Thomas Soro

Dr Tommie Soro is a Postdoctoral Researcher/Research Associate at the Institute of Creativity, University of Galway. He is a researcher and artist working at the intersection of cultural sociology, discourse analysis, digital culture, and contemporary art practice. He holds a PhD in sociology from TU Dublin, where his doctoral research examined how reputation is constructed through the discourse of online art magazines. The project was fully funded through the Fiosraigh Dean of Graduate Student Award.

Before completing his doctorate, Tommie received a Distinction in Animation and graduated with first-class honours in Fine Art from DIT. He also completed an MA in Contemporary Art Practice at the Dutch Art Institute. Following his PhD, he continued to develop both his academic and artistic practice, exhibiting work internationally and working part-time with Native Events, where he contributed to the design of cultural events and to funding applications, sustainability policy plans, and strategy documents for cultural organisations, including Arts Council Ireland and Create.

Tommie was subsequently awarded a Seal of Excellence for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship application and later secured a Research Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship at TU Dublin. That project examined how reputation is discursively constructed on artists’ websites and culminated in a monograph, Discourse and Hierarchy in the Artworld: How Reputation Is Constructed through Communication in Cultural Fields, forthcoming with Bloomsbury in 2026, as well as the public event Artworld Reputation in the Digital Age at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Alongside his academic appointments, he has maintained an active contemporary art practice, producing installations and public artworks exhibited nationally and internationally.

Tommie’s research focuses on how discourse constructs reputation, legitimacy, and hierarchy in cultural fields. His work brings together cultural sociology, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and contemporary art research to examine how hierarchies between artists, institutions, and intermediaries are constructed through communication. He is particularly interested in the language of evaluation, symbolic value, narrative, digital visibility, and the role of online platforms in shaping recognition and opportunity in the arts.

His recent research has examined artists’ and art organisations’ websites, with an emphasis on how interdiscursivity, discursive norms, and narrative forms reproduce or transform hierarchies. He is also interested in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of cultural sociology, artistic practice, digital culture, and cultural policy, including questions of sustainability, public engagement, and inequality in the arts.

My teaching interests include cultural sociology, discourse analysis, digital culture, contemporary art theory, visual culture, and research methods. I am particularly interested in teaching that connects sociological and humanities-based approaches to questions of communication, evaluation, reputation, and inequality in cultural fields.

I am also interested in practice-based and interdisciplinary teaching, especially where critical theory, art practice, and qualitative or corpus-based methods can be brought into dialogue. My work also supports teaching in areas such as narrative analysis, media and communication, online culture, and the sociology of art.

Research Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship: Discourse and Hierarchy in the Artworld
A major research project examining how reputation is constructed through discourse in contemporary cultural fields. This work refined Dr Soro’s novel field theoretical discourse-analytic approach to analysing how recognition, legitimacy, and hierarchy are mediated through communication.

Fiosraigh Dean of Graduate Student Award: How Reputation is Constructed through Discourse in the Field of Online Art Magazines

A major research project examining how reputation is constructed through discourse in the artworld. This work developed a field theoretical discourse-analytic approach to analysing how recognition, legitimacy, and hierarchy are mediated through communication.

Artworld Reputation in the Digital Age
A research event funded by Research Ireland and held at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, bringing together researchers, artists, curators, and cultural stakeholders to explore how digital communication shapes reputation in the contemporary artworld.

Sustainability Strategy and Policy in the Arts
Applied research and strategy work undertaken with Native Events, including contributions to Climate Action and Environmental Policy for Arts Council Ireland and the Environmental Sustainability Strategy for Create.

Artists, Musicians, and the Internet Survey
An ongoing research initiative investigating how artists and musicians engage with digital platforms, communication practices, and online visibility.