Research

To celebrate the research achievements of our staff across the School we cast a spotlight on a different researcher each month.  See link below:
‌‌Spotlight on Research

The School of English, Media and Creative Arts (SEMCA) is internationally renowned for its research, with the subject areas English and Performing Arts (which includes the disciplines of Drama and Theatre Studies, Film & Digital Media, and Music) both ranked in the QS world top 100 in 2025. SEMCA researchers deploy a diverse range of methods and practices, including collaborative research work that emphasises teamwork across different career stages. Research in the school includes textual, archival, theoretical, historical, philosophical, digital, technological, practice-based, and critical approaches to the analysis of texts, performances, society, and culture. It also includes creative and professional practices such as fiction, poetry, journalism, playwriting, documentary-making, musical composition, music performance, directing, and translation. The School’s diverse research profile includes:

• Histories of Creative Practice
• Textual, Archival, and Critical Analysis
• Theoretical and Critical Analysis
• Theoretical and Philosophical Approaches to Creativity and Culture
• Practice-Based Research
• Irish-language arts and culture
• The Application of Digital Technologies in Arts and Humanities
• Responding to key societal challenges, such as media literacy, digital transformation, AI, social marginalisation and language endangerment.

Research and creative practice emerging from SEMCA has attracted notice at the highest international levels, with three ERC grant awards (RECIRC, 2014-2020; Theatronomics, 2021-2026; STEMMA, 2023-2028), two Booker Prize nominations (in 2017 and 2023), and many national and international research awards for research publications. It is also rooted in local and national contexts, not only through collaborations with major national organisations such as the Abbey Theatre, Irish National Opera, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Druid Theatre, TG4, and the Irish Writers Centre, but also through our commitment to the public good through partnerships and other forms of engagement.

In order to facilitate collaboration and highlight collective strengths in the School, a numbers of cross-disciplinary themes have been identified. Further information on these strands can be found at the following links:

Centre for Creative Arts Research

Cross Cultural Encounters

Digital Humanities

Performance and Cultural Production

Space, Place and Identity

Sport and Exercise Research Group

Textual Cultures

Values and Identities