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.

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. 

Joe Huber

Joe Huber is a PhD candidate at the Department of Film and Screen Media at University College Cork. He earned a BA in English, Drama and Film from University College Dublin in 2023, followed by a MA in Film and Screen media at UCC. He has previously worked on film festival programming, particularly for the German short film festival FiSH. His research is focused on LGBTQIA+ cinema and history, with a focus on the analysis of queer culture pre-Stonewall.

Supervisor: Dr. Barry Monahan   Advisor: Dr Ciara Chambers 

Title of PhD Thesis: Queer Cinema of the Weimar Republic – Representations of Queerness in early German Cinema from 1918 to 1933

Summary: This project is an exploration of the queer representation within films made in the Weimar Republic, and an attempt to integrate them in the wider field of Queer Cinema. Despite the direct representation of queerness within a number of films, which include works by directors otherwise often discussed in film history, these films are not sufficiently acknowledged in their importance, particularly given the period in which they were created. This research relies strongly on archival work due to the presence of historical documentation, as well as the search for a number of films which have been lost.

David Mackey

David Mackey is a current PHD research candidate at the Department of Film and Screen Media at University College Cork. His research focuses on the exploration of time within cinema through the various texts of French cinematic philosophers such as Giles Deleuze and Jean Louis Baudry as well as utilising the ideas on memory and its relationship with time based on the works o French Philosopher Henri Bergson. He has completed both a BA and a MA in English in UCC in 2022 and 2023 respectively. His Masters’ thesis focusing on Film Noir’s relationship with postcolonialism identity and generic convention in Fallen Angels by Wong Kar Wai and Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese.

Supervisor: Dr Barry Monahan

Title of PHD thesis: Time’s relationship with cinema and how time itself cannot be properly shown in cinema as its technological and narrative abilities are incapable of portraying any time outside of a “presented” past.

Summary: This project will explore the relationship between time and the camera as it struggles to create an accurate depiction of the present within the cinema and instead becomes trapped between the past and present unable to truly exist in either space. This thesis will utilise the ideas of durée and how the camera acts as a kind of durée machine or a machine that can only facilitate a sense of continuous flux between past and present as explored through the ideas of Henri Bergson and later reimposed into a cinematic framework by Giles Deleuze and to a lesser extent Jean Epstein and Jean Louis Baudry. This thesis will look at a wide range of films, genres and nations that explore this sense of flux such as the films of Wong Kar Wai, Andrei Tarkovsky, short films such as La Jetée by Chris Marker and animated films such as Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman and Millenium Actress by Satoshi Kon.

Guosheng Ming

Guosheng Ming is an Irish Research Council (IRC) Postgraduate Scholar and a PhD candidate in Film & Screen Media at University College Cork, where he explores the intersection of essay film, contemporary art, and new media technology. His research, integrating theoretical inquiry with creative practice, examines the evolution of the essay film and its new media variations within today’s shifting media landscape, while considering its role as a critical intellectual medium in contemporary society.

In 2021, he obtained a Master of Philosophy in Aesthetics from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, completing a dissertation titled Research on the Aesthetics of Giant Screen Film in Museums. Alongside his academic work, he has extensive experience in film production, having worked as a producer, director, and screenwriter.

Supervisor:  Prof. Laura Rascaroli          Co-Supervisor: Mr. Dan O'Connell

Title of PhD thesis: The Essay Film in Contemporary Art: New Media Technology and Hybrid Essayistic Variants – A Research in Theory and Practice

Summary: The essay film has evolved into a diverse and dynamic artistic form, often manifesting as video or audio-visual essays that incorporate new media technologies and engage with contemporary art. This research examines video essays and essayistic installations by leading filmmakers and artists, integrating theoretical inquiry with experimental practice to explore the essay film’s contemporary evolution. Findings will be presented through an immersive exhibition or installation, presenting variations of the essay film shaped by theoretical inquiry. This study seeks to deepen understanding of recent developments in the essay film and its engagement with contemporary society, culture, media, technology, and the individual, positioning it within the discourse of the essay film as a form of “future philosophy” (Rascaroli).

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.

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.