Ken Neil is an academic, writer and lecturer, and Head of the Forum for Critical Inquiry, a research-led academic unit which provides courses, programmes and supervision in critical, historical and cultural studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Ken studied painting and the history and philosophy of art at Edinburgh University as an undergraduate, before achieving an MFA in Painting from Edinburgh College of Art in 1995. He completed a PhD in art theory in 2003, on American Photorealism, while teaching Humanities and History of Art at ECA and the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. From 1999 he was lecturer in Contextual and Critical Studies at Gray's School of Art, taking on the Headship of Fine Art and Fine Art Critical Studies in 2002. In 2005 he led a new MFA in Critical Social Art Practice for Gray's before being appointed Head of Historical and Critical Studies at The Glasgow School of Art in 2006. Since joining GSA he has been a Sector Lead for creative and cultural practice disciplines for the Scottish Enhancement Theme 'Research-Teaching Linkages' and has served on the AHRC Fellowships Review Panel. Ken is on the Editorial Board of the journal 'Art & Research' and is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Neil's research and supervisory interests relate to three fields: contemporary art and art theory; issues of access and tradition in creative education; and theories of the real and the everyday in contemporary art. He has published widely on these areas, select recent and forthcoming publications and papers include: 'Realism, Reification, Pragmatism', in Representing the Everyday in American Visual Culture, John Fagg and Mark Rawlinson (eds.), Liverpool: LUP, in press; 'Mapping the Future: Public Art in Scotland', The Drouth, Issue 41, Winter 2011/12; 'Accessing and Decoding Communities of Cultural Capital' with Eileen Reid, in Inclusive Practices, Inclusive Pedagogies, Dipti Bhagat and Peter O'Neill (eds), London: UKADIA, 2011; 'The Ethics of Public Art' with Tracy Mackenna at, 'The Ethics of Encounter', Stills Gallery/University of Edinburgh, 2011; 'The Accursed Blessing of Process' at 'Beyond the Academy: Research As Exhibition', Tate Gallery, London 2010; and, 'The Rules of Collective Art' with Robin Baillie, AAH Conference Session, 2010.

Currently Neil serves as Director of Studies to four doctoral projects related to: art in the environment; new forms of cooperative educational practices; new media art & interstitial spaces; and strategies of exodus in contemporary art practice.