film phd programs ireland

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Postgraduate Study

In the School of English Drama and Film, we offer both taught and research graduate programmes in Gender, Culture & Sexuality; Creative Writing; Drama and Performance; and Film and Media Studies at MA, MLitt, and PhD levels. The School of English Drama and Film is based in the University’s main campus, located just a few kilometres from the city centre, a UNESCO ‘City of Literature’, with all its cultural attractions, including the National Library, the Irish Film Institute, and renowned theatres like The Abbey, The Gate, and many more. Dublin itself is an extremely well connected transport hub, and offers a very good base for exploring Ireland more generally.

Masters Programmes

Our graduate programmes offer both a challenging and a rewarding introduction to advanced study. Our Masters programmes involve seminars, workshops, presentations, rehearsed readings, laboratory sessions, theatre visits, critical appraisals, and regular feedback from peers and members of staff during taught modules. The highlight for our students, however, is almost always the dissertation. This offers an exciting opportunity to pursue a significant, independent and original body of research under the watchful supervision of a member of the School's academic staff. The School of English, Drama and Film is a research-intensive department, and has a breadth of expertise to offer. The active research culture nurtures and encourages the next generation of scholars to push back the frontiers of understanding, to seek out new evidence, and to challenge accepted interpretations. Some of our more recent graduates have gone on to positions in areas as diverse as film production, journalism, teaching and management. Click the link of interest at the right for more information on individual MA programmes.

MLitt Programmes

An MLitt is a master's-level research degree based primarily on an independent research project, usually proposed and developed by the student, and carried out under the guidance of a supervisor and a research studies panel. In the case of the MLitt, or the research master's, the student will produce a thesis of 40,000- 60,000 words. For more information please visit our PhD and MLitt Research Programmes page .

PhD Programmes

Our structured PhD programme supports high-level independent research beyond the MA level in all English, Drama and Film subject areas. 

Potential PhD researchers wishing to start in the Autumn trimester are encouraged to submit their completed online application before the 1st of July at the latest. Those applying for January start need to submit before the 15th October. For a May start, applications must be completed and submitted by the 1st of March.

For more information on PhDs, click here or contact the School's Graduate Administrator at  (opens in a new window) [email protected] . 

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Postgraduate Research

PhD research represents an integral and important part of the activities of the Huston School of Film & Digital Media within the School of English and Creative Arts [SECA].

Two doctoral degrees are offered: the PhD in Film Studies   and the   PhD in Film Studies (Creative Practice). While the PhD in Film Studies is mostly focused on the writing of a major dissertation (approx. 70,00-80,000 words) t he PhD in Film Studies (Creative Practice) has two components: practical and critical, combining research through practice with a written dissertation of approx. 40,000 words.

All incoming PhD students normally register for a  Structured PhD   which offers students a programme of supportive and developmental modules. All students are supervised by a supervisory team, or have a sole supervisor and a PhD advisor. The Structured PhD Programme requires successful completion and examination of the research thesis and 30 ECTS of modules, approved by the student’s Graduate Research Committee (GRC).

PhD research can be taken on a   Full Time   [4 yrs] or   Part Time   [6 yrs] basis.

Academic   Staff   at Huston School of Film & Digital Media are research-active and internationally renowned across a range of themes and areas. We are interested in all aspects of film and digital media but especially encourage applications in the flowing areas:

Digital media arts; film and philosophy; texts and contexts of Irish audio-visual production; media constructions of gender on screen(s) [especially maternity; masculinities]; sport, culture and society; representations of ageing on screen; Hollywood and European cinemas

For more about individual staff research interests, please visit the   staff profiles.

Funded Research Projects

Creative Europe Funded Project: The Film Corner

https://www.filmschool.ie/filmschool/thefilmcorner/

Application Procedure

The minimum qualification necessary to be considered for admission to the PhD programme is a high honours primary degree. It is more usual, however, for successful applicants to have already gained a Master's degree (in Film Studies or a cognate discipline). Applications can be made at any time of year; however, the closing date for application is normally June 15.

Before applying, we strongly urge prospective applicants to complete a preliminary proposal and/or discuss their plans with the Director of Post Graduate Studies at Huston: Dr Tony Tracy [email protected]

Further information on our PhD programmes [including funding]

http://www.universityofgalway.ie/courses/research-postgraduate-programmes/phd-and-masters/film-studies.html#course_overview

Current PhD research students/topics include:

Mairead Casey. Project: Playing Devil's Advocate: Cultural Expressions of Gender, Sexuality, and Sexual Violence in Possession and Exorcism Narratives of 21st Century American Horror

Kerry Kelly. Project: Slasher Icons and Digital Fandom : An Auto-Ethnographic Approach

Tianxiang [Jimmy] Wang. Project: Representing Urban Space in Contemporary Chinese Cinema: Space, Power, and Politics

Martin Jones. Project: Global Genres and Cinemas of Small Nations

Previous PhD students/theses include:

Temmuz Sureyya Gurbuz [2021], Punk Aesthetics in Cinema: The Intersections of Punk Movements, Queer Histories and Subcultural Filmmaking

Phillina Sun [2019] The Utopics of Improvement: Visual representations of Eighteenth-Century Irish demesnes

Cormac McGarry [2019], Comic books in the Digital age: Understanding Technological Co-Existence through Post-Medium Specificity

Barry Nevin [2016], Framing Open Space-Time in the Films of Jean Renoir: Society, Ideology, Technology

Patricia Prieto Blanco [2016], Transnational (dis)affect in the digital age: photographic practices of Irish-Spanish families living in Ireland

Nora Duggan [2013], Between realities: investigating temporal relations between stillness and movement in contemporary artists' lens-based imagery [practice-based]

Giacomo (Jack) Boitani [2012], Comedy, Italian style: an evolution of Italian neorealism

Liam Burke [2010], Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring Modern Hollywood’s Leading Genre

Sarah Arnold [2009], Motherhood in late Twentieth Century Horror Film

The Huston School offers two Doctoral programmes: a traditional, thesis-only programme and a practice-based programme. Students will normally register in the College of Arts Structured PhD Programme. For further details on this programme see  http://www.universityofgalway.ie/colleges-and-schools/arts-social-sciences-and-celtic-studies/phd-research-degrees/structured-phd / or contact  Dr Tony Tracy [email protected] .

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

The minimum qualification necessary to be considered for admission to the PhD programme is a high honours primary degree. It is more usual, however, for successful applicants to have already gained a Master's degree. Applications can be made at any time of year; however, the closing date for application is normally June 15.

Applications are made online via the CRM portal  https://universityofgalway.elluciancrmrecruit.com/Apply/Account/Login

In addition to your online application, you must submit in hardcopy a sample of academic writing (e.g. a recent BA or MA course essay) and a 1500-word research proposal. This proposal must be structured under the following headings:

1. Description of proposed research (800 words) This section should describe clearly the subject and scope of your research. You should indicate the critical problems or questions you propose to investigate.

2. Critical context (350 words) This section should describe, as far as you can tell, the extent of the scholarly work already done on your topic. You should be able to explain how your research will challenge or extend this existing knowledge.

3. Methodology (250 words) Here you should describe the research methodologies you will employ, and explain why you have chosen them (e.g. semiotic analysis, feminist analysis, genre study, practice-based, etc.)

4. Sources and archives (100 words) Give a preliminary indication of the primary and secondary material you expect to examine, and how much of the material may be found at NUI Galway. You will be able to avail of inter-library loans and will be eligible to apply for some travel funding during the course of your research .

Applications are first reviewed by the Huston School. If your application is approved by the Huston School it is then recommended to a relevant department of the Arts Faculty, who also assess the application. The success of your application will depend on a number of factors: the quality and viability of the proposal; your qualifications and achievements to date; the reports of two referees; and the availability of appropriate supervision.

PROGRAMMES OF ENQUIRY

The Huston welcomes applications from a wide range of research areas. For details on the research interests of staff members at the Huston please go to the staff page on this site.

SUPERVISION

Supervision is undertaken by a supervisory committee, including staff members of the Huston School and other departments and centres at University of Galway, as appropriate. Prior agreement by a member of staff to mentor a new student is an important consideration in acceptance of students into the PhD programme.

By the time of graduation, students should also demonstrate a mastery of knowledge-based and research-based competencies appropriate to their specialisation. Completion of a PhD dissertation demonstrates that the student has learned investigative and critical techniques, has made a contribution to knowledge, and has developed skills that will prove useful in assuming a professional role.

AWARD OF PHD

The PhD is awarded by the University of Galway within the regulations and terms for the PhD degree and subject to the guidelines and protocols of the University, as published in the General Calendar of the University, and other sources as may be in place from time to time.

Useful links

FAQ for Postgraduates http://www.universityofgalway.ie/admission/postgrad/faq.html Guidelines on Thesis Submission http://www.universityofgalway.ie/exams/thesis/phd_entry_eng.html Structured PhD Programme details https://www.universityofgalway.ie/colleges-and-schools/arts-social-sciences-and-celtic-studies/phd-research-degrees/structured-phd/

Undergraduate Prospectus 2025 PDF (12.4MB)

Postgraduate Prospectus 2025 PDF (3.3MB)

Quick Guide to Courses 2025 PDF (362KB)

Study Arts - Our Programmes PDF (2.9MB)

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Welcome to the Discipline of Film

A warm welcome to the Discipline of Film, School of Creative Arts, Trinity College Dublin. The academic study of film in Trinity combines elements of literary, cultural, historical and sociological studies with a practical understanding of various creative art practices.

Film @ Trinity

In 2003, Trinity pioneered the Republic’s first specialist undergraduate course leading to an honours degree, in combination with another Arts subject. Since then, Film at Trinity has gone from strength to strength, enhancing and expanding its comprehensive curriculum, ensuring that students are given the opportunity to become fully immersed in the history, theory and practice of film and digital media.

The four years of the undergraduate programme allow students to sample a wide range of cinemas and to explore the intellectual currents that flow in and around them. In their first two years, students take core modules in film history and theory, American, European and World cinemas, and digital media, as well as introductory modules in screenwriting and digital video production.

Elective modules in the sophister years allow students to develop their interests in specialised topics and filmmaking techniques. Small class sizes ensure that students have the opportunity to discuss topics in depth in seminars and to become fully involved in practice-based projects. For their final year capstone project, students can opt to write a conventional dissertation or choose a dissertation with practice. This might be a screenplay or video essay, submitted with accompanying critical reflection.

Film @ Trinity enjoys an international reputation for research into Irish cinema and the cinemas of the Irish diaspora, as well as for its work in the field of film theory, film history, post-cinema studies and critically informed creative practice. Facilities include a screening room, film-making equipment and a digital video production room.

Industry Advisory Panel

In order to develop industry links with Film @ Trinity, key members of film and television ecologies have been enlisted to advise students on career planning. In conjunction with the panel, networking events and individual talks and workshops will be organised annually. Many of our panel members are Trinity graduates and we are delighted to welcome them back as programme advisers.

Industry Advisory Panel Members

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UCC University College Cork

Department of film and screen media scannánaíocht agus meáin scáileán.

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Film and Screen Media offers a full suite of highly regarded graduate degrees: taught MA , MRes , and two PhD programmes – the PhD in Film and Screen Media and the PhD in Film and Screen Media (Creative Practice). The Department hosts a thriving graduate studies community: our students are exposed to a rich and stimulating research environment and to a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary opportunities including conferences, research seminars and master classes with artists and professionals.

Our doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers avail of many opportunities to develop both discipline-specific and transferable skills. Working with leading academics in their areas of expertise, they are trained in editorial skills through their membership of the board of Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media . They can become active members of FOCUS: Forum on Film and Screen Media Theories , which coordinates regular theory reading sessions, organizes research events, and creates opportunities for interdisciplinary and intercultural debate.They also regularly participate in conference and event organisation, and avail of our state-of-the-art facilities for the teaching and learning of film – including a digital cinema and two editing labs fully equipped with the latest versions of industry-standard software tools.

Our graduate students and postdoctoral researchers have been repeatedly successful in securing highly competitive funding including Government of Ireland awards. You can read more about our current students and researchers below:

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Sandra costello.

Originally from Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, Sandra Costello is a PhD candidate and IRC Scholar in Film & Screen Media at University College Cork. She graduated with a BA International in English and Italian at NUI, Galway in 2010 and went on to complete a Professional Diploma in Education at UCC in 2012. After this, she undertook an MA in Film Studies at UCC where she completed a thesis titled Ireland Interrupted: Repressive and Ideological Institutionalisation in Contemporary Irish Cinema under the supervision of Dr Barry Monahan. Costello’s research interests include Irish Cinema, representations of institutions, cultural memory, sociology, women in film, Marxist theory, cinematic soundscapes and visual studies. She is a member of FOCUS: Forum on Film and Screen Media Theories , a permanent forum for researchers in the Department of Film & Screen Media at UCC.

Supervisor: Dr Barry Monahan     Advisor: Dr Ciara Chambers

Title of PhD thesis:   Institutional Acts of Watching in Irish Cinema: Surveillance, Power and the Camera

Summary: The aim of this research is to analyse acts of watching between and within Irish institutional environments and to investigate how latent power systems of watching and surveillance might be manifestly exposed by televisual and cinematic representation. Significantly, cinematic and television apparatuses are primary institutions that observe other institutions and so may usefully foreground the watching of watching. This study is based on several case studies of Irish Cinema and television since 1981 and the foundation of the first Irish Film Board.

Tadhg Dennehy

Tadhg Dennehy i s a PhD candidate with the Department of Film & Screen Media, University College Cork, where he also teaches. In 2019 he earned an MA in Creative Documentary from the Edinburgh College of Art (University of Edinburgh). Tadhg has also produced and directed several short documentary films which have screened at film festivals in Ireland and the United Kingdom. His research and teaching interests include Irish national cinema, historical cinema, and the representation of Ireland in British cinema.  

Supervisor:  Dr. Barry Monahan    Advisor : Dr Ciara Chambers  

Title of PhD Thesis: Filmmaking as Resistance: The Northern Irish Conflict and The Workshop Declaration  

Summary:  The Workshop Declaration — a UK initiative established in March 1982 and disbanded in 1990 — sought to democratise filmmaking practices and amplify the voices of communities marginalised due to class, race, gender, and sexuality. This was done through the practical and financial support of regionally based film and video workshops across Britain and Northern Ireland. Films produced under this model in Northern Ireland, and those adjacent, are some of the only examples of cinematic expression from within the community during the conflict, liberated from external influence, promoting equality diversity and inclusion.  This movement was driven by feminist, Marxist, and anti-imperialist filmmakers who, alongside their cinematic output, engaged in various forms of community cultural education. This research project is an exploration of the construction of Northern Ireland and the “Troubles” in these films. But it is not just that.It will highlight how the workshops contested established modes of representation, emphasising negotiations of activism, political advocacy, and even autonomous self-narration, within the wider discursive economies of Northern Irish history. This research is concerned with a silenced cinematic movement, one that subverted dominant narratives and that tested the limits of hegemonic modes of representation of Northern Ireland. This is cinema that realises the epistemological limitations of our “ability to know [the] past, since we are both spectators of and actors in the historical process” (Hutcheon 1988:122). The Northern Irish workshop films, despite their historical demotion, embody a highly significant counter-hegemonic moment of activism in the broader representation of Northern Ireland on film.

Rachel Gough

Rachel Gough is a writer, filmmaker and PhD candidate at the Department of Film and Screen Media at University College Cork. Her research focuses on representations of rural Ireland’s ecologies. She is co-founder of Haunted Futures , an interdisciplinary research network which hosts annual conferences and proposes to create a platform for rigorous intellectual debate and discussion within the thematic framework of Hauntology. She is project manager for the SoundMind project, which aims to investigate novel, non-invasive methods of neuro-modulation and Augmented Audio Reality (AAR) for those suffering mild cognitive impairment and dementia. She is a researcher with UCC’s School of Nursing and Midwifery exploring the impact of film on the likelihood of choosing nursing or midwifery as a career.

Supervisor: Dr. Barry Monahan

Title of PhD Thesis:  A Humble Scene in a Backward Place: Representing Rural Ireland’s Ecologies

Summary: This project examines representations of rural Ireland’s ecologies across film, television, video games, advertising, art and literature. This thesis proposes that Ireland’s relationship withers rural ecologies is problematically informed by a legacy of colonialism and a neocolonial hegemony. The evidence of this is best disclosed in visualised representations of the same landscapes. Rachel’s other research interests include folklore and folk horror, hauntology, representations of the Medieval period, fantasy literature and media and video games.

Bob Jackson

Bob Jackson is a PhD candidate in Film and Screen Media (Creative Practice) at University College Cork. He first graduated with a BA in Arts at UCC in 1999, before going on to complete an MA in Music Technology at the University of Limerick.

A full-time lecturer in creative media at the Munster Technological University (formerly IT Tralee) since 2006, Bob was nominated for an IFTA (Irish Film & Television Award) for his first feature film,  A Doctor’s Sword , which was released in Irish cinemas in 2015. This documentary has been broadcast in Ireland, Australia and throughout Asia, and has featured at film festivals in Ireland and abroad.

In August 2016, The Collins Press published his first book, also titled  A Doctor’s Sword  and based on the same story as the documentary.

Supervisor:  Dr Ciara Chambers        Advisor:  Dr Barry Monahan

Title of PhD thesis:  Based on a True Story: Cinematic Approaches to the Past

Summary: The aim of this research is to investigate the conflict which arises between the demands of storytelling on screen, and what is known about the events depicted based on traditional historical sources. This research uses the process of creating a dramatic production as a case study, with the intention of developing a methodology which helps filmmakers to engage with the past on a deeper, more meaningful level. 

Daniel O’Connell

Daniel O’Connell  is Practitioner in Residence in the Department of Film and Screen Media at University College Cork. He has earned an MRes in Film and Screen Media, with a thesis titled  Body Horror Revisted: A New Wave of Body Horror Films Directed by Women  under the supervision of Dr Gwenda Young. He has recently collaborated with Dr Gwenda Young on a Creative Ireland/UCC funded project titled “Movie Memories”, which explored memories of cinemagoers in rural areas of Cork, Ireland. He has over twenty years of experience as a creative practitioner and is an award-winning filmmaker of short and feature length films and documentaries, which have been screened at film festivals both locally and internationally. He is a Director at SUPEREGO, a high-quality video production company with large multinational clients and a founding member of  egomotion.net , an online filmmaking hub with over four hundred members, where filmmakers can share knowledge and resources and participate in each other's projects. Egomotion has also hosted various screenings, workshops and meet-and-greets in order to promote local filmmaking talent.

Supervisor:  Dr Gwenda Young     Advisor:  Dr Ciara Chambers

Title of PhD thesis:   New Social Experiences of Irish Film Exhibition: The Changing Shape of Film Exhibition in Ireland From 2010 to the Present Day.

Summary:  The central purpose of the thesis is to examine the efforts being made to lure audiences back to the cinema in Ireland since 2010, and to explore whether alternative film exhibition practices provide fruitful avenues for audiences to return to more social and visceral cinema-going experiences. The proposed project combines theoretical and historical analysis with a creative practice portfolio, comprising of four short documentaries on a number of exhibition experiences. 

Kasandra O’Connell

Kasandra O’Connell  is an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholar, a UCC CACSSS Excellence Scholar and a PhD candidate in Film & Screen Media at University College Cork. She previously completed a M.A. in Museum Studies at Leicester University, a Higher Diploma in Archival Science at University College Dublin, and has both a diploma in Visual Education from Crawford College of Art and Design and a Bachelor of Design degree from National College of Art and Design. She is part of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) teaching faculty and has presented at multiple FIAF conferences.  She has written about digital preservation and moving image archiving for a number of publications including  Film Ireland , Alphaville, History Ireland ,  Journal of the Society of Archivists  and the  International Journal of Film Preservation  and is a member of the editorial board of  The Moving Image Journal . She contributes regularly to international discourse about film archiving via a variety of media and currently writes monthly article for RTE Culture. She has been Head of the IFI Irish Film institute since 2000.

Her research interests include amateur filmmaking, women filmmakers, Irish film, digital preservation, cultural policy and audio-visual archiving.

Supervisor:  Dr. Ciara Chambers     Advisor:  Dr. Abigail Keating

Title of PhD thesis:  Out of Focus: The History of Development of Film Preservation in Ireland

Summary: Out of Focus- The purpose of this research is to examine the history and development of policy and practice in the field of moving image preservation in an Irish context, particularly comparing it to the position of film preservation in other western countries. It will look at the political, historical and cultural factors that have shaped Ireland’s attitude to moving image preservation and try to identify the reasons that Ireland has not put in place comprehensive legislative and practical mechanisms to safeguard this material, particularly in contrast to measures taken to secure other cultural collections. It will place Ireland within the context of the broader film preservation landscape (looking specifically at Europe and America). It will look at the development of moving image archiving within the State since the advent of film in the 1890s, and explore the State’s attitude to film preservation, especially in contrast to the preservation afforded to other cultural collections. It will examine  the reasons why it is important to afford our moving image collections the same safeguards as other national collections and  will identify what legislative and practical measures exist to support film archiving.

Kane Geary O’Keeffe

Kane Geary O’ Keeffe is a PhD researcher in Film and Screen Media at University College Cork. They graduated with a BA in Film and Screen Media from UCC in 2021. In 2023 they received their M.Phil. in Film: Theory, History, and Practice from Trinity College Dublin. Their research explores the intersections between horror studies in film and video games with studies in gender, online cultures, and technology.

Supervisor: Dr. Abigail Keating      Advisor: Dr. Ciara Chambers

Title of PhD Thesis: Framing Diegetic Screen Technologies in Post-Covid Horror Cinema.

Summary: Throughout the past four years an increasing number of horror films have been released that present their stories through frames of networked and analogue technologies. These films, including Rob Savage’s Host and Dashcam , Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re all Going to the World’s Fair , and the recent revival of the V/H/S anthology series all present their stories through screen forms such as Zoom, YouTube, live stream technologies, and VHS. By presenting their tales of horror in this fashion, these films are forming a concrete cultural response to the uptake in screen anxieties experienced worldwide by populations who were suddenly forced to move their work and social lives onto screens during the pandemic. This thesis interrogates the ways and means in which these horror films are presenting and articulating the cultural anxieties and technological fears that have increased since the outbreak of the pandemic and continued to persist in the years since. My study examines several case study films, all of which engage with a post-pandemic cultural context and present their narrative through a networked or analogue screen technology. My argument is that these horror films and their representations of screen technologies act as a key to understanding the larger fears surrounding screen technologies and their capacity for spreading and embodying cultural anxieties during times of heightened global crises.

Rory O’Sullivan

Rory O’Sullivan   is a PhD candidate in Film and Screen Media (Creative Practice) at University College Cork. After studying Architecture in London, Rory worked in production design for major film studios in the UK and Ireland. He completed the MA in Film and Screen Media (Creative Practice) at UCC in 2020, in which he pursued his interest in contemporary screen media culture  by investigating themes around authenticity, behaviours and ethics.

Supervisor: Dr Abigail Keating       Co-Supervisor:  Dr Ciara Chambers

Title of PhD thesis: Too Much Information: Screen Media, Anxiety and Control

Summary: My research aims to examine the exchange, manipulation and projection of information in screen media culture leading to investigations into the repercussions to psychological, behavioural and societal conventions. The information explosion that began in the late twentieth century has led to a time of overwhelming access to, and interaction with information through individualised digital media and technologies. As we attempt to derive understanding and meaning from our dynamic, digitally augmented lives, existential issues of anxiety and control manifest. Investigations into the concepts and themes of storytelling, archetypes and pattern recognition will ground this research in an effort to frame the paradigms that humanity employs to sustain in an ever-increasingly chaotic and fractal mediated environment. The opportunity to explore and demonstrate this research through audiovisual intervention is paramount to realising the full rigour and potency of the outcomes and output. The employment of carefully curated multimedia material and experimental production methods will encourage an urgent and innovative dialogue with the viewer and invite much needed, fresh perspectives on the core issues related to this research into contemporary screen media culture.

Ellen Scally

Ellen Scally is an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholar and a PhD candidate in Film & Screen Media at University College Cork. She previously completed a BA in Film & Screen Media with English at UCC in 2016, followed by an MA in Film & Screen Media at UCC in 2017. Her MA thesis was entitled Hidden Spaces: Excavating Histories in the BBC’s Super 8 Stories and on Northern Ireland’s Digital Film Archive and was completed under the supervision of Dr. Ciara Chambers. Her research interests include amateur cinema, Irish screen history, and the audio-visual archive.

Supervisor: Dr. Ciara Chambers      Advisor: Dr. Abigail Keating

Title of PhD thesis: Cine-film Across Borders: The History and Legacy of Amateur Film Production in Ireland

Summary: This project is addressing a gap in scholarly research into the historical and cultural significance of amateur filmmaking and amateur cinema culture in Ireland. Through close analysis of film and archival materials, and the use of personal interviews with filmmakers, archivists and amateur film enthusiasts, this project aims to assess and contextualise the role of amateur filmmaking as it related to social, cultural, and political life in Ireland from 1900 – 1980.

RECENTLY GRADUATED

Humberto saldanha.

Humberto Saldanha  is an Irish Research Council (IRC) Postgraduate Scholar and a PhD candidate in Film and Screen Media at University College Cork, where he is developing a study of the cosmopolitan aspect of contemporary Brazilian cinema. He completed a BA in Communication Studies and an MRes in Communication and Contemporary Culture at Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Brazil. His research interests include world cinemas, cosmopolitanism, cinema and the (post)nation, Brazilian cinema, film festivals and sites of film circulation and distribution. He is a member of the editorial board of  Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media , for which he recently co-edited a special issue on cosmopolitanism and cinema.

Supervisor:  Prof. Laura Rascaroli

Title of PhD thesis:  The Cosmopolitanism of Contemporary Global Cinema: Strategies of Internationalisation in Brazilian Cinema Today

Summary:  My research aims to understand the processes of internationalisation of contemporary cinemas outside Hollywood, and their development of distinctive patterns of style and national representation appealing to non-domestic audiences, within a conflicted context of transnational encounters, consumption of ethnicity and hostility to the different other. The aims will be achieved by adopting cosmopolitanism as a methodological framework and by studying the circulation of recent Brazilian productions at international arenas of film appreciation and consumption. Understanding cosmopolitanism as an approach that implies an aesthetic openness to foreign cultures, it will be possible to investigate how Brazilian cinema negotiates its otherness and cultural difference as a manner to engage with foreign audiences.

James Mulvey

James Mulvey  is a PhD candidate in Film and Screen Media at the University College Cork. He is the Reviews Editor for Alphaville Journal of Film and Screen Media and the English Language Editor for Cinergie Journal . He is a member of the editorial board of  Alphaville . James has been selected as the Early Careers Researcher representative for the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) in the division of film studies. He has presented his research nationally and internationally, as well as writing on film in CinEireann and Alphaville . James is passionate about public engagement with cinema and frequently organises cultural events such as panel discussions and Q&A’s with filmmakers. He has taught film studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in UCC. James is the features and documentary programmer for IndieCork film festival, with an emphasis on fostering independent, essayistic and art cinema, where he focuses on developing links between the academic and filmic communities. His research interests include portrait and the essay film.

Title of PhD thesis:  Art Cinema in the Age of Globalisation: Locating an Aesthetic of Violence

Summary:  Located within the field of contemporary art cinema and adopting a film-philosophy methodology, my research proffers a new methodological understanding of the modified position of art cinema today, by identifying the violent impact globalisation is having on “being in the world”, and rescuing art cinema from recent accusations of elitism and irrelevancy. Applying conceptual tools developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, my research explores the commonality found in the images of art cinema — the violence impressed upon people and communities by governing institutions. My approach offers a renewed and sustainable perspective for critical analysis for a global art cinema, rescuing it from current methodological limitations, which culturally disempower art cinema as highbrow or inaccessible. Finally, this film-philosophical study of violence forces new broader disciplinary questions and, consequently, engages with already-embedded questions in the areas of genre and identity politics.

Nicholas O’Riordan

Originally from Dungarvan, Co. Waterford,  Nicholas O’Riordan  graduated with a BA in English and Geography in University College Cork in 2010, he went on to complete an MA in Film Studies at UCC where he completed a thesis titled  Dublin’s Fair City?: Representations of Dublin City in Contemporary Irish Film  under the supervision of Dr Barry Monahan. O’Riordan’s research interests include Irish cinema, national cinemas, film theory, socio-linguistics and representations of group identity in film. His writing has featured in  Film Ireland  and in the edited collection  Ireland and Cinema: Culture and Contexts  (2015). He has co-organised international film conferences and co-edited for  Alphaville Journal of Film and Screen Media.  He also works as a filmmaker.

Supervisor:  Dr Barry Monahan

Title of PhD thesis:  Inflections and Representations of Accents in Irish Cinema

Summary:  Against a history of politicisation of the Irish language, and the more recent politicisation of Irish accents in contemporary culture, this thesis questions the representations and receptions of Irish accents in recent cinema. Focusing on a range of contemporary Irish films, this thesis examines the ‘mis-representation’ of Irish accents on screen, as well as the position of accent as a marker of identity against a backdrop of Celtic Tiger/Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.

Michael Holly

Michael Holly is an Irish Research Council funded PhD candidate in Film and Screen Media at University College Cork, where he is developing a practice-based study on participatory documentary filmmaking. Michael has exhibited widely as a video, sound and installation artist, in parafictional and documentary investigations into cultural, national and local identities. His research interests focus on the intersection of contemporary art and non-fiction film and new technologies and strategies in participatory filmmaking.

Supervisor:  Prof. Laura Rascaroli

Title of PhD Thesis:  Performative Feedback Filmmaking: Participatory Documentary and Creative Self-Representation in the Community 

Summary: My project has two aims: to redefine the established parameters of participatory nonfiction filmmaking by developing and implementing a novel method of feedback using creative video installation; and to determine the effectiveness of this new method as a tool for development and empowerment within a community setting. Composed of a written dissertation and a major creative project, my research will achieve these aims by adopting an interdisciplinary, practice-based approach to the introduction, testing and analysis of a new methodology which I propose to call Performative Feedback Filmmaking: the production of a documentary-style video installation in participation with a community over an extended period of time.

Loretta Goff

Loretta Goff  is an Irish Research Council PhD candidate in Film and Screen Media at the University College Cork, where she also teaches. Her work has featured in  Persona Studies ,  The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies ,  Estudios Irlandeses , and  Film Ireland . She is a member of  Alphaville ’s Editorial Board and current Editor-in-Chief of  Aigne . Goff has organised a number of national and international conferences in the areas of Film, Literature and Irish Studies at University College Cork, and is currently working on a book project examining paradigm changes and emerging practices in the film industry. Her research interests principally focus on film and identity, genre, stardom and contemporary representations of Irish America. 

Title of PhD thesis:  Hyphenating Ireland and America: Examining the Construction of Contemporary Hybrid Identities in Film and Screen Media 

Summary:  My thesis interrogates the role of the hyphen in the contemporary (1990–) Irish-American identity and the relationship between Ireland and America across three areas: stardom, production and genre film. I use the performance spaces of film and screen media as platforms on which to lay bare the protean and constructed nature of identity, and to show that hyphenation is an on-going and elemental manifestation of this process. I argue that the hyphen in the Irish-American identity can act as a reference point for the problematic construction of identity generally, and expose the ideology and controlled mediation core to its formation. To do this, I examine the flexible use-value of Irish-American identity as performed by celebrities and apply the concept of hyphenated identity to film by looking at Ireland as an American location, the role of film tourism, and how instances of cultural blending in the production of Irish film (i.e. American co-production, stars, and marketing) often result in films being placed in a contested space outside of what is considered ‘pure’ national cinema. Finally, I demonstrate how key signifiers in the Irish and American relationship are used within genre conventions to conservatively suggest that the rejection of one cultural identity is necessary to take up another.

Department of Film and Screen Media

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