Stephen Goulding is a Department for the Economy International funded PhD Researcher at the School of Communication and Media, Ulster University, and a member of the Centre for Media Research. He holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Philosophy from University College, Cork (NUI) and an MA in Speech & Language from Queen's University, Belfast. In September 2017 he began his PhD research at Ulster University, Jordanstown. 

Stephen's PhD dissertation, From Miltiancy to New Media: the discursive construction of Irish republicanism analyses the online discourse of Irish republican social media users across various fora with a view to providing insights into how contemporary republicans construct their ideology and identity, with a focus on power and legitimacy. 

In the past Stephen has taught on various modules in the School of Communication and Media in Jordanstown: Communication and Language (CMM107); Langauge, Media and Society (CMM164);Political Communication (CMM377); The Creative PR Professional (CM170)

He is currently Module Coordinator for Media, Culture and Politics (MED101) in Coleraine

Stephen's research focuses on how republicanism is discursively constructed and represented through various media. His wider research has focused on legitimation strategies of dissident republican press releases; corpus approaches to media representations of republican actors in the British and Irish press; and (with Amy McCroy) the form and function of republican muralism in relation to tourism and audiencing.