About
Research
Email: michelle.paull@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4009
Biography
Dr Michelle Paull is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Michelle’s PhD at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London focused on the theatre of Sean O’Casey and she is currently working on her monograph, Sean O’Casey: Critical Controversies. Michelle’s research and teaching interests include contemporary theatre, London theatre, Irish plays, Sean O’Casey, adaptations on stage and screen and contemporary writing in English.
Michelle has previously taught at Goldsmith's College, University of London, the University of Westminster, the University of North London, the Open University and continues examine for the University of London International Programmes, for which she developed undergraduate modules in drama. Michelle has also taught on the MA Physical Theatre: International Ensemble, MA Theatre Directing and the MA in Irish Studies and is currently co-supervising a PhD on theatre, performance and healthcare.
Michelle is also a trained curator and worked at the British Library as the Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts on the Kenneth Tynan and Conan Doyle archives, as a researcher for the Theatre Museum PeoplePlayUK project, an online theatre and education initiative, and at the Archive for Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at the University of Oxford on the Leyhausen-Spiess Collection.
Michelle is interested in supervising PhDs in the wide area of modern drama & literature, e.g. Daphne du Maurier, Elif Shafack, Curtis Sittenfeld, Rachel Cusk, Ann Patchett; Irish theatre & literature, including Wilde, Shaw, O'Casey, Martin McDonagh, Enda Walsh, Nancy Harris, Elizabeth Bowen, Eimear MacBride & Anne Enright. Please get in touch if you have a writer or theme you would like to focus on.
Research
Areas of research supervision
- Modern drama and literature
- Irish theatre and literature
Research profile
Recent publications
Michelle’s recent publications include:
- ‘Sean O'Casey's Within the Gates 1934: Critical misunderstandings of a new form of dramaturgy’ in New England Theatre Journal, Vol 30, Boston, Mass, 2020
- Duncan Macmillan's 'People Places Things': Addiction, Identity and Performance' 'Journal of Contemporary Drama in English', Issue 4. 2 (2016)
- ‘Dermot Healy’s theatre - local diaspora’ chapter in Writing the Sky; Observations and Essays on Dermot Healy Vol 1 Eds. Keith Hopper and Cornelius Murphy, Dalkey Archive Press, University of Illinois (2016) ISBN 13: 978- 1564789242
- ‘Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk – theatre and event’ chapter in Enda Walsh: Collected Essays, Mary Caulfield and Ian Walsh, Carysfort Press, USA December 2015
- ‘Accounting for O’Casey: Sean O’Casey’s Time to Go’ in Arrivals and Departures in Irish Studies in Europe Vol 5, Salford University Press, September 2015
- ‘Shaw the Londoner: Plays, Politics, Polemics’ in Irish Writing in London ed. Tom Herron Continuum, November, 2012
- ‘When Hitchcock Met O’Casey’ Documentary film - directed by Brian O’Flaherty, Dublin, Ireland, 2019. Michelle was interviewed about Sean O’Casey.
- ‘Sean O'Casey's Within the Gates 1934: Critical misunderstandings of a new form of dramaturgy’ in New England Theatre Journal, Vol 30, Boston, Mass, 2020.