Who got that job?

James Moran Lecturer in drama and performance, School of English Studies, Nottingham University
Advertised in The Times Higher , January 14, 2005

After working for nine months at Nottingham on a temporary contract, James Moran (pictured) applied for the permanent lectureship as soon as he saw the advert.

"The interview was very nerve-racking," he said. "It was a full-day affair with four shortlisted candidates, who were all brought together at the start. It was on a Friday and now I know that the decision to appoint me was made late in the afternoon. But the human resources department had closed, so I had a torturous wait over the weekend.

"The only person who wasn't pleased was my sister. She's at Nottingham studying music and was mortified to discover that I'd continue to ruin her street cred."

Dr Moran specialises in 20th-century Irish theatre, and attributes his love of Irish performance to his upbringing.

"We had a strong Irish identity where I grew up in Birmingham and my father made sure I was registered as an Irish national. Everyone went to the Catholic School and watched Gaelic football on TV. Then there were the St Patrick's Day parades, Irish identity through theatre," he said.

Dr Moran is to publish a book on the 1916 Easter Rising and is researching the Dublin socialist playwright Sean O'Casey.

He said: "The most exciting thing about this job is that there are scholars from all disciplines. It's unusual to find theatre and performance studies in an English department with literature and sociolinguistics."