I specialise in contemporary art and have won UK awards for my work, moving across full-time academic and curatorial roles since the 1990s. I work in two main areas - Scottish art since 1945, and on art, ecology and the environment.

I have 16 successful PhD completions; and continue to be interested in PhD enquiries on art & ecology and Scottish art since 1945 to the present.

After years working on art/science/medicine/animal studies topics, my research has moved firmly towards an ecological focus, most notably established in my 2019 monograph - The Ecological Eye. Assembling an Ecocritical Art History (Manchester UP). This has resulted in talks and publications hosted by Princeton University, The Paul Mellon Centre for British Art, and the Landscape Research Group. After running a series of international workshops, with Dr Olga Smith, on eco-methodologies and art history, with the Vienna Anthropocene Network, a new edited book on the topic is in progress, with Manchester UP, for 2025/26. I am also part of the Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network, a vibrant community of academics working on environment and climate issues.

I work closely with art practice (from collaboration, commissioning and writing). I have been a long-time collaborator with artist Ilana Halperin, and worked closely with artists such as Christine Borland, Alan Davie, Giuseppe Penone, Gillian Wearing, Cornelia Parker and Mona Hatoum. In 2016 I co-curated, with Bill Hare, the exhibition The Scottish Endarkenment. Art and Unreason from 1945 to the Present (with new work by Georgia Horgan, Louise Hopkins and Beagles & Ramsay). The exhibition featured in The Guardian's top ten UK exhibitions of the year. Previous books include Contemporary Sculpture in Scotland (1999) and Stefan Gec (2002).

In past years I have been Principal Investigator for a number of AHRC-funded projects including The Species of Origin: Evolving a Contemporary Darwin and the Arts Project (2007-8), and the award-winning Anatomy Acts. How we come to know ourselves (Scotland and Medicine: Collections & Connections, 2006). I represent the University of Edinburgh on the Little Sparta Trust (and led the project Sharing Little Sparta which instigated artist residency programmes in Ian Hamilton Finlay's garden and launched a new website).

I am currently a Trustee of the Association for Art History, and have served on various boards including the Talbot Rice Gallery, the Fruitmarket Gallery and Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN). I am on the Academic Committee of Edinburgh University Press and on the Editorial Board of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. I was a founding member of the European Forum for Advanced Practice - a pan-European network (COST-funded) led by Profs Florian Schneider (Trondheim) and Irit Rogoff (Goldsmiths).