Our research has a particular focus on:
- arts and conflict transformation
- areas of contemporary performance practice including Acting, Directing and Theatre for Young Audiences
- applied arts (including disability arts)
News (2023/24)
Lisa Fitzpatrick's co-edited anthology (with Shonagh Hill), Plays by Women in Ireland (1926-33): Feminist Theatres of Freedom and Resistance, has been reviewed in the latest issue of Theatre Research International: 'This anthology is a major contribution to the field in that it showcases the diversity and richness of works by early twentieth-century Irish women playwrights in an informed manner.'
Publications
Notable publications include:
- Lisa Fitzpatrick’s (2018) monograph Rape on the Contemporary Stage (Palgrave) and co-edited volume Plays by Women in Ireland (1926-33): Feminist Theatres of Freedom and Resistance (2022)
- 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.
Staff research interests
Dr Giuliano Campo
- Grotowski
- Ritual theatre
- Actor training (incl. practice-as-research)
Dr Lisa Fitzpatrick
- Gender and violence in performance
- Post-conflict arts
- Irish (incl. Northern Irish) Theatre
Dr Jen Goddard
- Applied theatre
- Participatory practices
- Gender and violence in performance (practice-as-research)
Prof. Tom Maguire (Head of School: Arts and Humanities)
- Theatre for Young Audiences
- Irish (incl. Northern Irish) Theatre
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