The School of English, Media and Creative Arts (SEMCA) comprises five disciplines: English, Film and Digital Media, Drama and Theatre Studies, Music, and Journalism and Media. The School is internationally renowned for its research, with Performing Arts and English both ranked in the QS world top 100 and top 150, respectively, in 2025. SEMCA researchers deploy a diverse range of methods and practices, including collaborative research work that emphasises teamwork across different career stages. Research in the school includes textual, archival, theoretical, historical, philosophical, digital, technological, practice-based, and critical approaches to the analysis of texts, performances, society, and culture. It also includes creative and professional practices such as fiction, poetry, journalism, playwriting, documentary-making, musical composition, music performance, directing, and translation. The School’s diverse research profile includes:

 

 

Research and creative practice emerging from SEMCA has attracted notice at the highest international levels, with three ERC grant awards (RECIRC, 2014-2020; Theatronomics, 2021-2026; STEMMA, 2023-2028), two Booker Prize nominations (in 2017 and 2023), and many national and international research awards for research publications. It is also rooted in local and national contexts, not only through collaborations with major national organisations such as the Abbey Theatre, Irish National Opera, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Druid Theatre, TG4, and the Irish Writers Centre, but also through our commitment to the public good through partnerships and other forms of engagement.