Dr Nessa Johnston BA (Hons), MA, PhD

Research Overview

I specialise in sound and music in media, particularly independent cinema, Irish cinema, and cult media. However, more recently, my research has pivoted to taking a broader interest in production studies and screen industries, and towards more historical approaches using archival methods, as author of the monograph The Commitments: Youth, Music and Authenticity in 1990s Ireland, and Co-Investigator of a Leverhulme project on library music of the 1960s and 1970s. I am currently writing up historical production studies of 1970s American cinema based on archival research during my Fellowship at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, and I have a chapter forthcoming on Roger Corman's 1990s Irish studio in the collection Global Cult Cinema: Decolonizing Cult Film Studies. I also have a research project in development on the intersections between club cultures and screen industries.