David Crowley is Head of the School of Visual Culture at NCAD. Prior to joining the college, he was a professor in the School of Humanities at the Royal College of Art, London.

Crowley is a cultural historian of Eastern Europe under communist rule. His authored books include National Style and Nation-State. Design in Poland (1992) and Warsaw (2003) and he is the editor – with Susan Reid – of three landmark volumes: Socialism and Style. Material Culture in Post-war Eastern Europe (2000); Socialist Spaces. Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc (2003); and Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc (2010). His book, Ultra Sounds. The Sonic Art of Polish Radio Experimental Studio was published in 2019.

He also has a long-standing interest in visual culture and particularly graphic design, writing a book on the subject with Paul Jobling entitled Graphic Design. Representation and Reproduction since 1800 (1996). He is on the editorial board of Eye magazine and in summer 2016 he was invited to curate the Warsaw International Poster Biennale exhibition, The Poster Remediated.

As a curator, Crowley’s other major exhibitions include Cold War Modern at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2008–9 (co-curated with Jane Pavitt); The Power of Fantasy. Modern and Contemporary Art from Poland at BOZAR, Brussels, 2011; Sounding the Body Electric. Experimental Art and Music in Eastern Europe at Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, 2012 and Calvert 22, London, 2013 (co-curated with Daniel Muzyczuk). Notes from the Underground. Alternative Art and Music in Eastern Europe 1968-1994, continues his interest in the intersections of music and visual art. First mounted in Łódź, Poland, in autumn 2016, the show opened in Berlin in spring 2018 (also co-curated with Daniel Muzyczuk).