Mary Modeen

Modeen’s research links creative practice with interdisciplinary academic studies in the humanities, particularly philosophy, literature, geography and indigenous studies. Her research has several threads: place-based research, which tends to connect cultural values, history and embodied experience, and perception as a cognitive and interpretive process. As such, this work usually combines creative art practice and writing as complementary meditations. She has long been researching wetlands and collaborates with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, as well as exploring international wetlands in Minnesota, Norway, Sweden and Ireland. She co-convenes PLaCE International research network as well, forging connections. A current suite of paintings, Bog Epiphanies (below), are in preparation for a large exhibition, as a counterpoint to several book chapters and journal articles

Recent research includes a grant to link Irish and Scottish artists and writers (RIA/RSE) for The Rural Reimagined (’21-’22); and a GCRF award to study the Caiçara, Indigenous fishermen of coastal Brazil, which led to a journal article published in the Journal of Cultural Geography (Oct. ’20). Her work continues this trajectory with artwork and publications which examine ‘invisible’ but important elements in perceptions of site-specific places and supports this work with attention to Indigenous knowledge, specific environments, multiple histories, memory and reprised pasts, partially through a process of deep mapping.

At the University of Dundee, she was the Course Director for Art, Philosophy and Contemporary Practices for eight years (2003-2010) during its formative beginning, developing this unique undergraduate course during its first early years through the first five years of graduates. Following this, she designed, coordinated and developed the interdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts in Art & Humanities (for which she was Course Director, from 2012-Sept 2018) the first six years of the course. She also founded the Masters by Research in both Fine Art and Design (2019).

Modeen’s PhD supervision is also characterised by these interdisciplinary studies, linking studio practice with academic investigation. To date, Modeen has 15 completed PhD supervisees, and 9 current doctoral candidates. She has served on 36 PhD examination panels worldwide and advises researchers internationally.

Contact Information

website: https://crab-bee.tumblr.com/
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorhelenbeee/
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helen.bee.98

Current Academic Position

Professor, Chair of Interdisciplinary Art Practice, Duncan of Jordanstone College, University of Dundee

Fellowships / Residencies

2023 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Institute for Advanced Study, Visiting Research Fellow
2019–20 Ilhabela, São Sebastiao, Brazil, on GCRF funded grant award
2018 Casa na Ilhabela Residency, São Sebastiao, Brazil

Professional Status: Honours and Awards

2025 Associate member of the UNESCO Ctr. for Water Policy and Law
2025 Upcoming PhD supervision, Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Chongqing, China
2017 Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching, University of Dundee
2016 DUSA (Dundee Univ. Student Association) Student Led Teaching Award for Inspirational Teaching
2013 Carnegie Trust for Scottish Universities, grant for illustrated publications: Invisible Scotland

Selected Exhibitions – Solo

2024 Bog Epiphanies, The Window Gallery, Perth, Scotland. Paintings
2014 The Absolutely Other, Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery, Edinburgh. Prints, artists’ books and constructed prints. With gallery brochure
2012–13 Ways in Which the World Takes Shape. Solo large permanent installation within the Min No Aya Win Human Services Center, Fond du Lac Reservation of Chippewa Indians, Cloquet, Minnesota, USA
2007 Te Whenua Maori, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand, with acquisitions for the permanent collection (10 July – Aug)

Publications – Books and Book Chapters

2025 Book Chapter: Ecosophy, Geopoetics, and the Desire to Know, in Creative Perspectives on Sustainable Nature-Culture Relationships: Beyond the Anthropocenes. Riina Haanpää, Ullrich Kockel, Máiréad Nic Craith and Katriina Siivonen (Eds). London: Routledge
2022 Book Chapter: Northern Wetlands and Socially–Engaged, Environmental Artists, in Relate North Number 9, Glen Coutts and Timo Jokela (Eds). InSEA Publications, Quinta da Cruz, Viseu, Portugal
2022 Guest editor, Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place and Community, Issue 20, “Rivers as Rivers, Rivers as Meaning,” interdisciplinary research e-journal and publication. March 2022. Open Rivers
2022 Modeen, M. and Biggs, I. Spirit Grounds, review of Michael Hirschbichler’s Spirit Grounds. Vienna: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2021. Site Reading Writing Quarterly
2021 Book: Modeen, M. (Ed), Decolonising Place-based Arts Research. DJCAD, University of Dundee, in association with Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Minnesota, and Te Ipukarea Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology. ISBN 978-1-899837-87-6
2021 Book: Modeen, M. & Biggs, I. Creative Engagements with Ecologies of Place: Geopoetics, Deep-mapping and Slow Residencies. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-54575-8
2019 Book: Modeen, M. (Ed.) Confluence: Tradition in Contemporary Art. Montclair State University, NJ. ISBN 978-0-578-56913-0

Publications – Journal Articles

2020 Modeen, M. Traditional Knowledge of the Sea in a Time of Change: the Caiçaras of Ilhabela, Brazil. Journal of Cultural Geography, Nov 2020
2017 Modeen, M. and Whiting, H. ‘Groups of the manners in Scotland’: David Allan — the Process and Politics of Printmaking. Journal of the Scottish Society of Art Historians, Vol. 22 (2016–17). Nov 2017
2014 Modeen, M. Breaking the Boundaries of ‘Self’: Representations of Spatial Indeterminacy. Architecture and Culture Journal, special issue Transgression: Body and Space, Vol. 2/Issue 3, pp. 335–358