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:

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.

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.

Supervisor: Prof. Laura Rascaroli

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. 

Supervisor: Dr Barry Monahan

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.