Michael Pierse

Background

About Michael Pierse

My research explores the writing of Irish working-class life and culture, and I am editor of the forthcoming A Cambridge History of Irish Working-Class Writing (Cambridge UP, 2016). Over recent years my research has expanded into new multi-disciplinary themes and international contexts, including the study of festivals, digital methodologies in public humanities, theatre-as-research and community theatre. I have contributed to a range of national and international publications, am author Writing Ireland’s Working-Class: Dublin After O’Casey (Palgrave: 2011) and also co-editor (with Dr Johann Devlin-Trew) of the forthcoming Palgrave book After the Gathering: Dissonant Voices in Irish Diaspora Studies (mid 2016), My work includes research on Seán O’Casey, Brendan Behan and Dermot Bolger, and generally on cultural representations of class in Irish life. I have almost a decade’s experience of teaching Communications and English in further education and am a former newspaper editor with Belfast Media/Drumlin Media Group. I am currently working on the following funded research projects:* Department of Foreign Affairs (Ireland) Reconciliation Fund (Oct 2014-Oct 2015): ‘The Labour Movement, Working-Class Cultures and Conflict in Northern Ireland Since 1945’ * Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (NI) funded project (Dec 2013-Jan 2015): ‘After the Gathering: Dissonant Voices in Irish Diaspora Studies’ * AHRC (Nov 2014-Nov 2016): ‘From Dark Tourism to Phoenix Tourism: The Ethics of Cultural Translation in Urban Festivals’ (PI Prof Margaret Topping, QUB)* AHRC (Oct 2014-), ‘Creative Interruptions: grassroots culture, state structures and disconnection as a space for “radical openness”’ (PI Dr Sarita Malik, Brunel University London) For more: http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/CF8E1AE0-0389-499D-BE08-7E57735155A9