I am a lecturer in contemporary theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London and the deputy London theatre critic for Variety (US).

I first became involved in Eurovision research in 2005 when I was granted a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Institute for International Integration Studies at Trinity College, Dublin to study Eurovision as a global network. The postdoc resulted in an in-depth study of Irish Eurovision fandom, in collaboration with Elena Moreo and Brian Singleton. We published two peer-reviewed articles and delivered several papers, including a keynote address at the Finnish Society of Queer Studies' Queer Eurovision conference at the 2007 contest in Helsinki.

I am now co-directing a ESC-related research project on Eurovision and the 'New' Europe with Milija Gluhovic from the University of Warwick. We held a workshop in June 2009 in which 13 scholars came from across Europe to share initial musings on the relationship between the contemporary ESC and the changing Europe, and we are pursuing further funding in hopes of continuing this dialogue.

At the same time, I am delighted to be involved in launching the ERN, to bring together interested parties from academia, the media, broadcasting, and beyond to share and advance our knowledge and understanding of the contest. I have attended the last five ESC contests as a journalist for the Irish Times and other publications and am looking forward to Oslo '10!

Eurovision academic publications:

“Performing the Queer Network: Divas, Fans, and Families at the Eurovision Song Contest”, with Elena Moreo and Brian Singleton. SQS 2 (7) (Journal of Queer Studies in Finland), Spring 2008.

“Part of the Show: The Global Networking of Irish Eurovision Song Contest Fans”, with Elena Moreo and Brian Singleton. In Karen Fricker and Ronit Lentin, eds, Performing Global Networks. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007.

Eurovision-related expert and media activity 2008-2010 includes:

* Contest coverage for The Irish Times and irishtimes.com (usual coverage includes approximately five articles per year.) Cllick here for a sample clip.

 * Interviewed on RTE Radio One Ireland and RTE One TV Ireland in 2008 as a Eurovision expert