English, Drama, Film, Creative Writing & Music Summer School

Reading world literatures

In this lecture we will be studying a selection of spoken-word poetry by the queer activist and South African poet, Koleka Putuma, as an introduction to the approaches to literature you will encounter when studying English at UCD.

Ghosts and Monsters Onstage

Even though ghosts, witches, devils, vampires and monsters might seem childish, they have been essential to the development of theatre as an artform, a mode of entertainment, and a form of ritual. In this session, we will explore how actors, directors, designers and playwrights stage ghosts and other supernatural phenomena in the theatre. We will ask: how is it that stage performances can seem to bring the dead back to life. What do we mean when we talk about ‘stage presence’? Why does live performance have the special power it does, even in an age of screens? Why is darkness so important in the theatre? And why are so many theatres said to be haunted?

Culture on Record: Articulation and Experience in Popular Music

This session explores how popular music reflects and shapes contemporary life, capturing the complexities of lived experience. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s concept of articulation, we’ll explore case studies that reveal how music gives form to social meaning and collective identities.

Sampling in Practice

In this session we will introduce students to the art of sampling in hip hop, as experienced in a composition module in UCD. We will examine some historic examples from the 1990s and 2000s, and will demonstrate how artists use hardware samplers to create beats. There will be an opportunity for some students to have a go at creating and playing samples themselves.

Crafting Stories at UCD

This session will introduce students to UCD’s Creative Writing programme, which nurtures literary talent through workshops, mentorship, and critical study. Students refine their craft across fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, engaging with acclaimed writers. Emphasising originality and voice, the programme cultivates storytelling skills for publishing and the broader literary world.

Animation: It’s not just a genre for kids

In this session we will question our biases about animation and examine it as a medium of expression with the capacity to imagine like no other. It takes Guillermo del Toro’s repeated statement during the awards season of 2023 and asks what it means to think about animation as more than a genre.