Deborah is an art theorist, writer, curator and artist. She is the Head of Fine Art Critical Studies (FACS) at GSA.
Deborah holds a PhD and MSc in Contemporary Art Theory & Practice from the University of Edinburgh and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Sculpture from the Glasgow School of Art. She was the External Examiner for the University of Reading's MA Fine Art and MA Creative Enterprise (2020-24), and for the University of Glasgow's Art History, and Visual Arts Studies programme (2019-23). She was the Co-Lead Creative Art and Design Catalyst: Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) and a member of the Steering Committee for the National Association for Fine Art Education (NAFAE). Deborah was the Editor of the Routledge journal Visual Culture in Britain (2016-20).
She was co-Director of The Embassy gallery, Edinburgh (2006-09) and has acted in and consulting capacity across the wider professional community as a board member for local, regional, galleries and festivals including Glasgow’s CCA, Market Gallery (Chair of Board of Trustees), and the Edinburgh Arts Festival (EAF). She's also been on on various selection and interview panels for creative residency programmes including Collective Gallery, Talbot Rice Gallery, and the National Galleries of Scotland.
Prior to taking up her current role as head of Fine Art Critical Studies (FACS) at the Glasgow School of Art Deborah was a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art Theory & Practice at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh (2006-22) where she held several leadership roles; ECA: Director of Visual Culture (2017-22); co-Director of ECA Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (2017-22); and Director of Postgraduate Research: PhD/MPhil – Art (2019-22).
Deborah’s research is interconnected by an analysis of how cultural institutions and artistic praxis are determined in relation to dominant power structures and institutional infrastructures.
2023 Research Development Fund, The Glasgow School of Art: £315 Principal Investigator: Artists Running: Towards a History of Artist-Run Initiatives in Scotland
2018 Creative Scotland: £6,000 Principal Investigator: We who are about to…
2018 Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards: £950 Principal Investigator: We who are about to…
2014 Innovative Initiatives Grant: £4,500 Co-investigator: Forthcoming Material of Practice: A Symposium in Two Halves
2014 Shifting Initiatives Fund: £10,000 Co-investigator: Forthcoming Material of Practice: A Symposium in Two Halves
2014 The Highland Council: £3,300 Principal Investigator: Over the Counter Culture. An Talla Solais Gallery, Ullapool, Scotland
2014 The Robertson Trust: £3,200 Principal Investigator: Over the Counter Culture. An Talla Solais Gallery, Ullapool, Scotland
2014 Creative Scotland: £2,000 Principal Investigator: Over the Counter Culture. An Talla Solais Gallery, Ullapool, Scotland
2014 Creative Scotland (GENERATION Associate Partners Scheme) £5,000 Co-investigator: Counterpoint (GENERATION: 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland), Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
2012 Creative Scotland: £4,500 Principal Investigator: Kevin Harman 24/7 & Rose Street Projects. Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF)
2012 Edinburgh Art Festival Expo Fund: £20,000 Co-investigator: Kevin Harman 24/7 & Rose Street Projects. Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF)
2012 Wellcome Trust Large Arts Award £10,000 Co-investigator: Beholder. Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
2011 Arts Council England: £40,000 Co-investigator: Anish Kapoor – Flashback. Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) in collaboration with Southbank Centre, London
Contemporary Art Theory & Practice; Class; Feminism; Artist-run culture
Timothea Armour
Kelly Rappleye
2024 Rosa Santibáñez Núñez
Aesthetics of the Protest: Understanding art and activism in the Chilean student movement of 2011-2013
Lead Supervisor Research PhD, University of Edinburgh
2024 Alberta Whittle
Creating Dangerously: Radical Experiments in the Hostile Environment (Funding: Competitively Awarded ECA PhD Scholarship) Lead Supervisor Practice-based, PhD University of Edinburgh
2023 Nakul Krishnamurthy
Carnatic Approaches (to) Experimental Music: Practice-based Interventions from the Borders (Funding: Competitively awarded ECA PhD Interdisciplinary Scholarship) Lead Supervisor Practice-based PhD, University of Edinburgh
2021 Bec Wonders
‘Please Say More’: mediating conflict through letter-writing in British second wave feminist periodicals, 1970-1990 (Funding: Competitively awarded SGSAH award) Second Supervisor Research PhD, The Glasgow School of Art
As Head of Department Fine Art Critical Studies (FACS) at GSA I work with my team to provide courses to SoFA undergraduate students across the three programmes: Fine Art Photography, Painting & Printmaking, and Sculpture & Environmental Art. We teach across all four years of the UG programmes to support students to contextualise their work, reflect critically on their practice and understand the reciprocal relationship between their specific studio concerns and broader themes and debates within global art discourses and practices. FACS has a commitment to continue to develop and embed pedagogical content and methods that reflect de/anti-colonial learnings and
