Artist Bio

Dylan McGarry (PhD)

Multimedia Artist | Scholar Activist | Sociologist | Ecologist

I work across the fields of Education, Ecology, and the Arts. As such I work with several tentacles touching the world, as an Educational Sociologist, Political Ecologist, multi-media artist, theatre and film maker. 

I have transdisciplinary PhD in Environmental Education at the Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes University, South Africa. During this transformative educational experience, I also completed a meaningful apprenticeship in Social Sculpture at Oxford Brookes University. This unique combination has significantly enriched my understanding of the intricate connections between art and society feeding my curiosity to conduct creative co-engaged research.

The closest thing I have to a religion is the place where ecology, story and mythology meet. I am constantly entranced by the power of public storytelling as a mechanism for healing, empathy, meaning-making and fostering inclusive forms of governance in complex social-ecological entanglements. My areas of research span a wide spectrum, including Transgressive Social Learning, Public Pedagogy, Theatre-based Research, Arts-based Research, Visual anthropology, legal anthropology, Queer Eco-Pedagogy, Post-humanism, New Materialism, and critical African feminist approaches to co-engaged research. 

I am most interested in the profound role of connective aesthetics, social sculpture, and 'making' as essential forms of thinking and theorizing, what I like to call “meaning ∞ making.