I am anEconomic Geographer lecturing at the University of Galway since 2012. Prior to that I was a researcher at the Whitaker Institute where mywork looked at the location decisions of multinational tech companies. More recently, I haveturned my attention to Creative Economies and Cultural Production. Through a number of EU funded projects, I havesought to better understand the relationship between culture, creativity and production as well as identifying the unique role played by Geography. I contributed to both of Galways designation of UNESCO City of Film and European Capital of Culture. I havepublished over 30 internationally peer reviewed journal articles and three books. I amDirector of the newly formed UrbanLab Galway at the University of Galway. My newest book `Galway: Making a Capital of Culture was published by Orpen Press in 2023.

As an economic geographer, I am interested in the spatial distribution of wealth. How we legislate for the uneven distribution of resources is a common theme in my work. I have published on the location decisions of multinational corporations and in doing so moved the focus beyond financial incentives (in the form of tax relief) to the innate qualities of the places they invest in. In exploring that I have begun to switch my focus on how we make places. Foremost here is the role that Culture plays in an increasingly globalised world. Through a number of projects (Creative Edge, Galways bid for European Capital of Culture) I have been better able to explore the role that Culture plays in the socioeconomic well being of particular places.I have an interest in spatial dispersion of innovative practices. My current projects the SFI funded Cathair Shamhlú: Platform Urbanism and the Horizon Europe funded INSITU project look at the role of culture and creativity in place making as well as exploring spatial computing for firing the geographic imaginary.