Postgraduate Research students

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities has a strong postgraduate community whose members have come from all over the world to pursue their research.

Our PGR students fully participate in our Faculty's research. They enrich our culture; as independent researchers, participants in research projects, attendees at our conferences, or as participants in our research seminars. Many of our research students work across disciplines and have participated in and championed interdisciplinary working across the University, for example, through the interdisciplinary journal SPARK.

Below, you can find the profiles of some of our research students.

Communications, Media and Culture 

Contact details
Column one lists name, column two displays email, column three provides research area.
Name Email Research area
Rachel Abreu r.m.abreu@stir.ac.uk The role of religious identity in ethnic minority women's conceptualisations of beauty on Instagram
Awad Bhenick awad.bhenick@stir.ac.uk  
Christopher Cassidy c.j.cassidy@stir.ac.uk Future-proofing the heritage value of the commonwealth games Scotland archive and associated cultural memories of team Scotland
Onyinye Chiweta-Oduah onyinye.chiweta-oduah@stir.ac.uk Researching health communication around pandemics in rural areas, to better understand the effectiveness of health communication strategies in pandemic circumstances.
Anne Fortune a.l.fortune@stir.ac.uk Anne's research interests encompass World Literatures and Cultures, with a particular focus on popular cultural texts focusing on female characters, or which exist as a result of female labour. Anne's research aims to examine and explore how culture develops, influences and persuades.
Xinyi Gao xinyi.gao@stir.ac.uk  
Aleksandar Kocic aleksandar.kocic@stir.ac.uk A comparative examination of local news provision by public service radio in Scotland and England
Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler sebastian.ludwickiaziegler1@stir.ac.uk

Re-inventing political communication: An investigation into parliamentary assistants as "shadow players of political communication"

Richard McBrearty richard.mcbrearty@stir.ac.uk  
Kondwani Munthali k.b.munthali@stir.ac.uk  
Luiza Mylenka luiza.mylenka@stir.ac.uk  
Levi Tippet l.s.tippett@stir.ac.uk  

 

History, Heritage, and Politics 

Contact details
Column one lists name, column two displays email, column three provides research area.
Name  Email Research area
John Allin j.e.allin@stir.ac.uk Methodism and the people: towards a spatial understanding of its nineteenth century impact.
Hanneke Booij hanneke.booij1@stir.ac.uk  I am a postgraduate researcher working on a collaborative PhD with the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust. In this PhD, I am investigating how small Scottish heritage organisations with social purpose navigate and configure resilience and sustainability in their daily practices and through their uses of creative methods.My PhD is funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH)
Alina Botezatu alina.botezatu@stir.ac.uk  
Mary Campbell  m.m.campbell1@stir.ac.uk  Clan Campbell: Spiritual Authority, Core of Medieval Highland Governance
Scott Carballo s.m.carballo@stir.ac.uk Piracy in the Irish Sea, 1560-1625: An Analysis of the Development of Piracy affecting the Scottish Western Burghs within the Wider Context of the Early Modern Archipelago
Timothy S. Cooke t.s.cooke@stir.ac.uk Ranger operations in the Southern colonies and the Overmountain area, 1763-1781
Calum Cunningham c.e.cunningham@stir.ac.uk Lawful Sovereignty: The Political Criminalisation and Decriminalisation of Jacobitism, 1688-1788
Julia Ann Hale  julie.ann.mchale@stir.ac.uk Landscape, Literature and the Place of the Scottish Coal Mine 
Lucy Henry l.v.henry@stir.ac.uk Gender and Justice in the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Highlands: Women in the sheriff court of Inverness, 1748-1800
Alexander Hiscock a.b.hiscock@stir.ac.uk

Curating Intangible Online Heritage: The Case of the Antonine Wall and Roman Scotland

Lee Janson l.w.janson@stir.ac.uk  
Rebecca Main r.m.main@stir.ac.uk Historicising the emergence and spread of Yersinia pestis (plague) in Neolithic and Bronze Age Eurasia
Philippe Maron philippe.maron@stir.ac.uk John Adams and American - French Diplomacy, c.1778-88
Constance Nestor constance.nestor@stir.ac.uk Scottish Military Participation in the American Revolutionary-Civil War Armies and British Loyalist Regiments
Maria Pride  maria.pride@stir.ac.uk Privateers of the American Revolution from the New England Ports of Salem and Newburyport Massachusetts
Katharina Pruente k.j.pruente@stir.ac.uk Katharina works on clan history, diplomacy, and patterns of conflict and cooperation in Scotland and Europe during the early modern period. Her PhD project focuses on the social networks of Archibald Campbell, fifth earl of Argyll and chief of Clan Campbell (1558-1573)
Juan Benitez Quintana j.j.b.quintana@stir.ac.uk Piety in Medieval Augustinian Scotland
Ieuan Rees i.d.rees@stir.ac.uk I am currently working on an SGSAH funded Collaborative Doctoral Award ‘Heritage, Planning and Place: New Futures for Participatory, Creative Place-Making' at the University of Stirling, Glasgow School of Art, and with my project partner, Planning Aid Scotland
Neil Roy n.a.roy@stir.ac.uk

The Cultural Heritage and Climate Change: An Interdisciplinary Consideration of Damage and Loss

Victoria Russell v.i.russell1@stir.ac.uk The Origins of the University of Stirling
Josh Smith j.j.smith@stir.ac.uk Examining political reading and association at British subscription libraries between 1800 and 1832, with a specific focus on the records of two libraries, the Bristol Library Society and the Leighton Library, Dunblane
Robbie Tree r.d.tree@stir.ac.uk Researcher on the collaborative Scottish Privy Council Project between the Universities of Stirling and Dundee with a focus on administrative, political, and church history of early modern Scotland in addition to the 'serfdom' of Scottish coal mine workers from 1606-1799.

Literature and Languages 

Contact details
Column one lists name, column two displays email, column three provides research area.
Name Email Research area
Francis Aird f.s.aird@stir.ac.uk  
Najlaa AlShahwani najlaa.alshahwani1@stir.ac.uk  
Zita Babarczi zita.babarczi@stir.ac.uk The Female Enigma: Gender in Contemporary Anglophone Conspiracy Fiction, 1960s-Present
Dyhia Bia dyhia.bia@stir.ac.uk The Politics and Aesthetics of the Grotesque and Carnivalesque in Post-independence Africa: from novel to theatre
Laura Bourne l.s.bourne@stir.ac.uk  
Chiara Bullen chiara.bullen@stir.ac.uk Publishing/Law Me Too Movement
Shuyin Chen shuyin.chen@stir.ac.uk Explicitation-related phenomena through the use of connectives in Chinese translations: a corpus-based study of scientific research articles
Yuchen Chen yuchen.chen@stir.ac.uk  
Tsai-Yi (Janet) Chu  tsai-yi.chu@stir.ac.uk The Double Writing of Edgar Allan Poe: Horror, and the Uncanny in the Selected Gothic Poetry and Fictions
Howard Colyer howard.colyer@stir.ac.uk Howard is doing a creative writing PhD about Franz Kafka in 1917/18 - a novel called, Kafka's War. This will focus on the distinction between biography and biographical fiction.
Maike Dinger m.v.dinger@stir.ac.uk Fiction(s) of Political Participation: Literature, Media and the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum combines cultural, media, and literary studies perspectives with contemporary politics to analyse how political participation was mediated during the Scottish independence referendum campaign from 2012 to 2014.
Morven Gow morven.gow@stir.ac.uk Negotiating Authenticity in 21st Century Book Publishing
Duodo Li duoduo.li@stir.ac.uk  
Lucy Janes e.l.janes@stir.ac.uk My PhD project is a social and cultural history of swimming in Glasgow, 1850 to 1950. I'm using archival literary and historical sources to uncover the history of swimming culture, and learn more about the experiences of the men, women and children who swam in the River Clyde, private baths clubs and public swimming pools.
James Johnson james.johnson@stir.ac.uk  
Julie Lacave-Fontourcy julie.lacave-fontourcy@stir.ac.uk  
Shaona Li shaona.li@stir.ac.uk  
Qi Li qi.li@stir.ac.uk  
Yalan Liu yalan.liu@stir.ac.uk Simultaneous Interpreting with text: training implications for the language pair Chinese - English
Yayuan Liu yayuan.liu@stir.ac.uk  
Aileen Lobban aileensheildsbranwell.loggan@stir.ac.uk (On) Reading Louise Bennett, Proverbially
Isla Macfarlane i.h.macfarlane@stir.ac.uk Books, Borrowers and Visitors at the Library of Innerpeffray, 1855-1897
Scott MacKay scott.mackay1@stir.ac.uk  
Helena Markou h.l.markou@stir.ac.uk The Shelf-Life of Books: An Exploration of the Lifecycle and Longevity of Books in the UK in the 21st Century
Emma McCabe emma.mccabe@stir.ac.uk  
Ronan MCGreechin r.p.mcgreechin@stir.ac.uk My research aims to uncover the writings of shipyard workers in the long nineteenth century and consider their engagements with literary and associational cultures, and the way in which they represent issues such as professional identity, migration, religion and culture.
Alea Miller a.j.miller2@stir.ac.uk  
Sonali Misra sonali.misra@stir.ac.uk Publishing
Janine Mitchell j.l.mitchell@stir.ac.uk Freedom Road - The life and work of Peter Mackay
Elaine Morrison-Jures elaine.morrison-jures@stir.ac.uk  
Irina Nakonechna   irina.nakonechna1@stir.ac.uk  Scottish identity and contemporary diasporic literature (1960-present) 
Alicja Piotrowska alice.piotrowska@stir.ac.uk Publishing in Scotland 1968-2018: From Cultural Heritage to Digital Engagement
Francesca Pontini francesca.pontini@stir.ac.uk

Reading the Margins: Investigating Reading Practices in Early Sixteenth-century Scotland

The central aim of this research is to understand how readers in early modern Scotland, interacted with and read the books, printed between 1495 and 1560, that they owned and/or that passed through their hands.

The research takes into consideration readers' interests but also how they wrote and uses palaeography to define the preferred script by readers/annotators in sixteenth-century Scotland.

Jennifer Robertson jennifer.robertson1@stir.ac.uk Jane Austen and the visual culture of the long eighteenth century
Janice Ross janice.ross@stir.ac.uk A Cultural Interpretation of the Community of Barra
Laurie Rostain laurie.rostain@stir.ac.uk  
Laura Sedgwick l.j.sedgwick1@stir.ac.uk The representation of the haunted house in contemporary Hollywood cinema, focuses on how set design, cinematography and sound design are used to create moments of spectral activity
Zoe Slater zoe.slater@stir.ac.uk  
Taryn Tavener-Smith taryn.tavener-smith@stir.ac.uk

Forging liminal identities through film: uncovering the man behind the scenes – a biography of Paul Eilers.

This study is concerned with establishing a comprehensive and authoritative biography through non-fiction biographical life writing and memoir of the South African actor/director/newsreader/radio presenter/producer, Paul Eilers (5 November 1944 – 28 June 2019). From a theoretical perspective, the study applies Victor Turner’s seminal Theory of Liminality (1992) to ascertain the development of fictional vs. factual identities, which oscillate between these realms.

Nicola Torch n.l.torch@stir.ac.uk The intersection between contemporary book publishing and social media environments to better understand how creative activities on social media platforms transform publishing practices. Her research project examines the commercial force that digital creators wield within contemporary culture and the power their literary outputs have on contemporary publishing.
Weike Wang weike.wang@stir.ac.uk  
Nicolette Williams n.a.williams@stir.ac.uk  
Shu Yang shu.yang@stir.ac.uk  
Cleo O'Callaghan Yeoman cleo.o.callaghan.yeoman@stir.ac.uk Analysing the relationships between novel reading and ideas of ‘improvement’ in early nineteenth-century Scottish novels. Cleo is particularly interested in the works of Scottish authors: Mary Brunton, Susan Ferrier, John Galt, Elizabeth Hamilton, James Hogg, and Walter Scott.

Law and Philosophy

Contact details
Column one lists name, column two displays email, column three provides research area.
Name Email Research area
Etisang Abraham e.e.abraham@stir.ac.uk Renewable energy legal regime as a remedy for environmental degradation in Nigeria: Lessons for the United Kingdom and China
Muhammed Ali Alamri m.a.alamri@stir.ac.uk A Critical assessment of the Anti-Dumping and Safeguard Laws of the Gulf Cooperation Council from a WTO Law Perspective
Nicholas Allen n.d.allen@stir.ac.uk  
Frederik Andersen f.j.andersen@stir.ac.uk  
Olayiwola Babalola o.s.babalola@stir.ac.uk How can the Hague Securities Convention reform the legal and regulatory framework of African ‘big three’ and London stock exchanges’ intermediated OTC derivative trading?  
Lorraine Chiwenga lorraine.chiwenga@stir.ac.uk A Comparative Analysis of Legal and Regulatory Provisions for Environmental Safety during the Lifecycle of Nuclear Power Stations in the UK and South Africa.
Jann Engler j.p.engler@stir.ac.uk  
Enrico Galvagni enrico.galvagni@stir.ac.uk  
Jean Gove jean.gove@stir.ac.uk  
Joel Joseph joel.joseph@stir.ac.uk  
Lara Jost l.a.jost@stir.ac.uk  
Kaso Kardonya kaso.kardonya@stir.ac.uk An analysis of harmonisation efforts in the field of jurisdictional party autonomy in insurance contracts globally and in Europe. 
Tom Kaspers tom.kaspers@stir.ac.uk   
Ang Li ang.li@stir.ac.uk  
David MacDonald d.m.macdonald@stir.ac.uk  
Belinda Marshall b.j.reilly@stir.ac.uk  
Andriani Matsiou a.a.matsiou@stir.ac.uk The discovery of hydrocarbons in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus: a wish or a curse?
Johannes Nickl j.m.nickl@stir.ac.uk  
Matteo Nizzardo matteo.nizzardo@stir.ac.uk  
Andrea Oliani andrea.oliani@stir.ac.uk  
Mohamed Omran m.m.omran@stir.ac.uk Do Libya's current competition rules in Commercial Law ensure fair competition?
Anna Pavicic anna.pavicic@stir.ac.uk  Scots Law of Promise: A Comparative Analysis of the History, Functionality, and Relevance of Promise
Niccolo Pisano n.a.pisano@stir.ac.uk  
Cheryl Warden c.e.warden1@stir.ac.uk  
Qiantong Wu qiantong.wu@stir.ac.uk