| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2023-09-17 | 2023-06-30 |
| 2024-01-22 | 2024-11-30 |
Program Overview
The degree in
Drama with History
allows you to develop a broad base of knowledge of Drama practices and systematic approaches to the analysis of works in performance; alongside developing a wide range of written, verbal, and analytical skills through the study of the events and processes that have shaped modern society.There are particular areas of specialist practice in
Drama
that you can develop as you progress through each level of the degree. If you wish to pursue a creative career, although we do not provide full-time conservatoire training for actors, you can take modules that introduce you to the principles of acting, writing, directing, design, stage management, arts education and working with community groups. These can prepare you for further specialist professional training at post-graduate level.Across the degree, you will develop a core set of academic skills in research, analysis and communication in written and oral formats. Alongside these, you will also develop transferable skills in group work, project management, problem solving and the use of key technologies.
The programme is designed specifically to facilitate the development of your ability to work independently. We will offer you extensive support and guidance throughout your studies, as you develop the skills necessary to carry out rigorous and sustained independent research and practice. In this way, you will develop key skills alongside foundational professional competencies you can draw on in your future career.
Attendance
The course normally lasts for three years (four years if you choose to do a placement).
During this time, there will be a number of different teaching and learning experiences for you to enjoy. You will be introduced to key topics in lectures, and you will get the chance to share your views with other students in small group seminars and to explore approaches through a range of practical workshops and projects. One-to-one tutorials, video and email consultations are also offered so that you can ask your lecturer the questions that really matter to you.
Timetabled sessions usually amount to about 9 hours per week, but you'll spend much more time reading, rehearsing and making performances.
Start dates
Teaching, Learning and Assessment
Learning and teaching methods include lectures, tutorials, seminars, practical workshops, group work, projects, rehearsals and production meetings. Particularly at Levels 5 and 6, divisions between these class types dissolve and an individual session with a tutor may involve a range of student-tutor activities. Tutor-led classes provide the core structure and support on individual modules, but the emphasis in learning remains on the student’s independent engagement with the scope of the module. Students are routinely expected, therefore, to prepare in advance for taught sessions.
Within this context, lectures are used selectively to introduce key concepts and practices with which students will engage. The emphasis in lectures at all levels is on an interactive learning process, often based on students' prior preparation, through in-class tasks, or engaging with students' existing cultural capital.
Seminars are the focal point for student-led discussion and engagement and students are required to prepare materials in advance and to follow-up issues independently as a response to this. Students may be required to undertake presentations or performances within the seminar format.
Practical workshops are used to explore and test concepts and practices and, as appropriate, to develop experiential knowledge, practical skills and techniques. In some instances this will be through the production of creative projects. These projects will be driven by a specific brief, and at Levels 5 and 6, such briefs are geared towards professional practice.
Tutorials are scheduled within modules to provide opportunities for face-to-face supervision; and where appropriate, feed-forward and feedback on assessed tasks.
Digital resources are used to support students’ learning, made available primarily through the University's VLE, Blackboard Learn. Students are supported in using these resources from their Level 4 induction programme onwards through dedicated training sessions, support handouts and manuals and online tutorials.
Group work is used within the taught settings and as a significant part of the independent learning process, particularly in areas of creative practical work. Students are given guidance and training in group work processes throughout the programme. Through negotiation and reflection within class they are supported in independent group working.
Assessment strategies include essays, presentations, performances, literature reviews, dissertations, workshop demonstrations, creative writing, reflective essays and vivas, portfolios, and websites. Assessment strategies are constructively aligned with learning outcomes for the module and programme overall. While there are a relatively small number of summative assessments for any module (normally two, a maximum of three), these are supported by a range of opportunities for formative feedback.
Prof Tom Maguire
is a graduate of the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow and is a Distinguished Teaching Fellow of the University. He teaches in the areas of contemporary performance and applied theatre. His research interests are in contemporary British and Irish theatre, particularly storytelling performance and Theatre for Young Audiences.
Dr Lisa Fitzpatrick
studied at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and the University of Toronto. She teaches in areas of critical theory and contemporary theatre. Her research interests are: violence and performance, Irish theatre, Canadian drama, and gender and performance.
Dr Giuliano Campo
is an Italian performer, director and writer whose research and teaching interests include actor training and theatre anthropology. His works are published in several countries in different languages, such as Italian, Polish, English and Portuguese.
Dr Jennifer Goddard
. Dr Goddard was awarded her PhD in drama and disability from Queen’s University, Belfast in 2018. She has also worked as a drama practitioner nationally and internationally for the past 17 years. Her current work is in the area of Applied and Community Theatre; Disability and Performance; Multi-Sensory Theatre & Early Years Performance; Qualitative Arts Research; and Drama Facilitation & Facilitator Training.Academic profile
Dr Giuliano Campo
is an Italian performer, director and writer whose research and teaching interests include actor training, world traditional disciplines of the self and theatre anthropology. His works are published in several countries in different languages. Giuliano is the Course Director for Drama.
Prof Tom Maguire
is the Head of the School of Arts and Humanities. Heis a graduate of the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow and is a Distinguished Teaching Fellow of the University. His research interests are in contemporary British and Irish theatre, particularly storytelling performance and Theatre for Young Audiences.
Dr Lisa Fitzpatrick
studied at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and the University of Toronto. She teaches in areas of critical theory and contemporary theatre. Her research interests are: violence and performance, Irish theatre, Canadian drama, and gender and performance.
Dr Jennifer Goddard
. Dr Goddard’s current work is in the area of Applied and Community Theatre; Disability and Performance; Multi-Sensory Theatre & Early Years Performance; Qualitative Arts Research; and Drama Facilitation & Facilitator Training. She continues to work closely with industry partners to develop research and community-based projects and provide consultation.The University employs over 1,000 suitably qualified and experienced academic staff - 59% have PhDs in their subject field and many have professional body recognition.
Courses are taught by staff who are Professors (25%), Readers, Senior Lecturers (20%) or Lecturers (55%).
We require most academic staff to be qualified to teach in higher education: 82% hold either Postgraduate Certificates in Higher Education Practice or higher. Most academic staff (81%) are accredited fellows of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) by Advanced HE - the university sector professional body for teaching and learning. Many academic and technical staff hold other professional body designations related to their subject or scholarly practice.
The profiles of many academic staff can be found on the University’s departmental websites and give a detailed insight into the range of staffing and expertise. The precise staffing for a course will depend on the department(s) involved and the availability and management of staff. This is subject to change annually and is confirmed in the timetable issued at the start of the course.
Occasionally, teaching may be supplemented by suitably qualified part-time staff (usually qualified researchers) and specialist guest lecturers. In these cases, all staff are inducted, mostly through our staff development programme ‘First Steps to Teaching’. In some cases, usually for provision in one of our out-centres, Recognised University Teachers are involved, supported by the University in suitable professional development for teaching.
Figures correct for academic year 2021-2022.
Program Outline
Careers & opportunities
In this section
- Graduate employers
- Job roles
- Career options
- Work placement / study abroad
Graduate employers
Graduates from this course are now working for:
Job roles
With this degree you could become:
Career options
Studying
Drama with History
will leave you well-placed to secure employment in a wide-range of fields since this course develops talents which are transferrable across a variety of professions and industries.Our recent
History
graduates are working in media, education, civil service, retail, banking and finance, the heritage sector, in law, and many more.Our
Drama
graduates work in the professional theatre as actors, directors, writers and stage managers.Our graduates also work as teachers, college and university lecturers, drama therapists or community artists. They have set up their own businesses, founded theatre companies, been employed in various media posts, management, theatre management, arts administration, and the civil service.
Combining these two subjects will provide you with both specialist creative skills in performance and the key transferable skills in critical thinking, analysis and communication, project management and collaboration that are highly valued by employers.
Work placement / study abroad
Formal arrangements for placement are provided for within the designated module in Year 2. We have relationships with many exchange partners in Europe, overseas and across the globe – and we extend our network every year. There are currently formal subject-specific arrangements for study abroad, at the University of Malta.
Modules
Here is a guide to the subjects studied on this course.
Courses are continually reviewed to take advantage of new teaching approaches and developments in research, industry and the professions. Please be aware that modules may change for your year of entry. The exact modules available and their order may vary depending on course updates, staff availability, timetabling and student demand. Please contact the course team for the most up to date module list.
In this section
- Year one
- Year two
- Year three
- Year four
- Year five
- Year six
Year one
Dramatic Structures on Stage and Screen
Year: 1
Status: C
This module serves as an introduction to the fundamental structures of dramatic performance. Weekly lectures will introduce a range of core concepts. Students then take a weekly seminar through which they will develop the knowledge and frameworks provided to analyse the creation and reception of dramatic performances. The module will refer in detail to a range of set plays, studied from both the script and in live performance.
Space and Performance
Year: 1
Status: C
Space and Performance introduces students to core concepts relating to space, a defining feature of performance. It encompasses historical and contemporary performance practices to explore the relationships between space, form and function in performance. This compulsory drama module continues to develop good study skills and to extend critical vocabularies established in DRA101. It is team-taught, by a lecture and small-group seminar each week. Assessment 100% coursework
Irish Government and Politics since 1922
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
This module investigates the primary forces shaping Irish politics, political institutions and structures, political behaviour, the mass media and policy making.
Making History: Skills for Historians
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
This module is designed to introduce students to the practical skills required for studying history at degree level and the methods and approaches that inform historical practice.
Defining America: Themes in American History, C17th -C20th
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
The module will illustrate and analyse the key themes and issues in American history from colonial times to the present day. Patterns and problems in the development of America will be discussed, and consideration of differing interpretations and source evaluations are implicit throughout the course. By the end of the module students should understand how the history of America has been shaped by the key events and debates that have taken place over the last four hundred years.
The Making of Modern Britain, 1750-1945
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of modern Britain. It explores key themes such as industrialisation and urbanisation; reform and revolution; class and identity; religion, nationalism and unionism; war and empire. It utilises the latest historical scholarship and key primary sources delivered by research-active scholars via innovative lectures and seminars. The module brings to light the key events and historical processes which have shaped the Britain and Ireland of today.
'The Age of Extremes': International History 1914-2014
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
The purpose of this module is to provide Level 4 History students with an introduction to some of the main developments in world and international history from the First World War onwards. It is one of a number of broad, survey courses, designed to provide the basis for further, more detailed, study in subsequent years.
Year two
Acting 2: Studio Practice
Year: 2
Status: C
This module seeks to enable students to generate improvised performances as part of an acting ensemble and to provide an opportunity to explore the performative potential of a given dramatic role through the application of specific improvisational practices. It also seeks to provide a critical language to both describe and reflect on these practices. Assessment: 100% Coursework.
Acting 1: Text and Performance
Year: 2
Status: C
This module will introduce students to the working methods of two major twentieth century acting theorists. It will offer students the opportunity to explore these methods in a practical setting and encourage them to reflect critically on the contrasting and comparable elements of each approach. Assessment: 100% Coursework.
Disenchanted Land? Culture and Society in Early Modern Europe
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module will explore the structures of society in early-modern Europe, and the nature of early-modern social mentalities, daily social realities and material culture, cultural attitudes towards the natural world, varieties of religious belief and practice, and the supernatural in the early modern period: from notions in Heaven and Hell, to Angels, demons, witchcraft and magic. It will trace the effect on these beliefs and attitudes by the social, intellectual and cultural shifts associated with the Enlightenment.
War and Peace: the Ying and Yang of human history
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module is designed to help fill a still largely existent gap in human historiography by introducing students to the other side of the coin of human development: the human 'instinctive imperative' towards peace and through contrasting this with the roots of war, promote an understanding of the patterns in war and peace & advancement in the course of human history, with a particular focus on the post-1648, post-1815, post-World War One, post-World War Two and post-Cold War/post-9/11 periods.
Film and the Vietnam Conflict
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module explores the history, media, film and political culture in the context of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The module explores major debates in the historiography of the era. Film representations of the war are subject to scrutiny for what they reveal about American society, and how they depict the changing perspectives of the "history" of the conflict. The module also follows the way in which the war developed and the changing attitudes it provoked at home and abroad.
Year three
Arts Administration
Year: 3
Status: C
This module is provides students with a suitable grounding in the practices and responsibilities associated with contemporary arts administration; and the foundation for competence in relevant entry level areas of employment.
The Form and Function of Performance
Year: 3
Status: C
This module interrogates the relationship between social and political identities and contemporary performance practices. It explores the form and function of performance works and through these analyses the potential efficacy of performance. This module is taught by seminars and is assessed by 100% coursework.
Political Theatre from Expressionism to Brecht
Year: 3
Status: C
This seminar based module seeks to introduce students to key aesthetic movements, through the study of play texts and performances. The module encourages the student to apply critical readings and concepts to the analysis of primary texts, to engage analytically with performance conventions typical of different artistic movements, and to reflect on their practical work and experiences as spectators.
Ireland and the European Union, 1961-2016
Year: 3
Status: C
Ireland and Europe examines the reasons for Ireland's application to join the EEC, the interests informing its European policy, and the impact of the EU on Irish politics, administration, and society. There is a specific emphasis on key policy areas such as foreign policy, neutrality, cross-border co-operation, regional cohesion, and the Common Agricultural Policy. The module also explains the functions of the main EU institutions and their relation to member states, and examines the politics of the integration process and its implications for member states.
Acting 4: Acting and Screen
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
This module develops acting techniques studied at Level 4 and adapts them to screen. Students become familiar with working procedures involving acting to camera and are encouraged to reflect on the place of the actor historically and in relation to creative applications in performance.
Family, Sexuality and the State 1850-1925
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
This module examines the role of the state in molding the history of the family and sexuality in Britain between 1860-1925. It looks at the forces which have influenced state policy as well as the impact on issues such as prostitution, homosexuality, gender roles and childhood.
Politics and Society in early modern Britain and Ireland
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
The module tracks the emergence of an internationally powerful British nation state by examining key issues and events from c.1630-1730. It will explore governance in contested kingdoms and diverse societies, the rise of the fiscal-military state and parliamentary monarchy, religious confessionalism and religious pluralism. It will also examine the early modern family, the emergence of the middle class, social and economic improvement, and the Early Enlightenment.
The Great Powers and the Middle East since 1880
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
This module explores the impact of the West on the Middle East and its contribution to conflict in the region since the end of the 19th Century.
The Myth and Reality of Imperial Spain, 1492-1700
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
This course examines the rise to power of the Spanish Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and its subsequent decline from the seventeenth century onwards. The following issues will be emphasized: Spain's Empire building; the image of Spain in the European political discourse; the military, economic, and social crises of the seventeenth century; the Spanish Golden age in art and literature vis-à-vis the concept of decadence; the importance of honor and religion in all realms of society; the racial issue: from the convivencia to the Inquisition; the court of the Habsburgs; and the cultural impact of Spain in the early modern world. In addition, the course will consider the diverse populations constituting the Spanish World, stressing such social and cultural strains as those between: center (Castille), and periphery (for example, Catalonia, Naples, and The Netherlands); Christians and converted Jews/Muslims; Spanish Conquistadores and indigenous populations; and the various racial castes created in the Americas.
Death, Disease, and Medicine in Britain, 1800-1914
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
This module introduces students to key themes and topics on the history of death and illness in the long nineteenth century. Drawing from social, medical and Victorian history, students will explore themes such as murder in the Victorian city, ghosts, asylums, suicide, Victorian funerals and bodysnatching. Students will examine interdisciplinary sources including literature and art, as well as standard historical sources.
Revolutionary Russia, 1894-1939
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
This module examines Revolutionary Russia from the last Romanov ruler through to the establishment of Stalinism in the USSR. Key historiographical debates will be examined and assessed. The political, economic, and social and cultural aspects of this period will be covered.
'Good Trouble': Struggle, Resistance and the African American Experience
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
Race remains one of the most contentious issues in United States society. It has had a profound impact on America's domestic political process and culture and the way in which the US is perceived by the rest of the world. This module seeks to provide insight and understanding into the questions raised by the African American struggle and race relations in America and the continuing problems faced by Black Americans. The module proceeds chronologically through Black history from slavery through to the present day. This module also assesses the cultural contribution of African Americans in the United States in the twentieth century, and explores the legacy of the slave experience. It is interdisciplinary in method and will examine such issues as rebellion and assimilation, black nationalism, family, gender, film and popular culture.
Year four
Introduction to Directing
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
Introduction to Directing encourages students to start to assemble a personal working method in preparing to analyse and direct scenes using peer actors. This module seeks to introduce methods of analysis and rehearsal practices. Teaching methods include a combination of analytical exercises and workshops. Assessment: 100% Coursework
Theatre and Community
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module develops students' ability to engage with forms of participatory theatrical practices which can be applied in processes of community formation and development. The primary focus is on practical experience within a process of reflective learning in which theoretical perspectives are applied and tested.
Acting 3: Commedia dell'Arte
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module provides students with a suitable grounding in the history, theories and practices associated with Commedia dell'Arte and work with masks in theatre and performance; and the foundations for competence in setting up independent individual/collective actor/voice training and productions in institutional and non-institutional venues and open spaces.
Placement
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module allows students to spend a period of time working outside the university in a suitable theatre or arts organisation. Students develop their vocational skills through work-based learning and developing their capacity for reflexive practice.
ASSESSMENT: 100% Coursework
Late Soviet Communism, 1953-1991
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module examines the attempts of the post-Stalin leadership to manage, reform, and improve the prosperity of Soviet domestic communism. The political, economic, and social and cultural policies of the three main general secretaries - Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev - will be examined and assessed critically.
Imperial Retreat: The Decline and Fall of the European Overseas Empires
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module will examine the historical process since 1945 whereby European colonial powers either withdrew or were driven from formal occupation of their overseas possessions. The module will not only examine various interpretations of imperial disengagement but will also provide an in-depth study of the actual mechanics of European decolonisation for particular territories in South and South East Asia, Africa and the Pacific. It also aims to enhance student skills in evaluating interpretations put forward by historians through allowing them to make a detailed study of one particular colonial possession.
Year five
Liveness and Documentation in Performance
Year: 5
Status: C
This module interrogates the relationship between performance, liveness and documentation through the development of appropriate critical concepts and vocabulary. It is taught by lecture and seminar and requires students to learn by reading and undertaking practice, reflecting and discussing.
Assessment: 100% coursework.
Workers and radicalism in modern Ireland, 1800-1939
Year: 5
Status: C
This module investigates the evolution of the working class in Ireland, and its interaction with capital, labour organization, society, and politics.
Creative Business
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module assists students in the developing specific skills and awareness to maximise their ability to conceptualise, manage and market new, society centred, ideas.
Advanced Playwriting
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module offers the student the opportunity to explore the processes of creative writing for the stage in a diverse range of styles and genres. The student will read from a range of materials and encounter a range of working methods which they will engage with in short written responses, and before developing a full-length piece of writing for performance.
Performance and Disability
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module seeks to give students opportunities to engage with different ways of creating theatre through the lens of disability and performance. Students will explore concepts of disability within society in the context of theatre, drama and performance. They will study dramatic representations of disability and how these provide insight into issues relating to the construction of disability within society. Concepts such as difference, equality, social, medical and relational models of disability and co-creation will be considered. Students will learn to reflect critically on and to engage practically with aspects of access and/or aesthetics in relation to disability and performance.
Advanced Directing
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
Advanced Directing facilitates mostly independent applications of analysis and practice introduced in Introduction to Directing. Learning contexts include written preparation and independent rehearsal processes as advanced directors experiment with dramatic action, given circumstances and coaching techniques in order to deliver a one act play at a pre-professional level of performance with peer actors. Teaching methods include analytical 'laboratory' sessions and seminars which will explore and test methods of coaching and evaluation.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
Storytelling and Performance
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module provides students with the opportunity to explore storytelling as a performance form within a range of theatrical and performance settings. Practical exploration allows students to engage with the form from within, while independent research and in-class discussion provides the opportunity to contextualise and analyse practices encountered.
Assessment: 100% Coursework.
Arts Entrepreneurship
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module develops students' creative engagement with the industry through an exploration of the marketplace, and of the processes involved in setting up and running a new business in the creative and cultural industries. The module has been developed in consultation with Theatre NI and aims to develop students' understanding of entrepreneurial practice and thinking in the creative and cultural industries.
Performing Community
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module equips students to use their skills, knowledge and experience in creating performance within a community setting. Taught through lectures, seminars and workshops, the module focuses on engaging with actual communities and the development of independent performance projects. Assessment is 100% coursework.
Theatre for Young Audiences
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module provides students with the opportunity to explore the values, ethics and practices of Theatre for Young Audiences. Practical exploration allows students to engage with the form from within, while independent research and in-class discussion provides the opportunity to contextualise and analyse practices encountered.
Assessment: 100% Coursework.
'Changed, Changed Utterly': The Irish Revolution, 1913-1923.
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module utilises documentary, digital, and audio-visual sources to explore life in Ireland during the revolutionary years, 1913-1923. The period is brought to life through narratives of key events and the analysis of primary source material from the time.
United States Foreign Policy Since 1945
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module provides a comprehensive overview of US Foreign Policy since 1945. It considers the United States' place in the global political structure. It will examine defining moments in the history of US Foreign Policy, including the Cold War, Post-Cold War, and post-September 11th eras, analysing the administrations of Presidents from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama.
Saints and Sinners: Women in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Ireland
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module will use the study of women in Irish society from 1850-2000 to consider the role of women in areas such as politics, religion, culture, work and sexuality and how their role and experiences changed over the period. It will allow students to gain an alternative historical perspective on the major political and societal changes of the period. Though the use of oral history students will gain a personal understanding of female experience in the past.
America in the Depression, 1929-1941
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This is an interdisciplinary study of one of the most significant events in the history of the United States since 1900, the Depression that began in 1929 and lasted until the USA entered the Second World War in 1941. This course will examine the turbulent years of the Great Depression and the New Deal. It will cover political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the events and circumstances that led to the Depression, the election of FDR in 1933, and the formulation of the New Deal as national policy. It will then look at various aspects of New Deal policies and will assess the achievements and limitations of those policies.
The Post-War Body: Medicine and Society in Britain and America, c.1945-90
Status: O
Year: 5
This module is optional
This module examines the dramatic changes in experiences of health and illness that occurred in the twentieth century. Focusing on Britain and America, it explores how our attitudes to matters such as sex, death, eating, disability and mental health were revolutionized in the twentieth century. The module also looks at ethical problems issues such as Cold War human experimentation. Students will engage with broader themes such as class, gender and race relations.
Year six
Independent Project
Year: 6
Status: C
This module allows students to negotiate their own programme of study in pursuing a specific research question. Students may present their work as a dissertation, a practical performance or workshop, or undertake a work-based learning project. Assessment: 100% coursework.
Representing Violence
Status: O
Year: 6
This module is optional
This research-lead module seeks to extend the range of theoretical and critical perspectives with which students engage and to focus on the specific contexts of contemporary performance practices. It offers students an opportunity to explore the representation of violence as an enduring matter of philosophical debate and theatrical innovation, that covers such issues as staging strategies, performative strategies, ethical and theoretical questions, and audience reception.
Acting 5: Advanced Acting
Status: O
Year: 6
This module is optional
This module is focused on the preparation, rehearsal and performance of a dramatic role within an independent student-directed project. It engages students in practical exploration and critical study of the work of the actor through weekly workshops and seminars. The assessment is 100% coursework.
Performing Ireland on Stage and Screen
Status: O
Year: 6
This module is optional
This module looks in detail at contemporary Irish theatre practice and in doing so enables students to focus their understanding of contemporary Irish theatre by placing it in a range of relevant discursive and theoretical contexts. Students will read a range of contemporary playtexts and see a range of performances.
Performance and Conflict Transformation
Status: O
Year: 6
This module is optional
This module equips students to use their skills, knowledge and experience in analysing and creating performance within the context of conflict or post-conflict society. Taught through lectures, seminars and workshops, the module focuses on engaging with local and international post-conflict issues and the development of independent projects.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Performance and Health
Status: O
Year: 6
This module is optional
This module provides students with the opportunity to explore performance as a means of enhancing well being, challenging stigmatisation and promoting awareness of health issues. Practical exploration allows students to engage with the issues and formal techniques from within, while independent research and in-class discussion provides the opportunity to contextualise and analyse practices encountered.
Theatre and Ritual
Status: O
Year: 6
This module is optional
This option investigates radical performance practices of the ritualised forms of theatre from modernism to postmodernism and beyond. Students will explore, interrogate and evaluate the theoretical underpinnings, practical methodologies, and performance outcomes of selected bodies of practice and create new work by applying the ideas they have encountered to performance practice in a studio environment. It will be of particular interest to students wishing to pursue innovative contemporary practice or undertake practice-based research after graduation.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Witchcraft and magic in early modern Europe and Colonial New England, c.1550-1780
Status: O
Year: 6
This module is optional
The early modern period is often seen as the era of the European 'witch-panic', which saw around 40,000 people executed for the crime of witchcraft. This module will examine the many facets of the witchcraft experience in Europe and New England using a variety of contemporary sources: from images and printed books and pamphlets, to court records and private correspondence. It will examine patterns of witchcraft accusation and prosecution, the intellectual context of witchcraft beliefs, the connection between witchcraft and women, the decline in educated belief, and the continuation of popular notions and traditions. Early modern witchcraft will also be located in its wider magical context by exploring both popular magic. Developments in witchcraft and magic in the early modern period will also be linked to wider societal, cultural and religious changes.
Testimonials
Sophie Hagan (recent Drama Graduate)
'My time at ulster university will always be unforgettable from the friends made within the course and the outstanding academic staff that supported me and aided me to achieve what I did. Ulster gave me the chance to be able to create and practice industry level work. The university’s professional relationships give students head start and then within the professional world work. As well as make connections with and create opportunities with Northern Ireland’s leading arts organisations. With a wide range of modules to choose from students are able to explore different areas of the arts they may not been previously induced to. Ulster university drama has been the best stepping stone for me to lead me into the professional world of work.'
Robert Hunter (recent History graduate)
‘I am really enjoying studying History at Ulster. It offers lots of interesting modules that cover a wide variety of eras and cultures, taught by helpful expert staff. It has taught me transferable skills such as how to analyse, interpret and present information that will be valuable when it comes to seeking employment after graduation. History at Ulster has also given me access to amazing travel opportunities. In my second year, I was awarded a bursary to work in the “In Flanders Fields Museum” in Ypres, Belgium for three weeks where I helped to digitise the records of Irish soldiers who died during the First World War’.
Karolina Stonkute (recent History graduate)
‘During my three years on the History course at Ulster, I have never felt unsupported. The History lecturers have continuously provided me with help whether it was academic or personal. They strive to push their students to achieve grades that they believe best represents their skills. I would not have the experience nor the confidence to enter the next chapter of my career without them.’
Orin McIvor (recent History graduate)
‘At the end of my second year studying History at Ulster I applied for the ‘study abroad’ programme and spent a year at university in America. I had an incredible time. It was truly a life changing experience that boosted my self-esteem and confidence. It was amazing being able to experience different cultures and to meet people that I would become friends with that I would have had no opportunity to do so before. I miss the experience a little more every day and still catch up with the friends I made. It was an experience that I feel anybody with even a hint of interest in studying abroad should go for as they will not regret it’.