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.

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.

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.

Department of Film and Screen Media

Scannánaíocht agus Meáin Scáileán

O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork, Ireland