Moore Institute

CAMPS: Socio-Legal Status of Minorities within the English Lands in Medieval Ireland by Stephen Hewer
2020-01-31 12:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Hardiman Research Building Room G011, Ireland
More info to follow …

CreateHER: Women in the Performing Arts: Amplifying Social Discourse through Theatre
2020-01-30 15:00 - 17:00 | Studio 1, O’Donoghue Centre
Pictured above: The cast of The Kinds of Sex You Might Have In College
Join panelists Dr. Charlotte McIvor, Marianne Ní Chinnéide, Sorcha Keane, and Rachel Parry in conversation about how the performing arts can impact social change.
For more information and to reserve a space, please click here.

History Research Seminar Series: 'Humanitarian Aid in a Hostile Environment: A comparative exploration of Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam’s operations in the post-Khmer Rouge Cambodian crisis'
2020-01-29 16:00 - 17:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Maria Cullen is in the second year of a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Kevin O’Sullivan. She has been awarded a Galway Doctoral Scholarship and an NUI Travelling Studentship. Her thesis compares French and British NGOs and their work in authoritan regimes in the Global South from decolonisation to the end of the Cold War. The paper she is giving on Wednesday is entitled: ‘Humanitarian Aid in a Hostile Environment: A comparative exploration of Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam’s operations in the post-Khmer Rouge Cambodian crisis’
All welcome.

History Research Seminar Series: Humanitarian Aid in a Hostile Environment: A comparative exploration of Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam’s operations in the post-Khmer Rouge Cambodian crisis'
2020-01-24 08:00 - 17:00
Maria Cullen is in the second year of a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Kevin O’Sullivan. She has been awarded a Galway Doctoral Scholarship and an NUI Travelling Studentship. Her thesis compares French and British NGOs and their work in authoritan regimes in the Global South from decolonisation to the end of the Cold War.
All welcome.

NUIG/Galway 2020 Open Meeting
2020-01-23 12:00 - 14:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
In support of NUI Galway’s role as Official Legacy Partner of Galway 2020, NUI Galway has set up a Steering Group, chaired by Professor Dan Carey, to co-ordinate the University’s extensive internal programme of activities to mark the European Capital of Culture year. Working across multiple strands, its purpose is to develop a cultural legacy that will have a lasting impact on Galway’s creative arts sector and the university.
To discuss the activities being led by NUI Galway during 2020 and beyond, we would like to invite you to an Open Meeting on Thursday, January 23, 2020 @ 12 noon in Room G010, Ground Floor, Hardiman Research Building. This meeting is an opportunity to describe the range of activities supported by the university in this context, to meet staff from Galway 2020 with whom we are collaborating, and to raise any questions you may have about how to engage with Galway 2020.
The meeting will include a number of 5 minute presentations from staff within NUI Galway and Galway 2020 with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. The meeting will also include a presentation from Marilyn Gaughan-Reddan, Head of Programme at Galway 2020, who will update staff on the cultural programme and give an insight into plans for the official launch event on February 8th.
Those interested in attending are asked to register for the event by Tuesday, January 21, 2020.

A light lunch and refreshments will be provided.

History Research Seminar Series: Boycottism” in Ireland and America: Popular action as political thought.
2020-01-22 16:00 - 17:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
This seminar will be given by Dr. Andrew Phemister who is an IRC postdoctoral fellow based in the Moore Institute. Andrew completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh and works primarily on nineteenth-century political thought, particularly in Ireland, Britain and the U.S. He has previously written on the Land War and is currently working on a project about the development and impact of boycotting.

CAMPS: Medievalism and Modern Nationalism
2020-01-17 12:00 - 14:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Facilitated by Francisco Rozano-Garcia, Frances McCormack and Jenni Scanlan.
A light lunch will be provided.
All welcome.

Exhibition Launch - 'Readers & Reputations: The Reception & Circulation of Early Modern Women's Writing, 1550-1700' RECIRC
2020-01-16 05:00 - 18:00 | Foyer the Hardiman Research Building, Ireland

Digital Scholar Workshop
2020-01-14 10:00 - 13:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Using our recently acquired ScanTent, (developed as part of the READ project, for more information, see https://scantent.eu/en/ ), and our trustee SLR cameras, this event will see participants divided into teams. The event will be a race to see which piece of equipment copes better with rapid digitisation, with lighting, clarity, processing speed, and image quality for the web weighted as the measures of success.
There will also be spot prizes for rapid fire rounds of digitisation, finding a gremlin in the collection of archives you are working on, and more besides!
In the workshop, we will work together to digitise and publish a collection of archives for the web. The output will be a crowd-sourced piece of work that opens up a collection of archives to the wider world for research and consultation.
Learning objectives and output

Preparing archival documents for digitisation
Adjusting position, and assessing lighting requirements for digitisation
Organising and storing images
Output – a collection of archives published and available online

Workshop facilitators and speaker
Aisling Keane is the Digital Archivist at NUI Galway, and works as part of the Library’s Digital Publishing and Innovation Team to manage digital collections and promote digital scholarship. She is a professional archivist with an academic background in the Humanities. Prior to working in NUI Galway, she worked in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and in Met Eireann.
Are you a Digital Scholar?
Developing skills with digital technologies can be a challenge for researchers interested in digital and open scholarship.
To help, the Library, in partnership with the Moore Institute, presents a series of informal workshops to share practice-based expertise, know-how, and experience in technologies and methods, that will enhance your experience of newer forms of scholarship.
The series
26 November 2019 – Web maps, data visualisation, and mapping with Neatline. David Kelly and Cillian Joy. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
17 December 2019 – Managing digital collections. Objects, metadata, ingestion, and access. Aisling Keane. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
14 January 2020 – Scanathon. Crowd-sourced digitisation. Aisling Keane. G011, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
18 February 2020 – Online and digital identity for scholars. Blaneth McSharry & Grainne McGrath. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
10 March 2020 – Video production for scholars. Eileen Kennedy. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
14 April 2020 – Working with images in Python for research. Cillian Joy. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00

Immersive Empathy Workshop
2019-12-11 09:00 - 2019-12-13 13:00 | Moore Institute, Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway, Galway
Important Update: This workshop has been rescheduled to December 11th – 13th. It was originally scheduled from September 4th – 6th.

Immersive Empathy: Exploring the impact of immersive environments in the context of homelessness and precarious housing
We are interested in exploring the use of Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality immersive experiences with community groups engaged with homelessness or precarious housing in the Western Region. We will focus on the impact of such experiences on empathy levels amongst participants from the general population.
The workshop will challenge participants to work in small, interdisciplinary groups to consider specific projects that address challenges around precarious housing. The involvement of community groups with hands-on understanding of the problem domain will position the lived experiences of those affected by precarious housing at the heart of the research process.
We are seeking expressions of interest to participate from interested parties with backgrounds including human-computer interaction (HCI), computer science, psychology, geography, digital humanities and media studies, as well as VR filmmakers, artists, theatre makers, technologists, and representatives of relevant community groups. Please register your interest by completing this online form.
Background
In Ireland’s West Region, since 2014, an unprecedented increase of 81% in the number of adults identified as homeless has taken place. A steep rise also appears in the number of families affected by the current housing situation, with a jump of 176% in the number of families accessing emergency accommodation over the same period.
The aim of the project is to explore the use of Virtual or Augmented Reality immersive experiences with community groups engaged with homelessness or precarious housing. There will be a focus on considering the impact of such immersive experiences on empathy levels amongst participants from the general population.
Workshop Structure

Domain speakers. There will be contributions from researchers and practitioners in the areas of homelessness, immersive environments, and empathy or attitude evaluation. The objective is to give an overview of each area, and to provoke thought about the interdisciplinary approaches that can be brought to it.
Participant experiences. To help develop understanding between participants, and to identify areas of shared interest, each will make a contribution discussing the challenge domain, and ways to address it, when viewed through the lens of their discipline. This phase will include community organisations to avoid the notion of “imposed” solutions.
Small-Group Collaboration. Participants will work in small groups to identify project ideas, and to develop these into potential projects over the course of the workshop. Outputs from this phase may be project proposals, storyboards, paper- or working prototypes, or implemented pilot projects. Groups will present their work for discussion and feedback at the mid-way point, and at the end of the workshop. This will enable shared learning among all participants, while giving individual groups the opportunity to explore a single project idea more deeply.
Funding Proposal Development. [optional half-day on September, 6th] Participants will have the opportunity to move from a project development mode to thinking about how their project idea may be scaled up to form one or more larger research projects. The objective of this phase is to identify potential partners, funding sources, and structured work packages that will enable project delivery. Staff from NUI Galway’s Research Office will be in attendance to offer participants advice on the development of project proposals.

Initiative Overview
This workshop is funded by the Irish Research Council’s “Creative Connections” interdisciplinary research programme. The consortium responsible for organising the workshop include:
Mark Campbell (Pocket Anatomy); Celine Curtin (Head of Centre for the Creative Arts & Media, GMIT); Gavin Duffy (RealSim); Mairéad Hogan (Lecturer in Information Systems, NUIG); Dr Conn Holohan (Lecturer in Film Studies, NUIG); David Kelly (Digital Humanities Manager, Moore Institute, NUIG); Denise McDonagh (Digital Programme Manager, Galway 2020); Dr Kathy Reilly (Lecturer in Geography, NUIG); Dr Charlotte Silke (Postdoctoral Researcher, UNESCO Child & Family Research Centre, NUIG); Karen Young (Lecturer in IT, NUIG).
Interested in Participating?
We are seeking expressions of interest to participate from interested parties with backgrounds including human-computer interaction (HCI), computer science, psychology, geography, digital humanities and media studies, as well as VR filmmakers, artists, theatre makers, technologists, and representatives of relevant community groups. Please register your interest by completing this online form.
Questions
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact David Kelly (david.d.kelly@nuigalway.ie) at the Moore Institute, NUI Galway.

Imagining Ireland's Pasts: agendas, tensions, and challenges in young Ireland circles by Nicholas Canny, Emeritus Professor of History
2019-12-10 12:00 - 13:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Hosted by the Retired Staff Association Lecture Series.
All welcome.

EDEN's Lightning Presentation Session
2019-12-05 17:30 - 19:00 | Room 1001, the Bridge, Hardiman Research Building
We would like to welcome all current postgraduate students to the final EDEN event of the semester: EDEN’s Lightning Presentation Session on Thursday 5th December in the Bridge Room – 1001 HRB.

The Lightning Presentations session is a chance for you to showcase your research, practice your presentation skills, and apply the tips and hints from gained throughout the year –all in five minutes!

You can present on any aspect of your work in any way you would like–as long as it is five minutes or less! Attendance is open and all are encouraged to join, so this is a great chance to share your research with a wider audience and network with your peers.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us directly or at eden.nuigalway@gmail.com.

The deadline to register to present is Tuesday, December 3rd by 5pm. Please express any technical needs at this time as well.

Below are some additional guidelines for the presentations.

We look forward to seeing all the great work currently being undertaken!

EDEN: Early Doctoral Exchange Network

eden.nuigalway@gmail.com | Find us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter

EDEN Lightning Presentations
Overview:

5 minutes MAX (You will be timed, you will be cut off)
You may present on any aspect of your research in any way that you would like
Panels of 3 presentations will be followed by 10 minutes of Q&A
This is a chance to share your work with a wider audience and to learn about research being conducted in and across disciplines
Attendance is open and staff from all disciplines are welcomed!
At the end of the session we will announce a winner for best presentation!

Tips and Hints

Practice your pitch and time yourself!
Be reasonable—think about how much you can get into 5 minutes and stick to that.
Prioritise—we know your research is a precious, complicated and multi-faceted snowflake, but what are they key points that you need to get across to a general audience?
Be focused—maybe you can’t cover your whole topic in one case study, but you can highlight your methodology or one aspect of your research.
Use any visual aids wisely.

Registration for participation closes at 5 pm on Tuesday 3rd December. Notification for any AV or technical needs must be expressed by this time!
Feel free to invite your supervisor, friends or family!
As per usual, we expect to adjourn to a local hostelry for post presentation pints. All Welcome.

Launch of two books edited by Dr. Deirdre Byrnes, German, NUIG
2019-12-05 17:30 - 18:30 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
You are warmly invited to the launch by Professor Ian Wallace of the volumes
German Reunification and the Legacy of GDR Literature and Culture

and
Perceptions and Perspectives: Exploring Connections between Ireland and the GDR
Both volumes were edited by Dr. Deirdre Byrnes (NUI Galway), Dr. Jean E. Conacher (UL) and Dr. Gisela Holfter (UL).
The launch will be followed by a reception.
Fáilte roimh chách.

'Life and Labor in Hannah Arendt's Thought' by Prof. Peg Birmingham (De Paul University)
2019-12-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Peg Birmingham is a world renowned authority on the work of Hannah Arendt, while her interests also range widely in social and political philosophy, as well as feminist theory. She is the author of Deception, Violence and Law Renewing the Political (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) Hannah Arendt and Human Rights (Indiana University Press, 2006) and co-editor (with Anna Yeatman) of Aporia of Rights: Explorations in Citizenship in the Era of Human Rights (Bloomsbury, 2014), and co-editor (with Philippe van Haute) of Dissensus Communis: Between Ethics and Politics (Koros 1995).

https://mooreinstitute.ie/research-group/values-identities/

'“Averred with Solemn Emotion’s Fire”: The Affective Contours of Finnegans Wake' by Dr. Frances McCormack, NUIG
2019-12-02 17:00 - 18:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Modernist Studies Ireland

Works in Progress
To see out this semester’s series of Works in Progress talks, please join us for a fascinating Christmas talk (avec gingerbread & wine) by NUI Galway’s own Frances McCormack. Frances’s paper will shine a light on one of the most critically neglected universals underpinning Joyce’s Finnegans Wake: emotional expression.

Abstract
The emotional turn in literature has much to contribute to Wakean scholarship. Joyce himself creates a rich tableau of affect in the work, depicting human feeling as not only a catalyst for much of the action—both historic and domestic—in the text, but also reiterating its truth value as lying beyond mere human experience. This paper will examine some of the ways in which emotions scholarship can elucidate the Wake, analysing conceptual metaphors and somatovisceral experiences of emotions. It will explore the ways in which the Wake both invites and resists such readings, explain which emotions dominate the text, and explain how that ought to shape our reading of the work as a whole. Concern with the affective contours of the Wake can help to shed light on some of the seemingly more inscrutable passages of the text, providing a point of entry for the reader through experiences that are depicted as ubiquitous. Emotion scholarship therefore functions as a way of mediating—in its negotiation of both sense and sensed—between audience and text.
Biography
Dr Frances McCormack is a lecturer in English at the National University of Ireland, Galway. A medievalist by training, she has published on Old and Middle English literature, Graham Greene, and literary animal studies. She is currently engaged in explorations of emotions in Old English poetry, and is working on a monograph on the nature of compunction in Old English. Her first monograph, Chaucer and the Culture of Dissent, was published in 2007. She was co-editor of Chaucer’s Poetry: Words, Authority, and Ethics, and of Anglo-Saxon Emotions: Reading the Heart in Old English Language, Literature, and Culture. She is a multi-award-winning teacher, and became obsessed with the Wake eight years before she tried to read it.

Republic of Conscience: Human Rights and Modern Irish Poetry by Dr. Rióna Ní Fhrighil
2019-11-26 13:00 - 14:00 | Seminar Room, Irish Centre for Human Rights
The triadic relationship between poetry, human rights and literary translation is at the heart of the research project Republic of Conscience: Human Rights and Modern Irish Poetry upon which this presentation is based. Cognisant that Percy Bysshe Shelley claimed that “poets were the unacknowledged legislators of the world”, this presentation will critically examine the relationship between poetry, human rights, and activism in an interconnected world. What is the role of the poet in times of great crises? To what extent, if at all, have Irish poets engaged critically with the concept of human rights itself? What is the relevance of the national paradigm in an era of global networks where information, capital, goods, and discourse transverse geographical and political borders? This presentation will also include a discussion of the opportunities inherent in, and the challenges posed by, interdisciplinary research of this type.
Dr. Rióna Ní Fhrighil is a lecturer in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She has published extensively on twentieth-century Irish poetry and literary translation and is the author of Briathra, Béithe agus Banfhilí (2008), a monograph on the poetry of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Eavan Boland. She is co-editor of the peer-reviewed journal LÉANN and of a forthcoming special edition of the international journal Translation Studies titled Translation in Ireland: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Rióna was the principal Irish-language researcher on the AHRC-funded project, The Representation of Jews in Irish Literature. In 2018 she was awarded substantial research funding under the prestigious IRC Laureate Award scheme for her project Republic of Conscience: Human Rights and Modern Irish Poetry. She is also co-director of the interdisciplinary project Aistriú, funded by Galway 2020 as part its European Capital of Culture programme.
All welcome!
Website: www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/IrishCentreHR
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/IrishHumanRights

Web maps, data visualisation, and mapping with Neatline
2019-11-26 10:00 - 13:00 | The Moore Institute Seminar Room G010 Ground floor The Hardiman Research Building, Ireland
This session will introduce some key aspects of visualising your research data using web-based maps.
You will have the opportunity to get hands-on and follow along with a demonstration of how to create your own simple web-based map using an online service and an institutional version of Omeka/Neatline. There will also be a short overview of using JavaScript to create maps based on Open Source technology, for publication on the web.
Registration
Please register to attend via Eventbrite
Learning Objectives
After the workshop, participants should:

Know when and why to should use web-based maps for data visualisation;
Understand the conceptual and technological components of a web-based map;
Be able to use an online service to present data on a map of their own

Workshop facilitators and speakers
David Kelly is Digital Humanities Manager for the Moore Institute at NUI Galway. He works with individual researchers and research project teams engaged in DH projects. To date, this has included projects involving database development, text and data visualisation, social annotation, digital edition development and network analysis.
Cillian Joy works in the NUI Galway Library on Digital Publishing and Innovation. His primary focus is the digital library strategy and programme of work to enable digital scholarship. Key areas for Cillian are project management, solutions to deliver new digital initiatives, integration, and interoperability. Cillian has a primary degree in Experimental Physics and a Masters in Information Systems and Computer Science. In the past Cillian worked as a Project Manager, Principal Technical Specialist, and for Web development and hosting companies.

Are you a Digital Scholar?
Developing skills with digital technologies can be a challenge for researchers interested in digital and open scholarship.
To help, the Library, in partnership with the Moore Institute, presents a series of informal workshops to share practice-based expertise, know-how, and experience in technologies and methods, that will enhance your experience of newer forms of scholarship.
The series:

26 November 2019 – Web maps, data visualisation, and mapping with Neatline. David Kelly and Cillian Joy. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
17 December 2019 – Managing digital collections. Objects, metadata, ingestion, and access. Aisling Keane. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
14 January 2020 – Scanathon. Crowd-sourced digitisation. Aisling Keane. G011, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
18 February 2020 – Online and digital identity for scholars. Blaneth McSharry & Grainne McGrath. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
10 March 2020 – Video production for scholars. Eileen Kennedy. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00
14 April 2020 – Working with images in Python for research. Cillian Joy. G010, Hardiman building, 10:00-13:00

Symposium on Hispanic Crime Narrative
2019-11-22 10:00 - 14:00 | Hardiman Research Building Room G011, Ireland
Including a keynote by Dr Stewart King (Monash, Australia) on ‘Spanish Crime Fiction in and beyond Spanish Studies, this symposium brings together specialists from Ireland who approach ‘Hispanic’ crime fiction from a range of different perspectives: Dr David Conlon (Maynooth) takes a comparative look at Borges and Twin Peaks: The Return; Dr Marieke Krajenbrink (UL) examines the German-authored ‘Barcelona Krimi’; Dr Diana Battaglia (UCD) discusses the work of Cuban Leonardo Padura Fuentes in the context of societal crisis; and Dr Kate Quinn (NUIG) re-assesses Ramón Díaz Eterovic’s ‘Heredia series’ in light of current events in Chile.
Photos: Book cover and photo from a left-wing bookshop in Chile.
Schedule:
10:00-11:00
Dr David Conlon (Maynooth) ‘Detection and Ontological Crisis in Jorge Luis Borges and Twin Peaks: The Return’.
Dr Marieke Krajenbrink (UL) ‘The Barcelona-Krimi. Representations of Spain in recent German crime fiction’.
11:00-12:00 Keynote by Dr Stewart King (Monash) ‘Spanish crime fiction in and beyond Spanish Studies’.
12:00-12:30 Coffee
12:30-13:30
Dr Diana Battaglia (UCD) ‘Narratives of crisis and resistance: Leonardo Padura’s Cuban Noir’.
Dr Kate Quinn (NUIG) ‘Ramón Díaz Eterovic’s Heredia Series as disillusioned chronicle of the Chilean transition to democracy’.
13:30-14:00
Round-table discussion.
This event is supported by an Athena Swann Research Capacity Building grant awarded by the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies and sponsored by the office of the VP for Equality and Diversity, and hosted by the Moore Institute.
Organiser: Dr Kate Quinn, Spanish and Latin American Studies

The Rory Kavanagh Bursary Presentation
2019-11-21 17:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
The Rory Kavanagh Bursary Presentation is an event showcasing the Erasmus experience in Italy by students of Italian at NUIG, the opportunity to celebrate the memory of Rory Kavanagh and his passion for Italian life, language and culture, and the generosity of Mary and Des Kavanagh, whose endowment to the University has made it possible to award the Rory Kavanagh Bursary every year since 1998.
This year’s presentation will be introduced by The Bursar, Ms. Sharon Bailey, and will focus on the experience of Peter Magliocco, the recipient of the Rory Kavanagh Bursary 2018.
Photo taken at least year’s presentation : from left to right, The Registrar, Professor Pól O’ Dochartaigh, Des Kavanagh, Éilis Gillespie (winner of the Rory Kavanagh Bursary 2017), Mary Kavanagh, Professor Paolo Bartoloni (Head of Italian).

'Prosimetrical sagas in Irish and Norse: the background of the form' by Prof. Mikael Males, University of Oslo
2019-11-20 17:00 | The River Room, AS203, Arts/Science Building
Mikael Males is Associate Professor at the Dept of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo, and PI of the project Myths about Language in the Middle Ages.
Publications include Etymology and Wordplay in Medieval Literature (ed.) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019)
The Poetic Genesis of Old Icelandic Literature (Berlin: De Gruyter, in press for 2020)
Event hosted by Classics and Celtic Civilisation.
All welcome.

'The Irish Leviathan and Late Norse Paganism' by Prof. Mikael Males, University of Oslo
2019-11-19 13:00 - 17:00 | The River Room, AS203, Arts/Science Building

'From Ethics to Ontology to the Anthropocene' by Dr. Nora Ward
2019-11-18 15:00 - 16:30 | Tom Duddy Seminar Room, Philosophy Department Morrisroe House, Distillery Road
Dr. Nora Ward (NUI, Galway) will present a paper. ‘From Ethics to Ontology to the Anthropocene’, as part of the seminar series of the Values and Identities research group on Monday 18th November.
About the speaker
Nora Ward is a lecturer in the philosophy department. She received her BA and MA from NUIG, and completed her Ph.D. in the University of North Texas. Her research is on environmental ethics, with a particular focus on environmental identity, ecofeminism and ecomodernism. She is also interested in public philosophy and the role and place of philosophical work outside the academy.
Abstract
Christian Diehm writes that “the increasingly arcane debates about environmental ethics are, at base, debates about ontology.”1 The implication that the field of environmental ethics may be more appropriately understood as environmental ontology has a long history in environmental philosophy, with many thinkers stressing the primacy of ontology over ethics and asserting that a productive environmental ethic can only emerge as a direct consequence of a radically new conception of subjectivity. Yet, practical questions as to how a new ethic can emerge from a new ontology remain largely unanswered. In this talk, I look at the role of story as intermediary between ethics and ontology within environmental philosophy, with specific reference to the work of Irish philosopher, John Moriarty. I argue that Moriarty’s work uses particular narratives as a way to ground and contextualise subjectivity in its relation to place, serving as a possible point of connection between modes of being and modes of action. Finally, I briefly explore whether the Anthropocene is another possible example of such a grounding narrative, analysing, in particular, the role of ontological insecurity in orienting towards ethical action.
Bio:
https://mooreinstitute.ie/research-group/values-identities/
ALL WELCOME

‘The Clonbrock Photographic Collection and Lady Clonbrock (1839-1928): Contemporary Contexts and Public Activism' by Úna Kavanagh
2019-11-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Seminar Room, Centre for Irish Studies, Distillery Road
The Centre for Irish Studies invites you to attend the final seminar of our Irish Studies’ Seminar Series by Úna Kavanagh, PhD Scholar at the Centre for Irish Studies, will speak on her current research, ‘The Clonbrock Photographic Collection and Lady Clonbrock (1839-1928): Contemporary Contexts and Public Activism’. The seminar will take place at 4pm, Seminar Room, Centre for Irish Studies.
Úna Kavanagh’s doctoral research, ‘Empire, Science and Gender: The Life and Work of Lady Clonbrock, August Dillon née Crofton’, critically explores the life and work of Lady Clonbrock, Augusta Dillon née Crofton (1839-1928) through images from the Clonbrock Photographic Collection (CPC) currently housed at the National Library of Ireland.
Her work investigates Augusta Dillon, Anglo-Irish woman of the ‘Big House’ at the Clonbrock Estate in East Galway. Dillon was a woman who made significant contributions to society over her extensive lifetime, including public and private endeavours dedicated to family, religion, politics and the people of Connaught. This research will foreground Dillon’s scientific endeavours and her public life as a nineteenth-century Victorian woman of Ireland and Britain. Úna’s study of Augusta Dillon will strengthen, critique and challenge previous representations of this forgotten Anglo-Irish figure. It will be the first substantial critical study of Dillon’s life, work and legacy as framed through considerations of empire, science and gender.
Previous research in the area focused predominantly on the key area of photography. It illustrated the seminal contribution of Augusta Dillon to the Clonbrock Photograph Collection (CPC) and her role as a scientific pioneer through it in the late-Victorian, early-Edwardian era, upholding the British Empire while residing in the West of Ireland.
At the seminar next Thursday Úna will demonstrate how, through photographic images, the Dillon family used their home and its surroundings to promote the family as being progressive, modern, intellectually and scientifically inquisitive, and as benevolent landlords. Augusta’s wide-ranging public engagement will also be discussed with a particular focus on her duties with the Mountbellew Poor Law Union and Mountbellew Rural Disrict Council. Úna will be presenting on this portion of the seminar at the Galway Great Reads Festival, “Pumps, piers & potholes… 120 years of Local Government” at the Raheen Woods Hotel, Athenry on Saturday 16 November 2019.
Originally from Kerry, Úna Kavanagh has lived in Cork, London and Houston, Texas before returning to Galway in 2010. She is currently a PhD candidate engaged in a scholarly biographical study of Augusta Dillon, Lady Clonbrock (1839-1928) working with Dr Nessa Cronin at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway. She completed a BA Connect with Irish Studies at NUI Galway in 2017, and received an Irish Studies’ Fellowship to attend the Yeats’ Summer School as part of her BA studies in 2014. Úna was awarded an MA Humanities’ Scholarship in 2017, and in 2018 she undertook her MA in History at NUI Galway where she was won the P. J. Mara Scholarship award. Her MA Dissertation focused on how anti-Treaty internees articulated versions of masculinities and their ideologies through contributions to an autograph book from those interned in Tintown Camp No. 2 at the Curragh during 1923.

Photos attached: 2019 Galway’s Great Read Festival: Úna Kavanagh thrilled to meet Ms Mary Glynn (née Egan) who worked in Clonbrock House in the 1940s, at a talk on the Estate’s photo collection at Ballinasloe Library, bringing Irish photographic and landscape history alive!

Nikola Tesla: The Rise and Fall of a Technological Hero
2019-11-13 16:00 | Room 1001, the Bridge, Hardiman Research Building
By Prof. Bernie Carlson (University of Virginia)
As part of NUI Galway History Research Seminar Series Semester 1, 2019-20.
The final session of the History Research Seminar this semester, next Wednesday, 13 November, features Prof. Bernie Carlson from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Carlson is a historian of technology based in the Faculty of Engineering, where he uses the careers of inventors and entrepreneurs to educate future engineers. He is the author of three monographs, including one on Nikola Tesla, which has been published in nine languages. He will be drawing on this biography for his paper entitled: “Nikola Tesla: The Rise and Fall of a Technological Hero”.
Please note that the seminar meets in The Bridge, Room 1001, First Floor, Hardiman Research Building. We will return to our usual venue of G010 after Christmas.

'Virtuosity, Mediocrity and Creative Education' by Dr. Ian Munday (NUI Galway)
2019-11-11 15:00 - 16:00 | Tom Duddy Seminar Room, Philosophy Department Morrisroe House, Distillery Road
About the Speaker
Dr. Ian Munday is Senior Lecturer in Educational Philosophy in the School of Education at NUI Galway. Ian’s research activities testify to an engagement with philosophical issues in education, particularly those concerned with teaching and learning. His publications have tended to focus on various approaches to performatives and performativities and demonstrate the significance of these ideas for education. The themes explored in these terms include race, gender, authority and the language of schooling. Here, philosophical ideas are treated in regard to their relevance to the details of educational practice. Ian has also written on the themes of creativity and problem-solving. Ian is currently Convenor of Network 13 Philosophy of Education at ECER and Convenor of the Irish branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.
Abstract
The popular understanding of creativity within the study of education tends to include the notion that everybody is creative and that one can draw a distinction between little “c” (or “common”) and big “C” (or “high”) creativity. Here “Creativity” talk resonates with other popular discourses around inclusion and well-being – creativity should no longer be the domain of the talented few, and being creative can make us feel better. The commonly assumed connection between creativity and the arts is sublimed as the former is pictured as both ubiquitous and germane to all forms of activity. The view of creativity outlined above tends to be presented as “progressive” and vital for social and economic survival in the 21st century. “Conservative” opposition to it can be found in the work of the philosopher Roger Scruton who stresses the value of creative genius, and the importance of being exposed to it, in the face of what he sees as an increasingly degraded culture. In this paper I try and show ways in which the oppositions created by this disagreement deconstruct. Drawing on Nietzsche’s discussion of “untimeliness” I argue that the popular conception of creativity is only progressive in the most limited sense and contributes to conserving a nihilistic social imaginary in regard to the future. I then consider ways in which virtuosity is not without its virtues when it comes to social progress and that dulling its flame paves the way for an enforced mediocrity that maintains the status quo. Finally, I introduce Dewey and Derrida to the discussion to consider the possibility that though creativity is in certain senses ubiquitous this need not take the anodyne form presented in the literature on education that makes this case.
Venue: Tom Duddy seminar room, Philosophy Building, Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Road
All Welcome!

Film Screening and Q&A with historian and co-producer Bríona Nic Dhiarmada
2019-11-08 10:30 | CA 107, Aras Cairnes, NUI Galway
‘Mairéad Farrell — An Unfinished Conversation’ is a documentary from Loopline Film which investigates the life and death of Mairéad Farrell. In 1988, the SAS shot dead Farrell and two other unarmed members of the IRA in Gibraltar. Due to her youth, her gender, and her stature within the IRA, Farrell was quickly subsumed into the pantheon of Irish republican martyrs. To the British, she was a terrorist. To her family, she was a victim of Irish history. Martina Durac directed this documentary.
The screening will conclude with a Q&A with historian Bríona Nic Dhiarmada, a co-producer of the film. The documentary film is based on the personal relationship Nic Dhiarmada had with Farrell. The two met several times and talked about Farrell’s life journey from the middle-class upbringing in Belfast to her rise as an iconic IRA figure once imprisoned then gunned down at age 31. At the time of Farrell’s death in 1988, Nic Dhiarmada had been working on a book about her.
All are welcome!
This event is being held in tandem with a witness seminar on conflict related funerals later in the day at the Moore Institute.
This film screening is co-funded by the Moore Institute at NUIG and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

To register please click here

The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles
2019-11-07 17:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Book launch By Maggie Scull
The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-98 (Oxford University Press, 2019) provides an indispensable study of the role played by the Catholic Church during one of the most tumultuous periods of British and Irish history – the Northern Ireland Troubles – showing evidence which offers a radical new perspective on religious institutions as conflict mediators in the twentieth century.
Dr Niall Ó Dochartaigh will offer commentary on the book, followed by a few words from the author Dr Maggie Scull. Refreshments will be provided.
Dr Maggie Scull is an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at NUI Galway.

The Travels of St Colman 'the Pilgrim
2019-11-06 18:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
Guest Lecture by distinguished scholar Ian Fisher, FSA (London), FSAScot:
St Colmán, the 7th-century Irishman who founded a church on Inishbofin and another at Mayo, is best-known from the account of him in Bede’s History of the English Church. While living in Northumbria, Colmán became embroiled in the Easter Controversy, after which he retreated to Ireland, bringing Irish and Saxon monks with him. His and their legacy in Ireland and Britain is the subject of this talk by distinguished scholar Ian Fisher, FSA (London), FSAScot, author of many works on the architecture, archaeology and history of early medieval Scotland and Ireland.

Teaching history in a divided society: the tyranny of myth
2019-11-06 16:00 | Room 1001, the Bridge, Hardiman Research Building
By Dr. William P. Kelly (University of Ulster)
As part of NUI Galway History Research Seminar Series Semester 1, 2019-20

Research Support Seminar on Preparing Major Funding Applications
2019-11-06 12:00 | Seminar Room G010, Hardiman Research Building
As part of its Academic Research Support Services initiative, the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, in association with the Moore Institute, is hosting a series of research support and information seminars for staff this semester.
The second workshop in this series will consider the topic of Preparing Major Funding Applications.
The session will feature three speakers: Professor Nicholas Canny (Professor Emeritus, History (NUI Galway) and previously Member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, 2011-2016), Professor Marie-Louise Coolahan (Professor of English) and Professor Gary Donohoe (Professor of Psychology), both of whom have significant experience of European funding opportunities.
The session will be chaired by Professor Dan Carey (Moore Institute) and each speaker will provide a short overview of their own experience before the session will be opened to the floor for questions.
Nicholas Canny, FBA, was Professor of History, NUI Galway, 1979-2009; President of the Royal Irish Academy, 2008-2011; and Member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, 2011-2016. His major book is Making Ireland British, 1580-1650 (Oxford, 2001), and he is currently completing Imagining Ireland’s Pasts: Early Modern Ireland through the Centuries also for Oxford University Press.
Marie-Louise Coolahan is a Professor of English specialising in early modern literature at NUI Galway. She is the author of Women, Writing, and Language in Early Modern Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2010), as well as articles and essays about Renaissance manuscript culture, women’s writing, early modern identity, and textual transmission. Marie-Louise is currently Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project, RECIRC: The Reception and Circulation of Early Modern Women’s Writing, 1550-1700 (www.recirc.nuigalway.ie). She co-edited, with Gillian Wright, Katherine Philips: Form, Reception, and Literary Contexts (Routledge, 2018) and her special issue of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, ‘The Cultural Dynamics of Reception’ will be out in January 2020.
Prof. Gary Donohoe is a clinical psychologist, Professor of Psychology at NUI Galway, and Director of the Center for Neuroimaging and Cognitive Genomics (NICOG). Gary’s research focuses primarily on understanding and addressing those aspects of disability in psychosis related to cognitive deficits. In 2016 he obtained a European Research Council fellowship for his work on immune aspects of cognitive function in schizophrenia (The iRELATE program). In 2018, together with colleagues from NUI Galway, UCD, and RCSI, he received funding for a HRB Collaborative Doctoral Program in Youth Mental Health Research (the YOULEAD program). Gary has been a reviewer for multiple grant funding agencies, including the EU’s Marie Curie fellowship awards.
The Panel Chair, Professor Dan Carey, is Director of the Moore Institute, a board member of the Irish Research Council, is on the Council of the RIA and is the Irish representative on the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) board. Dan also served as chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance (2014-16).
