Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies Research

Our Research

Our research in Music, Drama, Performing Arts, Film and Screen (including Computer Games), and Heritage/Museum Studies is organised within both interdisciplinary and subject-specific research groups, and we collaborate with colleagues across Ulster as part of the Creative Industries Institute (established in 2017).

Current projects include the £72-million Studio Ulster Belfast Region City Deal project, providing Northern Ireland's hub in the URKI (AHRC) CoSTAR Network Lab, and participating in Ulster's £457k+AHRC Impact Accelerator.

Recent projects led by this unit include the £13 million AHRC Creative Cluster, Future Screens NI, and the UKRI Covid Rapid Response project Museums, Crisis and Covid-19.

Over the last two REF cycles, our Research Impact has been judged to be at the very top of the UK field, with the unit being placed joint first in REF2021 and joint 2nd in REF2014.

Our research environment is now (as of REF2021) judged to be 100% 3*/4* ('internationally excellent' and 'world-leading), and our overall profile is 41% 4* 'world-leading', leading us to be ranked alongside many prominent research-intensive departments at other universities and in the conservatoire sector.