blog: e-image space

  James G. R. Cronin, full list of articles, talks and activities