Our current postgraduate students and their thesis topics
The impact of the Scottish Government's policy of supporting the National Centres of Excellence in Music on the students who study there
Sara Brown
For forty years there have been specialist music schools attached to state secondary schools in Scotland. These are fully funded by the Scottish Government, and allow students from diverse backgrounds to obtain an outstanding music education. What impact does this free music education have on these students and why are these schools supported by the government in Scotland?
The Colours of That Place: Setting and Memory in Irish Short Fiction
Majella Cullinane – PhD, 2019
Majella's creative practice thesis explores the interplay of memory and setting in Irish short fiction.
About Majella
Originally from Limerick, Majella Cullinane has lived in New Zealand since 2008. She has published two poetry collections, Guarding the Flame (Salmon Poetry Ireland, 2011) and Whisper of a Crow's Wing (2018) which was published by Salmon Poetry and Otago University Press. Whisper of a Crow's Wing (2018) was selected as one of The New Zealand Listener's Ten Best Poetry Books of 2018.
Majella was Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago in 2014 and a Sir James Wallace/Pah Homestead Writer in Residence in 2017. Her debut novel, The Life of De'Ath was longlisted for the 2018 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize, (Ockham New Zealand Book Awards) and shortlisted for the New Zealand Heritage Fiction Award. Her short stories have appeared in The Island Review, UK, and Victorians, USA, and have been shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize, Ireland and the Historical Writers' Association's Short Story Prize, UK. She is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Otago.
Beyond disease to human meaning: discovering illness in literature
Sue Wootton – PhD
Sue's research is in the field of medical humanities. Her thesis is both critical and creative. She is interested in how literary writing functions as a mode of expressing insights about the human meaning of illness, and in ideas about what literature can 'know and show' about illness, well-being and medicine.
Martin McDonagh and the Theatre of Violence
Orion Carey-Clarke – MA, 2019
Orion Carey-Clarke's master's research will investigate whether Irish playwright and producer Martin McDonagh – whose recent Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri garnered wide critical acclaim – portrays violence in a formulaic “Hollywood way” or whether his work is informed by Irish literary and cinematic traditions.
Figuring Postcolonial Bioethics and Embodiment in Patricia Grace's Baby No-eyes
Greta Stacey – Honours, TBA
Greta Stacey's Honours dissertation will offer a postcolonial reading of medical bioethics and embodiment in Patricia Grace's Baby No-eyes.