IRCHSS CARA Postdoctoral Awards for Moore Institute Students (2)

IRCHSS CARA Postdoctoral Awards for Moore Institute Students (2)

Two researchers, John Cunningham and Justin Tonra, who recently completed their Ph.D. theses at the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities & Social Studies, are two of but ten scholars who have been awarded three-year Cara post doctoral fellowships by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences. The Cara post doctoral scheme, which was open for competition in 2010 for the first time, has been funded principally from EU sources under the Marie Curie programme. It requires scholars of high academic attainment to spend two of the three post doctoral years at research institutes outside Ireland, mentored by a senior academic in the host institution, and the third year at an Irish institution with a nominated Irish mentor. The purpose of the scheme is to enable Irish scholars to broaden their research horizons, and to hone their existing research skills while acquiring new ones.

John Cunningham's Ph. D. thesis on the subject of Transplantation to Connacht, 1641- 1680: Theory and Practice was completed at the Moore Institute in the discipline History under the supervision of Nicholas Canny, Academic Director of the Moore Institute. A revised version of the thesis has been accepted for publication in book form by the Royal Historical Society within its Historical Monograph series. For his post doctoral studies John will broaden the scope of his research to undertake a second book entitled Crisis, Conflict and Change in Seventeenth-century Ireland and Bohemia. This topic derives from the recognition that Europe as a whole, and not just Ireland and Britain, experienced remarkable upheavals during the course of the seventeenth century, with many states and societies encountering significant social, political, economic, religious and other problems. In Bohemia and Ireland, outbreaks of rebellion, in 1618 and 1641 respectively, were followed by wars and resulted eventually in settlements involving the mass-confiscation of property and the implementation of other far-reaching measures. The book to be researched and written will compare these processes of crisis, conflict and change in these two kingdoms in one of which Catholicism was suppressed to make way for Protestants and Protestantism and in the other of which Protestants and Protestantism were rooted out. John Cunningham will spend the first two years of the Fellowship at the University of Freiburg with Professor Ronald G. Asch as his mentor and the final year at Trinity College, Dublin where Professor Jane Ohlmeyer will assist him in getting his work to a major university press and in launching his career. John took his primary degree at NUI Galway and had an IRCHSS scholarship to sustain his work for his Ph.D. thesis.

Justin Tonra worked for his Ph. D. thesis at the Moore Institute in the discipline English on A Critical and Textual History of Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh, With Two Editions of ‘Paradise and the Peri' under the supervision of Sean Ryder, Professor of English at NUI Galway. He is currently employed on a digitization research project at University College London. For his post doctoral studies Justin will broaden the scope of his research to undertake a book entitled The Social and Cultural History of Thomas Moore: A Case Study in Globalisation. The study will produce a book based on the works of Thomas Moore, situating the Irish writer within the networks of nineteenth- and twentieth-century history and culture. It will demonstrate and elucidate the dispersal of Moore's works in a variety of locations, media, and formats in order to present this writer as a representative case study for the globalisation of culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Besides the monograph which will show significant instances of the critical and public reception of Moore's works, and demonstrate the writer's influence on important historical moments and their participants during the course of the last two centuries, Justin will compile an electronic archive containing a range of materials to accompany and supplement the monograph: these materials will include digital facsimiles and scholarly editions of those documents whose social and cultural importance has been demonstrated in the monograph. Justin Tonra will spend the first two years of the Fellowship at the University of Virginia with Professor Jerome J. McGann as his mentor and the final year at the Moore Institute, NUI Galway where Professor Sean Ryder will assist him in getting his work to a major university press and in launching his career. Justin took his earlier degrees from Trinity College, Dublin and University College, Dublin, and his Ph.D. research at the Moore Institute was funded from the IRCHSS project grant held by Sean Ryder to develop the Thomas Moore Hypermedia Archive.