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Courses
Courses
Choosing a course is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make! View our courses and see what our students and lecturers have to say about the courses you are interested in at the links below.
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University Life
University Life
Each year more than 4,000 choose NUI Galway as their University of choice. Find out what life at NUI Galway is all about here.
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About NUI Galway
About NUI Galway
Since 1845, NUI Galway has been sharing the highest quality teaching and research with Ireland and the world. Find out what makes our University so special – from our distinguished history to the latest news and campus developments.
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Colleges & Schools
Colleges & Schools
NUI Galway has earned international recognition as a research-led university with a commitment to top quality teaching across a range of key areas of expertise.
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Research & Innovation
Research & Innovation
NUI Galway’s vibrant research community take on some of the most pressing challenges of our times.
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Business & Industry
Guiding Breakthrough Research at NUI Galway
We explore and facilitate commercial opportunities for the research community at NUI Galway, as well as facilitating industry partnership.
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Alumni, Friends & Supporters
Alumni, Friends & Supporters
There are over 90,000 NUI Galway graduates Worldwide, connect with us and tap into the online community.
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Community Engagement
Community Engagement
At NUI Galway, we believe that the best learning takes place when you apply what you learn in a real world context. That's why many of our courses include work placements or community projects.
Spotlight on Research
Past Research
Miriam completed her PhD in contemporary Irish theatre and performance at UCD, supervised by Dr Cathy Leeney in 2013. Previous to her doctoral study, she worked as a television journalist at IHA Headquarters in Istanbul, specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. Miriam spent one year teaching English and Media Studies at Suzhou University, Jiangsu Province in China, deepening her love of travel, culture and the power of storytelling around the world. Miriam began her enquiries into this field with her BA in Drama, Cultural and Media Studies at Queen’s University Belfast (2004), followed by her MA in Advanced Stage and Screen Practice at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh (2006). Before joining Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway in 2014, Miriam completed a postdoctoral project on creative industries and knowledge exchange as part of the CXNI team at the University of Ulster with Queen’s (2013), funded by the AHRC.
Current Research
Miriam is Director of Postgraduate Studies in Drama, Theatre and Performance at NUI Galway, and the Vice-President of the Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR). Her research interests include twentieth and twenty-first century theatre and performance, production and performance ecologies, the politics of performance, feminisms, and trauma and memory studies. Miriam's recent monograph Staging Trauma: Bodies in Shadow (2018), considers how performance and production ecologies in Ireland and the UK capture woman-centred traumatic histories through staging, performance and production encounters. Staging Trauma was nominated for the TaPRA Early-Career Research Award 2019 and critically acclaimed in reviews by Modern Drama, Times Higher Education, Irish Literary Supplement, Irish University Review, New Theatre Quarterly, Studies in Theatre and Performance, TDR: The Drama Review, and more.
Miriam is associate producer/researcher for season 1 of the documentary web-series co-produced by Up Up Up and Copper Alley, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous: a celebration of 'difficult' women, programmed as part of the 2020 Dublin Fringe and Bealtaine Festivals, in September and October. In spring 2021, Miriam will direct and produce the Tuam Oral History Theatre Production with Drama and Theatre Studies, collaborating with staff and students throughout the university.
Miriam is recently returned from a semester as guest lecturer at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil, also delivering guest lectures at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF) in Rio de Janeiro, and the University of São Paulo (USP), sponsored by the Government of Ireland Academic Mobility Scheme. Miriam is developing new teaching materials that explore the connections between Irish and Brazilian theatre and performance, particularly relating to memory studies, trauma studies, and feminisms.
Recent publications include co-editing a special issue of international journal Ilha do Desterro (2018), the collection Radical Contemporary Theatre Practices by Women in Ireland (Carysfort, 2015), and a special issue of the journal Irish Theatre International (2014). She has also published articles in leading international peer-reviewed journals, including Contemporary Theatre Review, Modern Drama ('Honourable Mention'), New Theatre Quarterly, Mortality, Irish Studies Review, Cadernos de Letras and Focus.
Miriam established the Feminist Storytelling Network at NUI Galway in 2017, an interdisciplinary forum that promotes research, pedagogy and knowledge exchange relating to feminist principles, histories and experiences. The FSN curates annual symposia and workshops, connecting international and Irish scholars, artists and activists. Further information regarding upcoming and past events can be found here: https://www.feministstorytelling.ie.
Future Research
Miriam’s future research plans consider the relationship between theatre and performance, cultural economics, and feminisms. She is currently brainstorming for season 2 of Mad, Bad and Dangerous with the core team, and developing research materials regarding the economic and ecological intersections of theatre production in 21st century Europe.