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Our research has a particular focus on:

  • applied arts, health and disability
  • arts and conflict transformation
  • areas of contemporary performance practice including Acting, Directing and Theatre for Young Audiences

Publications

Notable publications include:

  • Lisa Fitzpatrick’s (2018) monograph Rape on the Contemporary Stage (Palgrave)
  • Tom Maguire's (2015) monograph Performing Story on the Contemporary Stage (Palgrave)
  • the 2020 anthology Heritage after Conflict, co-edited by Elizabeth Crooke (Heritage and Museum Studies) and Tom Maguire (Routledge)

These sit alongside ongoing research that have resulted in a range of peer-reviewed publications and PaR outputs in Irish Theatre, Applied Theatre and Post-Conflict Societies, Theatre for Young Audiences, Acting, and Theatre and Ritual.

Drama staff contribute to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Creative Cluster, Future Screens NI, and to the AHRC- funded Art for Reconciliation and Museums, Crisis and Covid19 projects.

As researchers, we take a leading role in national and international discipline and subject organisations and networks, including:

  • Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR)
  • International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR)
  • International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network (ITYARN),
  • Theatre and Performance Research Association (TAPRA).

We serve as peer-reviewers for funding bodies, including the AHRC  and National University of Ireland, and for a range of journals and publishers.

PhD research

Drama has a thriving postgraduate research community, offering PhD supervision within the discipline, and on cross-disciplinary projects linking Drama to Cinematic Arts, Fine Art, Museum and Heritage Studies, Nursing, and the University’s International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), for example.

Current and recent doctoral projects supervised in Drama include:

  • Interactive online dramaturgy / Digital Storytelling and Border Areas;
  • Applied drama and person-centred nursing
  • Applied Drama in social-work training
  • Film-making and suicide prevention
  • The Arts and Public Health
  • Gender-based violence and cross-casting in Shakespeare’s comedies
  • Women’s Experimental Film Practice
  • Arts and End of Life Care
  • The role of arts funding agencies in the NI peace process
  • Liminal space on the contemporary Northern Irish stage