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Beattie, Sean
Project:The Congested Districts Board and its social and economic impact on Donegal 1891-1923
Grant: Self Funding

The Board was established under the 1891 Land Act by Arthur Balfour in 1891 to relieve poverty in a number of counties along the western seaboard including Donegal. When the Board ceased to function in 1923, it had achieved major reforms in fisheries, land ownership, housing, education, sanitation, rural industries and farming methods. It enjoyed wide popular support among the rural population, the churches and politicians. A minority of nationalists criticised the work of the Congested Districts Board as a government agency whose sole aim was to weaken the growing demand for independence. They described it as "Killing Home Rule with Kindness". Supervisor - Emmet O'Connor

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Campbell, Liam

Conway, Tim
Project: French Influence on Ireland during the High Enlightenment (1745-94) as exemplified in the Gentleman’s and London Magazine
Grant: DEL UU

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Dietz, Angelika
Project: Migration and Sense of Place: Italian immigrants in Northern Ireland
Grant: Vice-Chancellor’s Research Studentship

Angelika Dietz is doing a PhD on ‘Migration and Sense of Place: Italian immigrants in Northern Ireland’. Focusing on Contemporary Migration from Italy to Northern Ireland she is employing a theoretical framework of sense of place and sense of belonging, ‘Heimat’, ‘civiltà’ and related issues. Education: Angelika has a Magister (MA) in Empirische Kulturwissenschaft (European Ethnology) and Allgemeine Rhetorik (General Rhetoric) from the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany. During her studies she spent one year abroad at the Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy, taking courses in Cultural Anthropology and Semiotics. Research Interests: Migration Europeanisation and Regionalisation Food and the Quality of Live Town studies Medical Culture and History

Doak, Naomi
Project: Assessing an Absence: Irish Protestant Women Novelists 1900-1960.
Grant: DEL

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MacAmhalaí, Mícheál
Project: Dark tourism in Northern Ireland: sensation and a 'sense of place'
Grant: DEL UU

Mícheál MacAmhalaí completed a Master’s degree in ‘Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies’ at the University of Ulster in 2005. He has continued in higher education as a research student with the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages, and is currently investigating Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ tourism industry, and other regional examples of ‘Dark Tourism’, or ‘Thanatourism’. His DEL (History) funded research project, “‘Dark Tourism’ in Northern Ireland: sensation and ‘a sense of place’”, examines three contrasting case studies: the Coiste/EPIC political bus tour of West Belfast; St Oliver Plunkett’s Shrine in Drogheda: and, ‘Dracula’s Grave’ in Glenullin. The following provides a brief project summary.

The sensitive representation of historical events involving violence, atrocity, suffering and death present a challenge for tourism development – an important focus for employment and economic regeneration in Northern Ireland. Without sensitive development, some tourist attractions run the risk of provoking hostility and causing offense to local groups, or changing the way people view themselves and the places where they live. This study is designed to advance our understanding of the relationship between tourism and identities and the nature of ‘tragedy tourism’.

The idea shaping the study is that tourist experiences are dependent on their perceptions of the attraction that they have chosen to visit. This includes sites where tragedies have occurred. In instances where tourists simply feel that the sites they visit are a part of their heritage, there is nothing particularly ‘ghoulish’ in their behaviour. The project supervisors are Dr Elizabeth Crooke and Dr Neal Garnham. The completion deadline is September 2008.

McDermott, Philip
Project: Implementing a more inclusive language policy for Northern Ireland post Good Friday Agreement
Grant: DEL UU

The Good Friday Agreement states that, “All participants recognise the importance of respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity, including in Northern Ireland, the Irish language, Ulster-Scots and the languages of the various ethnic communities, all of which are part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland.” One would have expected that such a statement in a document of this nature would have the potential to change policies implemented in regards the use and promotion of minority languages in the region. One of the prime objectives will be to investigate further language planning in Northern Ireland since 1998. The study will incorporate the languages mentioned in the Good Friday Agreement but will also look at languages not recognised by the Good Friday Agreement such as sign Language and various European languages such as Polish and Lithuanian which have been brought to the Province by large numbers of EU migrant workers.

McKinnion, Iain

Mitchell, David
Project: The Meaning of Peace in Northern Ireland: Implementing the Good Friday Agreement
Grant: DEL UU

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Sherry, John
Project: The Development of Scottish Networks in Ulster during the 1690s
Grant: Vice-Chancellor’s Research Studentship

John Sherry gained a BA Hons in History at the University of Strathclyde in 2004, before gaining a Masters in Irish and Scottish Studies from the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies (RIISS) at the University of Aberdeen in 2005. John was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship by the University of Ulster in 2005 to complete a thesis on the Development of Scottish networks in Ulster during the 1690s, supervised by Dr William Kelly. The main emphasis of John’s research is commercial and political networks in Ulster, analyzing the relationship between existing and new networks in the 1690s and early Eighteenth Century, and exploring what impact large-scale Scottish migration to Ulster had on these networks. An important aspect of the research concerns the links and interactions between the two different Protestant denominations of the Scottish settlers, namely the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church. John has spoken and written on topics such as the development of an Ulster-Scots Identity in Seventeenth Century Ireland, Irish-Scottish relations during the War of the Three Kingdoms and Scottish involvement in the Plantation of Ulster.

Stephenson, Claire
Project: Ireland’s National Theatre 1955-1985
Grant: Vice-Chancellor’s Research Studentship

Strauss, Jill
Project: The Role of Visual Art in the Mediation Process in the Northern Ireland Context
Supervisors – Ullrich Kockel and Elizabeth Crooke

Jill is a first year PhD student from the US. She has a Master of Education in Peace Education and Conflict Resolution from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has worked as an educator on interreligious/interethnic relations, human rights and non-violence for many years.

I am proposing that museums and memorials can be mechanisms for reconciliation when conflict resolution and peacebuilding theory is applied to the production and viewing of art works. The project I am proposing to implement as part of my research includes both an exhibition and a methodology for teaching the exhibit. Distinct from what happens (or fails to happen) among the artist participants who are directly engaged, concerns the question of whether exposure to the arts can help to transform the attitudes of members of the wider communities who have also experienced inter-communal violent conflict. A random sampling of viewers will be interviewed about their attitudes towards the exhibit and the Northern Ireland conflict in general following a guided tour.

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Walters, Victoria
Project: The language of healing: Joseph Beuys and the Celtic Wor(l)d: the Language of Healing
Supervisor: Professor Ullrich Kockel
Grant: Vice-Chancellor’s Research Studentship

Victoria Walters is undertaking research into the practice of the German sculptor Joseph Beuys, with a particular interest in investigating the artist’s work as a healing discourse and pedagogy that engages with the Celtic world. Victoria holds a BA (Hons) in European Studies with French from Manchester University and an MA in Digital Media from the University of the West of England in Bristol, where the focus of her thesis was a study of the value of revisiting the work of modernist and Futurist poets as precedents for poetry work in the Digital Medium. Previous roles include Junior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in Visual Culture at the University of the West of England and Visiting Lecturer in Visual Culture at Bath Spa University College.