I hold an MA and PhD in Film Studies from University College Dublin. My research interests lie primarily in American cinema, particularly classic Hollywood cinema; auteur studies; silent cinema (especially 1920s) ;film history; the horror genre;  and animals in film and media. I completed an MA thesis on the films of David Cronenberg; and a PhD on the films of Jacques Tourneur. My research publications have mainly been in the area of American cinema, in peer-reviewed journals, books collections and my monograph on Clarence Brown (2018  UP of Kentucky). I have also published on amateur filmmaking (co-edited an edited collection, contributing an article; as well as being a AI on an IRC project on Irish amateur cinema). In addition, I have a publishing, teaching and supervising interest in nonhuman animals on screen. I collaborated with colleague Dan O'Connell on a Creative Ireland/Cork county council funded project on cinema-going memories, which has yielded a documentary film that has screened internationally, a multimedia open-access archive, as well as numerous community outreach initiatives such as a major exhibition at Cork Library, Grand Parade (Feb/March 2020); roadshow events and screenings; radio events. The project won a CACSSS Research impact award: https://www.ucc.ie/en/cacsss/research/researchimpact/moviememories/   

My monograph on Clarence Brown, published in 2018 (hardback) and 2023 (paperback) has won international acclaim and positive reviews in publications including The Wall Street Journal; Sight and Sound; DGA newsletter. It has also led to many international appearances as a keynote speaker and interview subject on television, radio, podcasts, film festivals (Pordenone; San Francisco Silent Film Festival); and in person. In August 2023 I was a key consultant on the Clarence Brown Film Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee, which was organised by Knox County Public library system and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. I was the keynote speaker, and also moderated an interview with Oscar-winning actor, Claude Jarman Jr. 
I supervise/have supervised 100+ MA theses and creative practice projects as well as 5 PhD theses to completion. I led the development of Film and Screen Media, first as a discipline and then as a department, at UCC from 1996 on.  I have served as the coordinator of MA programmes; head and co-head of the Discipline of Film and Screen Media at University College Cork; Film and Screen Media liaison with festivals and with the Arts Council; and developed UCC Film and Screen Media's link with Industry figures, including Lord David Puttnam.  
I have served as a peer reviewer for a number of publishers and journals, and I am also on the board of Alphaville Journal of Film and Screen Media, and have edited/co-edited three issues of the journal.
I am currently enrolled in an MA in Museum Studies. 

My post-doctoral research has been centred on three broad areas: classical Hollywood cinema, silent cinema, and ethnicity in American cinema. I have conducted very extensive research on the career and life of American film director, Clarence Brown, whose career spanned the period 1915-1953. This research has incorporated significant archival research in a variety of collections in the US and also in London, including British Film Institute; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; UCLA Film Archive; USC MGM archive; Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences' archive/Margaret Herrick Library; David O.Selznick Collection at University of Texas at Austin; Clarence Brown archive at University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Film Study Center at MoMA, New York. My book was published in 2018 by the University of Kentucky press and is the first full length monograph on the career of a key American director (see https://www.amazon.com/Clarence-Brown-Hollywoods-Forgotten-Classics-ebook/dp/B07CVPH4T5/ref=sr_1_1?i...)
 I have already published articles on Brown in Sight and Sound, and The Journal of East Tennessee History and Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. Additionally, I co-curated, with film historian Kevin Brownlow, a retrospective on Brown for the National Film Theatre/BFI in London in April/May 2003. I also wrote programme notes for the retrospective, which were published by NFT/BFI. I have acted as a consultant for a long article on Brown by Jack Neely, which was published in Metropulse, Knoxville, Tennessee in March 2008. This article featured extensive quotes from me about my work on Brown and on his critical reputation.

I recently completed a short documentary, written, produced and directed in collaboration with Dan O'Connell, titled "Movie Memories". This is part of a Creative Ireland/Cork CoCo/UCC funded research project on filmgoing in rural Cork. A web archive consisting of podcasts, written memoirs, editorial content, archive footage, is currently being developed. See corkmoviememories.com
 In the past five years, I have published a number of chapters in edited collections, including an article on films in 1925 published in American Cinema: The 1920s ed. Lucy Fischer (Rutgers, 2009); an article on Early Screen comediennes, stardom and ethnicity in Screening Irish America. ed. Ruth Barton (Irish Academic Press, 2009); and an article titled,  "Family Matters: Tales of Tigers and Tapirs at Dublin Zoo" in  The Zoo and Screen Media, ed. Michael Lawrence and Karen Lury (Palgrave, 2016).
I was part of a team conducting research on Irish amateur filmmaking from 1930-1970 (Capturing the Nation: Irish Home Movies, 1930-70). This was an IRCHSS-funded 100K project that involved a collaboration between UCC and Irish Film Archive. A dvd was produced and I co-edited a collection (with Barry Monahan and Laura Rascaroli) published by Bloomsbury/Continuum in 2014. As well as editing the collection, I co-wrote the Introduction, and wrote a chapter on Irish Amateur film collections. 
I have co-edited two issues of Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media: one on Film History (co-edited with Pierluigi Ercole) and one on Corporeal Cinema (co-edited with Ian Murphy). I have also published a long article on Clarence Brown's Intruder in the Dust in Issue 6 of the journal

Currently I am conducing extensive research on the life and the career of American film director Marshall 'Mickey' Neilan, for a book (expected completion date: 2026). 
Lastly, I am enrolled in an MA in Museum Studies and I am particularly interested in research on the subject of nonhuman animals in the museum space/encounter.

I was responsible for introducing film studies module into the School of English undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.I currently teach (and coordinate) EN2036 American Cinema/Genre; EN3037 with Dr Barry Monahan; FX1003 Early Cinema. In the past, I have taught a diverse ranges of seminars on such topics as: Encounters with the American West and Frontier in Film and Literature (UG module); "Projecting New York" (UG module); "Canadian Cinema" (UG module). At MA level, I coordinated and contributed for a number of years to the School of English's MA in American Literature and Film. With colleagues, I also established, taught and supervised on the interdepartmental MA in Film Studies (2005-2015), and redeveloped the MA in Film and Screen Media. Modules taught at PG level include: "Advanced Film Analysis and Theory"; "American Cinema after 1960"; and (from 2016): "Film Industries and Cultures" (my strand is one on nonhuman animals on screen). I served as co-Head of the Discipline of Film and Screen Media at University College Cork and with my colleague, Dott. Laura Rascaroli, served as head of discipline, and developed the BA in Film and Screen Media, which launched in September 2013. This is a three year major programme with a separate CAO entry. In 2015 the Discipline launched an MRes in Film and Screen Media, and also a PhD in Film (Creative Practice). In 2016 the Discipline launched an MA in Film and Screen Media.