Bio

Dr Rachel Gough is a writer, lecturer, and postdoctoral researcher based in University College Cork. She is engaged in interdisciplinary research on climate and sustainability and lectures on film theory, video game theory, and national cinema. Her research explores the intersections of ecological representation, hauntology, and postcolonial theory.

She is the co-founder of Haunted Futures, an interdisciplinary research network that hosts annual conferences and provides a platform for rigorous intellectual debate on themes of Hauntology. She has consulted for several Irish environmental charities, contributing to the development of Media Action Plans designed to raise public awareness of biodiversity and environmental legislation in Ireland. She is a member of the Estudios Irlandeses editorial board and she is the Public Relations Officer for Women in Research Ireland. 

Research & Teaching

Rachel Gough is based in the CPPU group at the Sustainability Institute where she is working on the EPA-funded CLIMATUDE project. This project is focusing on developing an understanding of Irish people’s attitudes, beliefs and values related to climate change.  She also lectures in the Department of Film and Screen Media.

Writing

She is a published writer. Her fiction has been broadcast as part of the Short Works programme on BBC Radio 4.  Her work has also been published in The Waxed Lemon, Outpost, Bealtaine, The National Flash Fiction Anthology, and Best Small Fictions, with further work forthcoming in The Medusa. Her poetry has been published in Quarryman and is forthcoming in One Good Day and Oscail. She is currently working on her first short story collection. In 2021 her short story ‘December 25th 2022’ was shortlisted at the Wild Atlantic Words Festival. In 2023 she received the Editor’s Choice Award from the National Flash Fiction Day Anthology, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in the same year. In 2025, she was awarded first place in the flash fiction category at the Write by the Sea Literary Festival. In 2026 she was awarded the Irish Writer’s Centre Notre Dame Kylemore Residency. Also in 2026, she was the winner of the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award. 

Funding & Awards

Dr Gough was awarded the Lord Puttnam Scholarship in 2023 in recognition of excellence across research, creative practice, and community outreach. In 2024, she received the CACSSS Creative Connections Project award. In 2025 she and her colleague Dr Ellen Scally were receipients of the Collective Social Futures Fund.