Artist & Researcher, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Curtin University
Biography
Dr Alexander Boyd is an art historian, environmental historian and artist currently affiliated with Curtin University in Western Australia.
The conservation efforts of the Ministry of Defence were the subject of his PhD thesis (Northumbria University) which also examined depictions of the military pastoral in Scotland. This involved case studies of Europe’s largest bombing range at Cape Wrath in Sutherland, and the site of Depleted Uranium testing in the South West of Scotland. He is currently researching the environmental legacy of contemporary conflicts as seen through the eyes of artists and documentary photographers.
He has published a number of books, the first of which ‘St Kilda – The Silent Islands’ (Luath Press 2019) was shortlisted for a Saltire Award. The second ‘Isle of Rust’ (Luath Press 2020) was a collaboration with cultural critic Jonathan Meades, and Professor Dan Hicks. His third book ‘The Point of the Deliverance’ was released by Kozu Books in 2022.
His photographic work is in national collections in both the UK and the US, including the V&A, the National Galleries of Scotland, and the Yale Museum of British Art.
Selected publications
Boyd, A (2024) Protect the land. Poison the Sea. An environmental history of the Kirkcudbright Training Area and the firing of depleted uranium by the British Army (1982-2013), Sociology Compass, Wiley Press.
Boyd, A (2024) Conserving the North – A history of military environmentalism in Scotland, Sanctuary – The Ministry of Defence Sustainability Journal, Ministry of Defence, UK.
Boyd, A (2023) Trauma and the Scottish Gàidhealtachd – Contemporary artistic responses to the Highland Clearances, Image & Text.
Boyd, A (2023) The Scottish Military Pastoral – Documenting the Defence Estate in Scotland, Studies in Photography, The Scotish Society for the History of Photography, Edinburgh.
Boyd, A (2018) St Kilda – The Silent Islands. Luath Press, Edinburgh.
