FLAME University

FACULTY

Learning from some of the best minds in education and in the industry
Prof. Aileen Blaney
Associate Professor - Film Studies
Email: aileen.blaney@flame.edu.in
PhD in Film Studies from Trinity College, Dublin; M.Phil in Theatre & Film Studies from Trinity College, Dublin; B.A. International in English Literature and French Literature from National University of Ireland, Galway.
BIO

Prof. Aileen Blaney is Associate Professor – Film Studies at FLAME University. She completed her PhD from Trinity College, Dublin in the field of Film Studies. She has completed M.Phil in Theatre and Film Studies from Trinity College Dublin and Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and French Studies from National University of Ireland, Galway.
Prof. Aileen Blaney is a writer and an editor. Her scholarship has explored Irish cinema and, more recently, examines photography in India and the photo-based image online.  Her writing has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Photography and Culture, Philosophy of Photography, History & Memory, European Journal of Cultural Studies, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Film and Image Studies and on popular news sites such as The WireThe Business Post and Huffington Post. She is the co-editor of Photography in India: from Archives to Contemporary Practice (Bloomsbury/2019; Routledge/2020).


Prior to joining Flame, she was faculty at School of New Humanities and Design, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore for six years. She has also taught Film Studies at Dublin Institute of Technology and Trinity College, Dublin. In addition, she has done stints as a Film Programmer at a Film Festival at Seoul and as a Curatorial Assistant at India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Bangalore.



RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS

JOURNAL ARTICLES



  • Sarkar, A & Blaney, A. (2022). The flesh of imagination: locating materiality in biology-inspired visual art. Leonardo, 55 (2), 140–144. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02102

  • Sarkar, A & Blaney, A. (Forthcoming/2022). Material Metaphor and Reflexivity in Contemporary Painting: a Practice Based Investigation.  Journal of Aesthetic Education, tbc

  • Blaney, A. 2019. Farming on Facebook, Camera-less Food Photography and a New Indian Pastoral. International Journal of E-Politics, 10(2), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2019070101

  • Blaney, A. (2019). Photographic Art and Technology in Contemporary India. Journal of Philosophy of Photography, 10 (1), pp 23-40. https://doi.org/10.1386/pop_00004_1

  • Blaney, A. & Shah, C. (2018). The Aesthetics of Contemporary Indian Photography in an ‘Incredible India. Journal of Photography and Culture, 11 (1), 3-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17514517.2017.1410322

  • Blaney, A. (2015). Food, Photography and the Indian Pastoral. The International Journal of E Politics, 7 (2), DOI: 10.4018/IJEP.2016040101

  • Blaney, A. (2009). In and Out of Competition: Korean Cinema at the Cannes Film Festival. Journal of Film and Image Studies, 14

  • Blaney, A. (2009). Visible Victims: the Politics of Suffering in Omagh. The European Journal of Cultural Studies, 12 (3), https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549409342510

  • Blaney, A. (2008). All’s Fair in Love and War? Representations of Prison Life in Silent Grace. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 15 (4).  https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506808095296

  • Blaney, A. (2007). Remembering Historical Trauma in Paul Greengrass’s Bloody Sunday. History and   Memory, 19 (2), 113-138.  


BOOKS



  • Blaney, A. & Shah. C. (Eds.) 2018. 2020. Photography in India: from Archives to Contemporary Practice. Bloomsbury/Routledge.


BOOK CHAPTERS



  • Blaney, A & Shah, C. (2022). Circulation of Photography in the Popular Digital Realm: Cell Phones and Social Media. In Sinha, G (Ed.), Points of View: Defining Moments of Photography in India. KNMA, 2022

  • Blaney, A. (2018). Introduction. Photography in India: from Archives to   Contemporary Practice. London: Bloomsbury, 2018.

  • Blaney, A. (2016). Food Photography, Pixelated Produce and Cameraless Images: A Photographic Journey from Farmville to Kheti Badi. In Ibrahim, Yasmin (Ed.), Politics, Protest and Empowerment in Digital Spaces. IGI Global. 

  • Blaney, A. (2010). FacingtheTruth, Pain & Reconciliation. In Gray, A., & Bell, E (Eds.), Televising History: Mediating the Past in Postwar Europe. Palgrave

  • Blaney, A. (2007). Caught in the Holy Cross Fire: Ethno-sectarian Conflict in Ardoyne. In Rockett, K.& McLoone, M. (Eds.), National Cinema, Film History.Four Courts Press.

  • Blaney, A. (2006). From waste to Worth: the Politics of Self-sacrifice in H3’. In Hill, J. & Rockett, K. (Eds.), National Cinema, Film History. Four Courts Press, 2006.


CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS



  • Invited Speaker, Online launch of Source Photographic Review issue 101 in collaboration with The Gallery of Photography, Ireland. July 2, 2020. 

  • Plenary Speaker, In Search of the Hero(es) Within the Genre and Beyond, Banaras Hindu University, February 2018, Varanasi.

  • Invited Speaker, Deliberating Photography Education in India (NID), April 2017, Ahmedabad.

  • Invited Speaker, Photo Sensitive: Locating Photography Today (Alkazi Foundation for the Arts in collaboration with Alliance Francaise), December, 2016, New Delhi.

  • Speaker, Helsinki Photomedia 2016 Conference, April 2016. Helsinki, Finland. Paper Title: ‘Farming Pixels’.

  • Speaker, The Cultures of New India, University of Brighton, January 2016. Paper Title: ‘Photography in India in Light Years and Digital Times’.

  • Speaker, Srishti Colloquium, ‘Farming Pixels’, Bangalore, 2015.

  • Speaker, ‘Having Your Voice Heard’, Migrants, the Media and the Message II Conference, the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund Offices, London, 2011.

  • Speaker, Televising History Symposium, ‘Making History: Historical Docudrama in Contemporary Northern Ireland’, , University of Lincoln, 2008.

  • Speaker, Visible Evidence Conference, ‘War and Peace: Popular and Controversial Docudrama in Northern Ireland’, Bochum, Germany, 2007.

  • Speaker, Biennial Film and History  Conference, ‘Visible Victims and the Politics of Suffering in Omagh’, Dallas, Texas, 2006.

  • Speaker, MeCCSA Postgraduate Network Conference, ‘Visible Victims and the Politics of Suffering in Omagh’, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, 2006.

  • Speaker, Irish Postgraduate Film Research Seminar, ‘Caught in the Holy Cross Fire: Ethno-sectarian Conflict in the Ardoyne’, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, 2006.

  • Speaker, Irish Postgraduate Film Research Seminar, ‘From Waste to Worth: the Politics of Self-sacrifice in H3’, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, 2005.


OTHER PUBLICATIONS



  • ‘Shooting Tigers and the Natural World: the Nature of Visual Entertainment on Instagram.’ PhotoSouthAsia. Murthy Nayak Foundation. 2022

  • The Maharaj of the Moors. National Geographic Traveller India. Print issue January-February 2022.

  • ‘Harking Back to Sherkin’. National Geographic Traveller India. September-October 2021 (print edition).

  • ‘Why Swimming became a Pandemic-Favourite Pastime in this Irish Town’. National Geographic Traveller India. February 2021. 

  • Photography and the Hunt during the British Raj. PhotoSouthAsia. Murthy Nayak Foundation. 2021

  • Instagram Field Reports from India During a Nature Tourism Boom: #tigersofindia #bigcatsindia #bengaltiger. PhotoSouthAsia. Murthy Nayak Foundation. 2021

  • ‘On Workation During a Pandemic’, The Economic Times, December 10, 2020.

  • ‘Macro Your Shot: Citizen Scientists go ‘Frogging’ in the Western Ghats and on Social Media’, India Photographed, MurthyNAYAK Foundation, 2021.

  • Review essay of ‘Memoire temporelle, comme un mirage’ (Kalpash Lathigra), Source: Thinking through Photography, May issue, 2020.

  • ‘At a Museum for Toilets, Perspectives on Public Sanitation’, The Wire, February, 2020

  • ‘Varadkar’s Village: Discovering Leo’s Indian Roots’, The Business Post, January 2020.

  • ‘How Frogs on Instagram are Spurring an Unprecedented Collective Documenting of Species’, Huffington Post, October 2019.

  • ‘Why Don’t Big Tech Companies Listen to Users, Only User Data?, Huffington Post, May 2019.

  • ‘Hustle Away: The Dawn of an Instagram Work Culture’, The Wire, April 2019

  • ‘The ‘‘Do What You Love’’ Mantra and Co-Option of a Laborious Work Culture’, The Wire, April 2019

  • ‘On Photography After Photography’, PIX: The Student Issue, February 2018.

  • ‘EVA International: Still the Barbarians’, Unbound: A Journal of Discourse and Creative Practice, Monsoon edition, 2016.

  • ‘Farming Pixels: Food, Photography and the Beauty Myth,’ The Forager Magazine, Winter edition, 2015.   

  • ‘Turner Prize 2013: A Review’, Kindle Magazine, December edition, 2013.

  • ‘Training days: a filmmaker recounts shooting at a Hindu fundamentalist camp for girls’, The Caravan, August issue, 2013.

  • ‘Voices from the Field: Funding Scenarios for the Visual Arts in India’, India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), 2013. http://www.indiaifa.org/pdf/eap/voices_from_the_field_IFA_study.pdf

  • ‘FOMACS Retrospective - the Story So Far’, the Forum on Migration and Communications and Atlantic Philanthropies, 2012. http://www.fomacsretrospective.org

  • ‘First Shot,’ Circa Art Magazine, vol. 125, 2008.

  • ‘Women War Photographers; the Galway Arts Festival,’ Circa Art Magazine,   vol. 122, 2007.

  • ‘Gary Coyle and Stephen Gardner: The Sea,’ Circa Art Magazine, vol. 119, 2007.

  • ‘Jaki Irvine: In a World Like This,’ Circa Art Magazine, vol. 119, 2007.

  • ‘Final Boarding: Paul Greengrass’s United 93,’ Circa Art Magazine, vol. 117, 2006.