Overview: Miriam is Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies in the School of English, Media and Creative Arts, joining the the University of Galway in 2014. Miriam is President of the Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR) from 2023-2027, following a term as Vice-President (2019-2023) and Officer (2015-2019). In 2025, Miriam joined the Board of Directors of ANU Productions.

Miriam is PI of the Research Ireland Laureate award 'The Price of Performance: A Question of Economic Sustainability for Independent Theatre Production in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland 2000-2020', a large-scale transnational research project situated at the intersection of theatre and performance studies, cultural economics and policy, and economic humanities. Working with six independent theatre and performance companies across the Republic of Ireland, the North of Ireland and Scotland, this study assesses financial structures of creative production through periods of significant economic, environmental and social volatility.

Prior to working in academia, Miriam worked in theatre, television and film in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and as a television journalist specializing in the Middle East and North Africa.

Academic Biography: Miriam completed her BA in Drama, Media and Cultural Studies at Queens University Belfast graduating with 1st Class Honours in 2004, followed by her MA in Advanced Stage and Screen Practice (Directing Strand) at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, 2006. She completed her PhD in Drama Studies at UCD in 2013, before returning to Belfast as an AHRC postdoctoral researcher on the`Creative Exchange Northern Ireland' (CXNI) project led by the University of Ulster with Queens University Belfast (2013-14). In 2019, Miriam was a visiting scholar based at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in 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.

Research, Practice and Publications: Her research interests include twentieth and twenty-first century theatre and performance, production and performance economics, the politics of performance, feminisms, and trauma and memory studies. Miriam's first monograph Staging Trauma: Bodies in Shadow (2018)was nominated for the TaPRA Early-Career Research Award 2019 and her most recent open-access book, The Theatre of Louise Lowe, is published by Cambridge University Press Elements (2025). Co-edited collections include Theatre, Performance and Commemoration (Methuen 2023), Legacies of the Magdalen Laundries (Manchester UP 2021), and Radical Contemporary Theatre Practices by Women in Ireland (Carysfort Press 2015). Miriam's practice as research enquiries include directing and producing Nochtaithe (Unveiled) for the Tuam Oral History Project with third year Drama and Theatre Studies students sponsored by Galway University Foundation, premiering in the Bealtaine Festival (2021) and Liverpool Irish Festival (2021), described as 'a maddening, moving, creative work' by the Irish Times. Miriam previously worked as associate producer/researcher for 2 seasons of the documentary web-series co-produced by Up Up Up and CopperAlley, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous: a celebration of 'difficult' women programmed by Dublin Fringe Festival (2020) and Bealtaine Festival (2020, 2022), co-sponsored by a Research Ireland New Foundations award and the University of Galway.

Supervision and Mentoring: Miriam has supervised four doctoral theses to completion, sponsored by Research Ireland (x 3) and the University of Galway (x 1). Miriam has also supervised 24 MA theses to completion. Miriam is currently mentoring one Marie Curie postdoctoral project (2025-2027) and one Research Ireland postdoctoral project (2023-2025). Miriam welcomes PhD and postdoctoral proposals in any areas relating to theatre and performance studies, particularly regarding its interdisciplinary relationships with identity politics, trauma and memory studies, theatre production, feminisms, and the creative industries.

Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Theatre and Performance

Theatre and Performance Finance, Economics and Policy

Trauma and Memory Studies

Theatre, Performance and Feminisms

Cultural Economics, Cultural Policy and Arts Management

Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Theatre and Performance

Theatre and Performance Finance, Economics and Policy

Trauma and Memory Studies

Theatre, Performance and Feminisms

Cultural Economics, Cultural Policy and Arts Management