Staff Profiles

Miriam is Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies in the School of English, Media and Creative Arts at the University of Galway, and President of the Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR). Miriam is PI of IRC 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. 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 Queen¿s 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 Queen¿s University Belfast (2013-14). Miriam began her permanent appointment at the University of Galway in August 2014, and in September 2019, moved to Brazil as a visiting scholar based at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), also delivering guest lectures at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF) in Rio de Janeiro, and the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2019 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 forthcoming open-access book, The Theatre of Louise Lowe, is in press with Cambridge University Press Elements (2025). Recent publications include a special issue of Performance Research `On Invasion¿ (2024) co-edited with Helena Grehan and the edited collections Theatre, Performance and Commemoration, co-edited with Alinne Fernandes and Pieter Verstraete for Methuen Bloomsbury (2023) and Legacies of the Magdalen Laundries co-edited with Mary McAuliffe and Emilie Pine for Manchester UP (2021). Miriam¿s practice as research enquiries includes directing and producing Nochtaithe 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 Copper Alley, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous: a celebration of 'difficult' women programmed Dublin Fringe Festival (2020) and Bealtaine Festival (2020, 2022), co-sponsored by the Irish Research Council New Foundations award and the University of Galway. Further information on her research can be found at https://nuigalway.academia.edu/MiriamHaughton. 

Miriam has been awarded research funding and support from the Irish Research Council, Enterprise Ireland, Government of Ireland, the University of Galway, the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), the Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR), The Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame, and UCD. Miriam has supervised doctoral projects investigating contemporary performance practices and female histories of trauma, funded by the Irish Research Council. She welcomes thesis 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.