Moore Institute

The School of Political Science and Sociology research seminar: “Negotiating Nollywood: Women, intersectionality and post-feminist sensibilities”
2023-11-14 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Dublin) | AS203, River Room, University of Galway
The School of Political Science and Sociology research seminar
“Negotiating Nollywood: Women, intersectionality and post-feminist sensibilities”
Oluwatumininu Adebayo and Stacey Scriver
(Global Women’s Studies Research Cluster)
Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, is the second largest film industry globally based on the number of movies produced each year. Women, via their roles as actresses and more recently as producers and directors, have an opportunity to grow their careers and status within the industry and Nigerian society more generally. However, research has found that women are often relegated to stereotypical roles and are subjected to vitriol by the public in relation to their choices. While several studies have focused on female representation in Nollywood films, few have engaged directly with women in Nollywood to understand their lived experience within the film industry and fewer again have done so from an intersectional perspective. This presentation is based on interviews with female filmmakers, including actresses, directors, and producers, and aim to deepen understanding of the challenges women face in the Nollywood industry. The findings reveal that discrimination, sexual harassment, and stereotypes persist in the industry and are shaped not just by gender, but also by ethnicity and social standing. While some positive changes are occurring in Nollywood, we find that the approaches of women in negotiating the inequalities present, aligning with a post-feminist sensibility, may undermine collective action and the achievement of equality in the industry. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the intersectionality of gender and other identities in the Nollywood industry and the influence of the post-feminist sensibility on shaping women’s responses to the challenges encountered.
All Welcome!

Centre for Creative Technologies masterclass series: Immersed in Domes – or Learning to Look Up
2023-11-14 12:00 - 14:00 | Studio 3, O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Galway
Immersed in Domes – or Learning to Look Up, with Alan Hook
In this presentation, Senior Lecturer in Ulster University, Alan Hook will survey a new body of practice work that he has been collaborating on with musicians, storytellers, and artists to create immersive experiences for dome projection. The talk will showcase the Psychlorama project, a 4 movement immersive electronic music collaboration, Star Wolf, an immersive story, and Baba Jaga, a real time rendered spatial story for 7-12 year olds. The talk will be full of practical tips, hacks, work arounds and workflow advice to create immersive experiences for domes as well as new insights in immersive story.
Register to attend here.

Live Book Launch: Getting by in Tligolian, by Roppotucha Greenberg
2023-11-13 18:00 - 19:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & streamed live on Zoom
You are cordially invited to the launch of Getting by in Tligolian by a Galway-based author Roppotucha Greenberg (known to some of you as Ira Ruppo)
13 November at 6pm
The book will be launched by Dr Dermot Burns (SEMCA, College of Arts)
Below, please find an Eventbrite link with more information about the books and sign-up/ tickets (the event is free but the ‘ticket’ option is there to pay for a copy of the book by card and collect it at the launch).
Please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-book-launch-getting-by-in-tligolian-by-roppotucha-greenberg-tickets-747942093937?aff=odcleoeventsincollection&keep_tld=1
The City-State of Tligol is ruled by dictators, holds monthly public executions and is haunted by a benign, fishing, giant, but by and large the inhabitants are content, and the food is amazing. The perfect place for a city break, just as long as you don’t want to leave. Ever.

Language has its own relationship to time.
When Jennifer falls for Sam at his execution, she doesn’t immediately realise that she can still find and live with him; and the city of Tligol has trains that will take her anywhere, including her own past, and future, and multiple possible variations, just as long as she doesn’t leave the city. Jennifer rides the trains, loops around in time and sets an unplanned series of events in motion. For lovers of The City and The City… and Hotel California!
Join Roppotucha for readings and conversation

Getting by in Tligolian is a clever, beguiling novella that weaves its way through an elusive city, encountering knotty intersections of language and time, life and death. Greenberg captures the outsider’s dislocation, the struggle to communicate, and the aching absence of a loved one who can never be truly known with finely-detailed observations. Like a half-remembered dream, this book lingers in the mind long after the final page has been turned.
J L George, author of The Word
A yearning fable of loss and love and all the bits in between; a miasmic dreamwalk one part Haruki Murakami, one part China Miéville, but, in the end, its own hypnotic, brilliant thing.
Val Nolan, co-author of Spec Fic for Newbies: A Beginners Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
In Getting by in Tligolian Roppotucha Greenberg creates a lifeline of miracles to string in unforgettable characters and the city-state of Tligol. Interwoven as study notes and lessons, vignettes and short shorts, this beautiful novella is an evocative experience traversing the maze of time and feelings, opening each layer as masterfully as it enfolds another, especially where Greenberg summarizes a relationship, “At what stage did our being together become more like falling apart? At what stage did I know that I needed to leave, but didn’t leave, except that I left? Why did we talk so little?”
Here is a voice that is original, a language that shimmers and a story that is moving and achingly beautiful and a privilege to read. Getting by in Tligolian is not to be missed.
Tara Isabel Zambrano, Author of an upcoming story collection, Ruined a Little When We Are Born Dzanc Books 2024.
Immediate, immersive and highly imaginative, Getting by in Tligolian is a rare literary gem. Poetic and thought-provoking, Greenberg crafts a spellbinding narrative where language and time are interconnected, creating a mesmerizing experience for readers where reflections become real and the boundary between past, present, and future blurs. This novella is a testament to the power of language and storytelling to transport readers to imaginative realms. I haven’t been this captivated by a story of such singularity since reading Clarice Lispector’s Modernist classic, The Hour of the Star.
Adam Wyeth

Roppotucha Greenberg speaks three languages fluently and has tried to learn six more.
Roppotucha has lived in Russia, Israel and now Ireland. Arachne Press has published Roppotucha’s stories in Solstice Shorts Festival anthologies Noon, and Time and Tide.
She has previously published a flash and micro-fiction collection Zglevians on the Move (TwistiT Press, 2019) and three silly-but-wise doodle books for humans, Creatures Give Advice (2019), Creatures Give Advice Again and it’s warmer now (2019) and Creatures Set Forth (2020) and Cooking with Humans (2022).
Roppotucha’s story On Kings and Falling was performed at Noon for Solstice Shorts Festival at Edinburgh and Carlisle on 21st December 2018.
Her story, Listen, Noah’s Wife was read at Time and Tide, Solstice Shorts Festival 2019 at Clydebank, Greenwich, Holyhead and Peterhead.

Centre for Creative Technologies masterclass series: Jumping into the Metaverse
2023-11-13 12:00 - 14:00 | Studio 3, O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Galway
Jumping into the Metaverse, with Professor Sarah Jones
Virtual reality has come a long way since headsets had to be bolted to the ceiling as they were too heavy for a person to support them. In this discussion, Sarah Jones, Professor of Education Innovation at the University of Gloucestershire, will take us on a journey through the metaverse, taking an interdisciplinary approach to our understanding of immersive technology. This session will explore the opportunities of the creative technologies, challenging you to think differently.
Register to attend here.

“Thinking About American Public Opinion: Past and Present”
2023-11-09 16:00 - 17:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & streamed live on Zoom
“Thinking About American Public Opinion: Past and Present”
Professor Susan Herbst, University of Connecticut
American politics and public discourse have changed rapidly since 2015 and the election of President Trump. Political scientists, journalists, and engaged citizens have been surprised by the extraordinary acceleration of partisan polarization, for example. Of the contemporary American political dynamics, which current tendencies – conspiratorial thinking, partisan warfare, crudity and hatred in discourse, and anti-science attitudes – were present already, and which are new? What can we learn about today’s worrisome politics from a look back to the 1930s, the key decade in the development and measurement of public opinion? And is there any way out of our current dilemma, characterized by so much strife and negativity in the United States?
Susan Herbst

Professor and President Emeritus
Political Science

Susan Herbst was appointed as the 15th President of the University of Connecticut on December 20, 2010, by the University’s Board of Trustees. She stepped down as President on July 1, 2019 and returned to the faculty. She teaches at the Stamford campus, where she is University Professor of Political Science and President Emeritus.
Prior to her appointment to the presidency, Herbst served as Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer of the University System of Georgia, where she led 15 university presidents and oversaw the academic missions for all 35 public universities in Georgia. Before coming to Georgia, Herbst was Provost and Executive Vice President at The University at Albany (SUNY), and also served as Officer in Charge (acting president) of the school from 2006 to 2007. She previously served as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University.
Born in New York City and raised in Peekskill, NY, Herbst received her B.A. in Political Science from Duke University in 1984, and her Ph.D. in Communication Theory and Research from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles in 1989.
Herbst joined Northwestern University as an assistant professor in 1989 and remained there until 2003. At Northwestern she served in many capacities, including Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department. Dr. Herbst is a scholar of public opinion, media, and American politics, and is author of five books and many articles in these areas. Along with Lawrence R. Jacobs, Adam J. Berinsky and Frances Lee, she edits the University of Chicago Press Studies in American Politics. Her most recent book, A Troubled Birth: The 1930s and American Public Opinion, was recently published by the University of Chicago Press.
Registration
Please register via Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/thinking-about-american-public-opinion-past-and-present-tickets-749900481527?aff=oddtdtcreator

POSTPONED! University of Galway History Research Seminar: Finding Sophie: Tracing and Returning a Greenlandic Woman through the Archives of Exploration
2023-11-08 16:00 - 17:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & online via Zoom
POSTPONED!
University of Galway History Research Seminar
Finding Sophie:
‘Tracing and Returning a Greenlandic Woman through the Archives of Exploration’
Dr Eavan O’Dochartaigh (University of Galway)
Abstract
In the mid-nineteenth century, ships of ‘exploration’ made their way along Greenland’s west coast, often stopping to rest, re-supply, and trade at settlements before entering the Northwest Passage. The visits were a welcome respite for ships’ crews before wintering in the High Arctic and the social interaction that often accompanied the stops was a significant part of expedition life, indicating an Arctic that could be warm and sociable in sharp contrast to the ‘sublime’ Arctic that is commonly associated with exploration during the period.
This paper follows the appearance of one Indigenous woman from Qeqertarsuaq (Disko Island), known as Sophie Tabitha (1833-1902), and tracks her influence and agency through English-language textual and visual sources (from 1852 to 1885), including letters, private journals, periodicals, published narratives and documentary images. By attempting to ‘follow’ Sophie through the sources, we learn more about her family circumstances, social relations between Greenlandic women and British crews, and how the balance of power in the contact zone could be destabilised. I also discuss how contacting the museum in Sophie’s birthplace of Qeqertarsuaq is leading to fruitful outreach, knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Biography
Dr Eavan O’Dochartaigh is an Honorary Research Lecturer in the English Department at University of Galway, Ireland. From 2019 to 2021, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at Umeå University, Sweden, under the supervision of Prof. Maria Lindgren Leavenworth. She graduated in 2018 with a PhD in English from University of Galway. She formerly worked as an archaeologist and archaeological illustrator in Ireland, Iceland, and the UK. Her current research project ‘Exploring the Arctic Archive’ at University of Galway is with the mentorship of Prof. Daniel Carey and is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council’s Pathway Programme (2022-26). Her first monograph Visual Culture and Arctic Voyages, based on her PhD thesis, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022 and is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Registration
This is an in-person event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98396342366.
To attend via Zoom, please register at:
Registration
This is an in-person event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98396342366.
To attend via Zoom, please register at: https://forms.office.com/e/Ezy9tXU45H
This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series.

ISTR webinar 'Publishing in a Journal'
2023-11-08 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
The Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR) webinar on ‘Publishing in a Journal’, 8 November 1-2pm, with Prof Helena Grehan (Murdoch Uni, Performance Research Deputy Editor) in conversation with Dr Shonagh Hill (Queen’s, author of Embodied Mythmaking in Irish Theatre, CUP 2019).
Registration: Get Tickets – ISTR Webinar: Publishing in a Journal – Q and A with Prof. Helena Grehan – Zoom, Wed 8 Nov 2023 13:00 – 14:30 (tickettailor.com)

“Going North”: Landed Estates in the counties of Cavan, Donegal & Monaghan, 1700-1914
2023-11-06 15:00 - 17:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & online via Zoom
“Going North”: Landed Estates in the counties of Cavan, Donegal & Monaghan, 1700-1914
Seminar
Monday 6 November 2023
3-5pm – G010 Seminar Room, Ground Floor, Hardiman Research Building
& on Zoom
Speakers: Ms. Virginia Teehan, CEO, Heritage Council
Dr. Jonathan Cherry (DCU)
Prof. Terence Dooley, (Maynooth University)
Dr. William Roulston (Ulster Historical Foundation)

Marie Boran & Brigid Clesham (Researchers, Irish Landed Estates Project) will present the updated Irish Landed database.

All welcome.

The Irish Landed Estates database has been based at the Moore Institute, University of Galway, since 2005. Since that time our database https://landedestates.ie/) has had over 1 million views and is linked to by all the major research resources such as the National Archives and the National Library of Ireland. As well as data relating to estates in all the counties of Connacht and Munster, data relating to the three Ulster counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan has recently been added.

3pm: Welcome by Dr. Laurence Marley, Discipline of History, University of Galway
3.15pm: Address by Virginia Teehan, CEO, Heritage Council, principal research funder for Ulster Landed Estates addition
Reflections on Ulster Landed Estates
3.30pm. Dr. Jonathan Cherry (DCU). The Maxwell estate, Farnham, County Cavan
3.50pm: Dr. William Roulston. The estates of the Dukes of Abercorn in County Donegal.
4.10 pm: Prof. Terence Dooley (Maynooth University). The Marquis of Bath’s estates in County Monaghan.
4.30. Q&A with the three speakers
4.40. The Irish Landed Estates database: a demonstration with Marie Boran & Brigid Clesham.
4.50. Thanks & Close of Seminar

Registration
If participating online, please use this link to register for the event: https://bitly.ws/YBoZ

Micheline’s Three Conditions: How We Fought Gender Inequality at Galway’s University and Won
2023-11-02 17:00 - 18:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & streamed live on Zoom
Please join us for the University of Galway launch of
Micheline’s Three Conditions: How We Fought Gender Inequality at Galway’s University and Won
by Rose Foley and Micheline Sheehy Skeffington
Micheline will give a short talk and both authors will answer questions and sign books.
The book provides a gripping account of the campaign by Micheline to fight gender discrimination in the university after she was repeatedly passed over for promotion. She won her case, and then donated the settlement to help 5 other female members of staff who had similarly not been promoted to take their own case.

University of Galway History Research Seminar: 'The Irish Face of British Politics: Agrarian "outrages", Propaganda, and Reform 1830-1845
2023-11-01 16:00 - 17:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & online via Zoom
University of Galway History Research Seminar: ‘The Irish Face of British Politics: Agrarian “outrages”, Propaganda, and Reform 1830-1845
Dr Jay Roszman (University College Cork)

Abstract
Some of the most compelling histories of nineteenth-century Ireland focus not simply on the ways that Britain shaped Ireland, but on the ways that Ireland shaped Britain and its empire. Implicit in these narratives is an understanding of the uneven relationship between the two islands and the various socio-political cleavages within them. This paper builds on this approach by tracing the way Irish problems – especially so-called ‘outrages’ – shaped the politics of the United Kingdom in somewhat underappreciated ways during a pivotal time of change that historians have labelled ‘the decade of reform.’ On the one hand, the paper traces the expanding surveillance of the British state, which tabulated and categorised agrarian violence so to better understand it. However, the focus on trying to alleviate Irish grievances also became a crucial point of contention, as Conservatives fretted about the ways the structures of the United Kingdom were changing by including Irish Catholics and governing in their interests. Thus, the second half of the paper highlights how at faction within the Conservative Party made use of agrarian violence as a tool of political propaganda, which they used to connect Whig governance, fears of imperial instability, and Catholic treachery. This propaganda became a crucial plank in the party’s political campaign and their return to power in 1841.
Biography
Dr Jay Roszman is lecturer in history at University College Cork. He holds an MA in Irish Studies from Queen’s University Belfast and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was supervised by David W. Miller. His dissertation earned the Adele Dalsimer Prize for Distinguished Dissertation from the American Conference of Irish Studies (2015). He moved to Cork in 2018. Jay is the author of Outrage in the Age of Reform: Irish Agrarian Violence, Imperial Insecurity, and British Governing Policy, 1830-1845 (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and co-editor (with Heather Laird) of Dwellings in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Liverpool University Press, 2023).
Registration
This is a hybrid event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98971649058.
To attend via Zoom, please register at: https://forms.office.com/e/6QfNfhnchw
This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series.

University of Galway History Research Seminar: ‘Tangier, Bombay and the political economy of Empire: an Irish model?’
2023-10-31 13:30 - 15:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & streamed live on Zoom
University of Galway History Research Seminar: ‘Tangier, Bombay and the political economy of Empire: an Irish model?’
Professor Steven Pincus (University of Chicago)
This event is in-person only, in Room G010, Hardiman Building. The seminar will take place at 1.30pm – please note the different to usual start time.
This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series.

Centre for Creative Technologies’ masterclass series: Miss-communication - Joanna Walsh
2023-10-31 13:00 - 15:00 | Studio 3, O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Galway
Centre for Creative Technologies’ masterclass series
Miss-communication – Joanna Walsh
Joanna Walsh will present her Markievicz-award-winning miss-communication.ie, the first generative text project to be supported by the Irish Arts Council.
Miss-Communication.ie is a work of two halves: an AI chatbot trained on Constance Markievicz’s prison letters and interviews with 20th century Dublin women collected by Máirín Johnston in her 1988 book Dublin Belles, plus a choose-your-own-critical-theory adventure essay investigating language, autonomy, creativity, and gender identity. Joanna Walsh has both programmed the AI and written the essay, but is she the author of either ‘work’?
After a short break, Joanna will lead a workshop using Twine, a simple, free digital narrative tool, to play with the possibilities of digital writing discussed during the first part of the session. This workshop is aimed at everyone who writes–no specialist digital literacy required.
It’s essential that participants bring a laptop, and download the free programme, Twine, from https://twinery.org, before the session. (It is possible to use Twine direct on any web browser but some of the online functions differ and we’ll be working from the downloaded version). They should also bring a short text that they would like to explore, de- and reconstruct. This text can be in any genre, fiction or nonfiction, written by the participant or by someone else. As an optional extra, they can also bring one or more digital images they might like to incorporate.
Places for the masterclass are limited to 25, so please register using Eventbrite here.

Margaret Cavendish's ‘Ecocritical’ Thinking: A Reading of ‘A Dialogue Between an Oak and a Man Cutting Him Down’
2023-10-27 13:00 - 14:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway
Margaret Cavendish’s ‘Ecocritical’ Thinking:
A Reading of ‘A Dialogue Between an Oak and a Man Cutting Him Down’
Professor Line Cottegnies (Sorbonne Université)

Abstract:
Margaret Cavendish is now routinely enrolled as an early example of an eco-conscious author, and studied through the lens of ecocritical approaches, but the risk of anachronism is strong. In this paper, I aim to contextualise her apparent concern for the natural world in relation to the literary tradition of prosopopoeias of trees, seventeenth-century politics and her philosophical conception of nature. In particular I look at one of her 1653 dialogues, a long poem of 164 lines entitled “A Dialogue between an Oak and a Man Cutting Him Down”. This poem, which includes the tree’s plea to the feller not to be hacked, has comfortably been read in recent critical studies in an ecocritical perspective. Yet the convention of the tree prosopopoeia, which goes back to the Bible and Ovid, had already been used by Drayton, for instance, in his popular Polyolbion (1619). Placing Cavendish’s approach within this tradition allows us to better understand the articulation between her concern for the natural world, political allegory and her natural philosophy.
Bio:
Line Cottegnies is Professor of early-modern English Literature at Sorbonne Université. She has published a monograph on the poetics and politics of wonder in Caroline poetry and has co-edited several collections of essays, including Women and Curiosity in Early Modern England and France (with Sandrine Parageau, Brill, 2016). She has worked on Margaret Cavendish, Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn and Mary Astell. Her edition of texts includes 15 plays for the Gallimard Complete Works of Shakespeare (2012-21), 2 Henry IV for The Norton Shakespeare 3 (2016), and (with Marie-Alice Belle) Mary Sidney Herbert’s Antonius and Thomas Kyd’s Cornelia (Robert Garnier in Elizabethan England, MHRA, 2017). She is currently working on an edition of three works by Aphra Behn for Cambridge University Press.

Book Launch: As it Flows
2023-10-26 18:30 - 19:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway
Book Launch of As it Flows
Join us to celebrate creative work made by primary school students as part of the project ‘When is Water not Water?’, funded by the University of Galway’s College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies Research Development Grant 2023 and led by the Discipline of Philosophy.
The book is the outcome of our project where we used the humanities as a vehicle for climate education connecting young learners with research happening on campus as a source of inspiration for their own creative work.
Organised by Dr Lucy Elvis and PhD candidate Michela Dianetti.

Irish Studies Seminar Series: ‘Gender Trouble: Key Issues in the Contemporary Irish Music Industry’
2023-10-26 16:00 - 17:00 | Seminar Room, Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, 4 Distillery Road, University of Galway & online via Zoom
Irish Studies Seminar Series Semester 1, 2023-24 (in person and on zoom)
‘Gender Trouble: Key Issues in the Contemporary Irish Music Industry’
Dr Ann-Marie Hanlon
The seminar will take place in the Seminar Room, Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, 4 Distillery Road, University of Galway, and on zoom here: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/92432099826?pwd=[REDACTED]
Dr Hanlon’s paper, ‘Gender Trouble: Key Issues in the Contemporary Irish Music Industry’, will explore the research findings from the report Gendered Experiences of the Irish Music Industry, published earlier this year. This research encompassed a national study on gender and music in Ireland, exploring how gender might impact a career as a musician within the contemporary music industry. The report is available on open access via the University of Galway Aran repository: https://doi.org/10.13025/ps89-rw52 and further details on the seminar and Dr Hanlon’s research are available below.
As a reminder to our Irish Studies community at home and abroad, all of our research seminars will be run this year as hybrid events. While we are delighted to welcome you to join us in person here on campus, we are particularly delighted to have those of you who may be unable to travel to Galway to join us in our zoom room on the day.
Seminar Abstract
In February 2023 the report Gendered Experiences of the Irish Music Industry (University of Galway) was published. This research was based on the responses of over 500 musicians and is the first mixed-methods research on this topic to explore the potential impact of gender on musicians’ day-to-day experiences and career trajectory in the Irish context. Respondents comprised men (50%), women (44%), and non-binary musicians (6%). Sexism is a significant issue within the music industry and in all aspects of a musicians’ career, from the early days of learning an instrument, to performing music in professional live settings. While many forms of discrimination that occur on the grounds of gender are common to participants of all genders, the extent to which these issues are experienced can differ considerably between gender groupings. In this seminar, the report’s author will discuss the key issues related to gender raised by this report and reflect upon these findings in light of recent research in related artistic contexts. Findings will be discussed in relation to different gender groupings, highlighting the current gaps in research and the extent to which various issues are experienced by men, women and non-binary musicians. Furthermore, the author will discuss strategies – that adopt a collective feminist approach to activist organizing – currently being explored in regard to how to make this data matter and contribute to systemic change in the music industry in Ireland. The report is free to access via the University of Galway Aran repository: https://doi.org/10.13025/ps89-rw52.
Biography:
Ann-Marie Hanlon is a musicologist with specialisms in cultural theories of music, popular music and French modernism. Her research in popular music focuses on the area of music and social change, and explores the role of music and musicking in social movements related to women’s rights and queer culture in Ireland and the U.S.. Publications include the report Gendered Experiences of the Irish Music Industry (2023) and contributions to the books The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music & Art (Bloomsbury, 2023), Media Narratives in Popular Music (Bloomsbury, 2021), Made in Ireland: Popular Music Studies (Routledge, 2020) and Music, Art and Performance from Liszt to Riot Grrrl (Bloomsbury, 2018). She is a Lecturer of Music at the University of Galway, Ireland.

Sibhialtaigh sa Dá Chogadh Domhanda: An mó acu nár tháinig slán?
2023-10-26 12:30 - 13:30 | Seomra an Droichid (1001), Áras Uí Argadáin & ar Zoom
Sibhialtaigh sa Dá Chogadh Domhanda
An mó acu nár tháinig slán?
Cormac Ó Gráda
Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath
12.30–13.30, DÉARDAOIN 26 DEIREADH FÓMHAIR 2023
Seomra an Droichid (1001), Áras Uí Argadáin & ar Zoom
Grianghraf: Dresden, 1945, an radharc ón Rathaus agus dealbh Güte [Maitheas / Cineáltas]; Richard Peter (1895–1977) a ghlac é. Ceadúnas: Deutsche Fotothek‎ CC BY-SA 3.0 DE DEED
ACADAMH, OLLSCOIL NA GAILLIMHE

Registration
If you would like to join online, please register at: https://tinyurl.com/cormac-o-grada

University of Galway History Seminar: ‘How should I raise and care for my child?’ Early child health writing for a general audience in Europe (1850-1914)
2023-10-25 16:00 - 17:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & online via Zoom
University of Galway History Research Seminar
‘How should I raise and care for my child?’ Early child health writing for a general audience in Europe (1850-1914)
Dr Anna Gasperini (University of Galway)
Abstract
The period between mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth century saw the rise of childcare handbooks written for a general audience in Europe and North America. Still a popular genre after almost two centuries, childcare manuals were usually penned by medical specialists to educate the public, mostly mothers, about how to ensure that a child survived their first years of life. These texts came in a range of formats: from booklets and pamphlets, cheaper or sometimes even distributed for free, containing few key-instructions on child nutrition and management; to expensive, exquisitely decorated hardbacks, covering a broad variety of topics. Sometimes they addressed the reader directly, even simulating a conversation; sometimes they simply consisted of a list of instructions, with little to no acknowledgment of the reader.
Why did such a genre start at this time, and how? What do these texts tell us about cultural and social notions and hierarchies underpinning child health writing in the early days of pediatrics? What do they tell us about how pediatricians started talking about child health to a general audience? This talk addresses these questions based on the preliminary findings of the IRC Starting Laureate project MILC – MedIcal Literature and Communication about Child health (1850-1914). The talk examines a set of key-features of childcare handbooks in Italian, French, and English, identifying transnational elements in the textual and discursive structure of the texts and highlighting the key-role literature played as the chosen medium for early conversations about childhood between pediatricians and the public.
Biography
Dr Anna Gasperini holds an IRC Starting Laureate grant at University of Galway, where she is Principal Investigator of MILC – MedIcal Literature and Communication about Child health (1850-1914), a comparative transnational study of childcare literature targeting the general public. From 2019 to 2021, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, where she developed FED – Feeding, Educating, Dieting: A Transnational Approach to Nutrition Discourses in Children’s Narratives (Britain and Italy, 1850-1900). She is the author of Nineteenth Century Popular Fiction, Medicine, and Anatomy – The Victorian Penny Blood and the 1832 Anatomy Act (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
Registration
This is an in-person event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98396342366.
To attend via Zoom, please register at: https://forms.office.com/e/08f42zgsmu
This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series and organised jointly with the Centre for the Study of Religion at the Moore Institute.

Impact Workshop: “Be the Magpie” - postponed – a new date and further detail will be advised shortly
2023-10-25 14:00 - 15:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & streamed live on Zoom
postponed – a new date and further detail will be advised shortly
CASSCS colleagues are warmly invited to attend a workshop on research impact by Dr Mark Mann (University of Oxford)
WORSKHOP: “Be the Magpie”
Limited to 15 places. Registration required – please email patrick.lonergan@universityofgalway.ie to participate
In order to successfully spot potential transfer projects, staff and academics will be introduced, through examples that they will work on, to look for the following factors:

Solving a problem:

o Does the research output solve a problem for someone or something?

External influence:

O What are the factors that are outside the research group for which a research project might be relevant? This will include
 University priorities
 Funders and other key organisations
 Local and National Government priorities
 International Priorities
We will then look at the key elements that make a successful transfer possible. This will include:

Academic and university reputation
External participants already being worked with
Value created or that could be created in the future; intellectual property types and what to do with them.
The motivation of key people that will be needed to make things happen.

Academics will be invited to pair up with each other or with a research manager (depending on the balance of numbers) to look at their own research in turn to see where they fit in. To do this they will be introduced to a methodology, KT3, which is a framework which will enable to them to work out where the opportunity exists in a systematic way.
The session will be designed with fun at its core, but also aims to provide as much practical knowledge to be taken away and applied as possible. The workshop will last 90 minutes. There will, however, be the option to either extend the workshop for a further 30 minutes, or use those last 30 minutes to answer any further questions anyone may have.
MARK MANN LIMITED
Mark Mann Limited and its sister company Mark Mann OÜ were founded in 2021 to provide strategic innovation services to technology transfer offices, corporations and institutions across the UK and Europe wishing to expand and diversify their impact offering. The clients of these companies have so far include (selected by relevance for this project):

The University of Bristol
The University of York
Swansea University
The University of Surrey
Charles University, Prague
Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne
Ploughshare Innovations Limited
Lancaster University
The University of Leicester
University College London
Cardiff University
PraxisAuril

Dr Mark Mann
Its founder, Dr Mark Mann, developed a reputation for being a leader in the field whilst working at the University of Oxford. As well as providing advice to institutions large and small in innovation strategy, he also develops and provides training to technology transfer professionals in the latest techniques in the field, particularly in the fields of humanities, arts, social sciences, software and social enterprise.
He gained his reputation at the University of Oxford where he:

Created 13 spinouts across the breadth of Oxford University’s research portfolio.
Created Oxford’s first spinout in Silicon Valley. The spinout’s already been sold, justifying the approach taken.
Vastly accelerated Oxford’s Humanities and Social Sciences pipeline by developing new template spinout models.
Developed templates for Oxford’s new social venture spinouts.
Developed a new framework for impact measurement.
Created a collaboration of 12 universities, Impact 12, which work together to pool resources and raise social investment together to build social venture infrastructure outside of London.

Chris Fellingham
Chris is the co-founder and Director of the ARC Accelerator, the world’s first accelerator for social science and Humanities researchers. Chris is also the Social Science and Humanities Lead at Oxford University Innovation and prior to this worked as Strategy Manager at edtech startup FutureLearn.

School of Political Science and Sociology research seminar: “Moral obligation as a conclusive reason: On Bernard Williams’ critique of the morality system”
2023-10-25 13:00 - 14:00 | AS203, River Room, University of Galway
The School of Political Science and Sociology invite you to a research seminar with
Dr Allyn Fives (Discipline of Politics; Power, Conflict, and Ideologies research cluster)
“Moral obligation as a conclusive reason:
On Bernard Williams’ critique of the morality system”

Bernard Williams’ critique of the morality system, as illustrated in his reading of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, is intended to show both that real moral conflicts can arise, and that a moral obligation is merely one reason among others and can be defeated by the thick concepts of a shared ethical life. I want to advance two lines of argument. First, when Williams argues that a moral obligation can be the locus of moral conflict, a further step is required to explain why one should feel regret for not acting on a defeated reason. Second, Williams presupposes that, when a conflict is resolved, the conclusive reason will be a thick concept, but there is no compelling justification for that assumption.
Please note – the draft paper on which this talk is based is available HERE
Image: ‘At the feet of Athena, Greek warriors draw lots for the armour of Achilles’. Red figure Kylix, ca. 490 BCE. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Photo by Eric Lessing / Art Resource, NY.

Impact Lecture: “What the future could hold” - postponed – a new date and further detail will be advised shortly.
2023-10-25 12:00 - 13:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & streamed live on Zoom
postponed – a new date and further detail will be advised shortly
CASSCS colleagues are warmly invited to attend a lecture on research impact by Dr Mark Mann (University of Oxford)
LECTURE: “What the future could hold”
All welcome; no registration necessary
For a 40 minute presentation we will present example-driven illustrations of what you could do with innovations and new ideas emerging from SSAH. Mark Mann Limited has a bank of examples from which it can draw upon from a variety of universities to show how the different commercialisation (and broader knowledge exchange) pathways can be used to grow impact from an idea. These examples will be chosen so that they best align with Galway’s research base. Here we will cover all the main modes of transfer used in SSAH through examples and what academics might need to think about with their projects.

Consultancy
Startups and Social Enterprise
Franchises
Services
Partnerships
Policy interventions
Public engagement

The target will be to inspire and broaden the horizons of the attendees by convincing them that they could look at their research in a different way. The key to the session is to not focus on intellectual property but to tell stories that will stick and are relevant to Galway’s academic research. This will then be followed by 20 minutes of questions

Sport & Exercise Research Seminar series: Contemporary Cricket - A Mixed Record in a Rapidly Changing Landscape. Cricket, Identity and Belonging: What the Game means in England Wales, Scotland and across Ireland?
2023-10-24 12:00 - 14:00 | Online
Contemporary Cricket – A Mixed Record in a Rapidly Changing Landscape. Cricket, Identity and Belonging: What the Game means in England Wales, Scotland and across Ireland?
Dr Russell Holden
Registration at https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/70dad77c-9557-46f0-b5c5-135c7e20a035@13e3b186-c446-4aab-9c6d-9ab9bb76816c/registration
Sport contributes a dynamic to the life of an individual as it offers something distinctive, be it physical recreation, competition, or social and solitary engagement. It interrelates with many aspects of daily life, most notably emotion, motivation and pleasure not really offered elsewhere. This is where the work of the sport sociologist and historian becomes specially valuable, particularly in redirecting attention from the details of history to what the history and evolution of sport ,and in this instance cricket, actually reveals.
In terms of cricket the key issue is where the sport fits into the social landscape of everyday life within defined geographical identities, as it remains a terrain in which our understanding of major issues in social change and globalisation can be refined, defined and contested. This presentation seeks to comprehend its place, significance and status within contemporary cultural life as well as identifying differing attitudes, level of popularity and distinct nuance across the nations.
Dr. Russell Holden is an established lecturer, writer, researcher and broadcaster specialising in the Sociology of Sport with a particular emphasis on the interconnection between Sport and Politics. He has also written and spoken widely on cricket for domestic and international audiences.
Having been a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wales Institute for over 15 years, in 2009 he launched In The Zone Sport and Politics Consultancy, drawing on his wide expertise and international work experience. offers a unique range of research, editing and mentoring services for academics, teachers, journalists and sport policy-makers, on issues including the links between Sport and Nationalism, Identity, Human Rights, Policy-Making Gender and Peace-Building.
He has subsequently taught at Southampton Solent and the University of Worcester as well as in Germany, Poland and the United States.
Within the past two years he has helped to establish Cricket Research Network with fellow colleagues in academia and journalism and has been one of the Co-Founders of SPRING (Sport and Politics Research International Network Group.
Russell@inthezoneonline.co.uk
@russinthezone

Open Scholarship Café: Open Science Practices for Early Career Researchers
2023-10-24 12:00 - 13:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway
Open Scholarship Café: Open Science Practices for Early Career Researchers – How can they help me?
Open Science (sometimes called Open Research or Open Scholarship) is about making scientific research and data available to people at all levels of society. Many early career researchers (ECRs) might want to make the outputs of their research more openly available, but are unsure of where to start. In addition, ECRs may face additional barriers such as limited access to Open Science training opportunities and resources. The purpose of this seminar is:

To provide ECRs with an introduction to Open Science practices
To demonstrate how ECRs can start embedding open science practices into their research straight away
To showcase the value of engaging with Open Science for professional development.

We will get a brief introduction to Open Science from Hardy Schwamm, Open Scholarship Librarian at University of Galway. Then Rory Coyne, a PhD student in the School of Psychology, will offer some personal reflection on how incorporating Open Science practices into his research has advanced his career progression and development as an ECR. Rory and Hardy are both members of the Open Scholarship Community Galway.
This will be an in-person event in G011 in the Hardiman Building / Moore Institute. You can find the room through the library entrance on your right hand side. We will finish the Open Scholarship Café with a free slice of vegetarian pizza (please let us know if you have other dietary requirements).

Pizza photo by Maksim Goncharenok. The image used in our OS Cafe banner is kindly provided by Professor Chaosheng Zhang.

This event is part of the International Open Access Week 23.-29.2023! The theme of OA Week is Community over Commercialization.
Registration is required. There are 12 seats available.
REGISTRATION

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Second International Teacher Diversity Research Symposium
2023-10-20 09:00 - 16:00 | Aula Maxima (Ground Floor), the Quadrangle, University of Galway
You are cordially invited to the second international research symposium on teacher diversity at the University of Galway on Friday, October 20th. The event will feature a keynote address from Dr. Rebecca Wood (University of Glasgow), parallel sessions with research presentations from Ireland’s PATH1 projects and international teacher diversity projects, as well as group discussions with panel response.
Further information is available at the Eventbrite link below, at which you may also register. Registration will remain open until Friday 13th October.
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/2nd-international-teacher-diversity-research-symposium-tickets-691972266677?aff=oddtdtcreator
A more detailed schedule with information about the parallel sessions will be available next week.

Seoladh Leabhair - Book Launch Solas Geimhridh
2023-10-19 18:00 - 19:00 | Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Galway City
Bheadh míle fáilte romhat isteach go Siopa Leabhair Charlie Byrne, ag a 6.00in, Déardaoin an 19ú Deireadh Fómhair nuair a sheolfaidh Louis de Paor Solas Geimhridh, cnuasach filíochta nua le Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha.
You would be most welcome at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, at 6pm, Thursday the 19th of October, when Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha’s first poetry collection, Solas Geimhridh, will be launched by Louis de Paor.

University of Galway History Research Seminar: ‘hurry, hurry, over the waves’: Songs, the sea and the (re-)interpretation of nineteenth-century history
2023-10-18 16:00 - 17:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & online via Zoom
University of Galway History Research Seminar:
‘hurry, hurry, over the waves’:
Songs, the sea and the (re-)interpretation of nineteenth-century history
Dr Richard McMahon (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick)
Dr Niall Whelehan (University of Strathclyde)

Abstract
Bring Your Own Hammer is a project that combines historical sources, music and digital technologies. It brings historians, composers and musicians together to create new and original song cycles. It explores the boundaries of historical interpretation by reflecting upon and offering new and often radical re-interpretations of historical sources relating to nineteenth-century Ireland. A key strand within the project involves the use of sources related to the themes of the sea, sea journeys and migration to and from Ireland in the nineteenth century. This paper will explore the processes of collaboration between historians and composers in creating a select number of tracks from My Grief on the Sea, the first album from the project, which will be released later this year. In creating the album, we asked the composers to focus on the ‘sea’ theme by exploring it from different perspectives and through a different lens depending on the source material. We identified a number of key ways of exploring the theme, namely through ballad/song material from the period, through individual lives, through particular moments or events and by exploring spaces. In the paper, we will reflect on these different approaches and, ultimately, on the similarities and differences that arise from representing experiences of the sea, sea journeys and migration in forms of written and of music history.
Biographies
Dr. Richard Mc Mahon is a Lecturer in History at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick with particular research interests in the history of violence, law and order in nineteenth-century Ireland and among the Irish Diaspora. He is also committed to engaging in forms of creative history.
Dr. Niall Whelehan is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His research focuses on themes of migration, political violence, and radicalism. His latest book – Changing Land: Diaspora Activism and the Irish Land War – was published with NYU Press.
Registration
This is an in-person event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98011931521. To attend via Zoom, please register at: https://forms.office.com/e/5Z0tW9Qz9h
The seminar will be preceded at 3.30pm by a reception kindly sponsored by the Department of History. All are welcome!
This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series.

Centre for Creative Technologies’ masterclass series "Designing for New Realities"
2023-10-17 12:00 - 14:00 | Studio 3, O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Galway
The next in the Centre for Creative Technologies’ masterclass series will take place on Tuesday 17th October between 12 and 2pm:

Designing for New Realities
The immersive technology sector is experiencing remarkable growth: Companies like Meta and Apple are introducing cutting-edge headsets, venues are creating high fidelity digital experiences, virtual production is transforming film and TV, and the metaverse concept is gaining traction. As this field develops, so do our design methods. How do we design reality itself?
Eoghan Kidney is a creative director with over 20 years experience working across video, film, animation and immersive content. He has worked extensively in AR and VR, with his credits including story and interaction design on the Emmy Nominated “Goliath: Playing With Reality” documentary for the Meta Quest.
Places are limited to 25, so please register your attendance through Eventbrite link:
Register here

‘The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the world order’
2023-10-16 13:00 - 14:00 | Room 331, Aras Moyola, University of Galway
The School of Political Science and Sociology invite you to a research seminar
‘The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the world order’
Cristian Nitoiu (Loughborough University London)

Events during the last decade culminating with Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine have underscored the salience of uncertainty in determining the future shape of the world order. This talk will explore the way the war in Ukraine has affected the evolution of the world order. It will claim that it has accelerated the decline of the hegemony of Western liberalism in the world order. Western models of governance and multilateralism are being increasingly contested and rejected throughout the Global South, while ability of the US dollar to act as the main global exchange currency is gradually waning. Furthermore, the war in Ukraine has driven technological innovation, especially in terms of the widespread use of AI and drones. It is likely that governments and corporations throughout the world will employ these innovations to strengthen and improve surveillance. Finally, the talk will reflect on the link between hope and uncertainty or transformation in the world order.
Dr. Cristian Nitoiu is a senior lecturer in Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance, Loughborough University London and vice-director of Center for Foreign Policy and Security Studies.
All Welcome!

Irish Studies Seminar Series: “We were convinced that we would be cowboys when we grew up”
2023-10-12 16:00 - 17:00 | Seminar Room, Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, 4 Distillery Road, University of Galway & online via Zoom
Irish Studies Seminar Series
Semester 1, 2023-24 (in person and on zoom)
We are delighted to invite you to the first seminar of our Irish Studies Seminar Series for this academic year, and to welcome back Dr Pádraig Fhia Ó Mathúna who will speak on his new IRC postdoctoral research project, at 4pm Thursday 12th October, Seminar Room, Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, 4 Distillery Road, University of Galway.
The title of Dr Mathúna’s paper is, “We were convinced that we would be cowboys when we grew up”: Consuming the American West in Ireland, 1922-2022, and in this seminar he will explore many of the core themes associated with his wider project, while also discussing source works and relaying some early research findings to date. Please see further details below.
As an update for our Irish Studies community of scholars at home and overseas, all of our Irish Studies Seminars will be run this year as hybrid events. And while we are delighted to welcome you to join us in person here on campus, we are particularly delighted to have those of you who may be unable to travel to Galway to join us in our zoom room on the day. Please find the zoom link for the seminar here: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/96178601570
Seminar Abstract:
The mass consumption and reception of the popular culture of the American West began in Ireland almost simultaneously with its rise in the US during the mid-nineteenth century. These early interests grew exponentially over the course of the twentieth century, bearing major influence on Irish conceptions of race and gender, even as other forms of American mass culture like jazz were shunned as being subversive. American Western shows, literature, music, films, and games were readily absorbed into the Irish mainstream, and in many instances, fused with Irish culture to create radical new transnational forms in both Irish and English. The continued place of the American West within the Irish cultural landscape is evidenced by contemporary Irish western films and literature, the prominence of TG4’s ‘weekly western’, and the unavoidable popularity of Garth Brooks.
Utilising the methodological frameworks of reception theory, this is the first major study to trace the consumption of popular American Western culture in Ireland from the post-independence period to the ever changing, and increasingly multicultural, society of today. Owing to the complexities of Ireland’s colonial past and the continued conflict on the island during the twentieth century, the reception of American Western culture differed significantly from other societies, offering unique perspectives on narratives of violence, masculinities, displacement, and power. More recently, consumption of the “new” or “post-western” has helped shape views on environmental and cultural conservation in the Irish West.
Dr. Pádraig Fhia Ó Mathúna is a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow based at the Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, University of Galway (2023-25). For the past two years, he served as a researcher on the Harvard-based Fionn Folklore Database. A former Fulbright scholar, in 2021 he published a critical volume of the translated works of Irish language writer Eoin Ua Cathail with UNT Press, entitled Recovering an Irish Voice from the American Frontier: The Prose Writings of Eoin Ua Cathail. His next book, The Fenian Empire: Irish Republicanism and American Expansion, 1865-71, is due for release with NYU Press in 2024.

Flow Art, Space and Wellbeing
2023-10-12 14:00 - 16:00 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & online via Zoom
Flow Art, Space and Wellbeing
Dr Heta Mulari, Tampere University, heta.mulari@tuni.fi
MA Maaria Hartman, Tampere University, maaria.hartman@tuni.fi
Zoom link: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/97532199773?pwd=[REDACTED]
“You learn to see the world as a playground. Instead of everyone trying to guide us to follow certain routes. What if you just break the rules, go all over the place, and do handstands in a weird place?” Luna 24 yo
“Yep, I feel that there’s a will to spread that kind of state of mind, a way of thinking that we’re all equal. And that it’s important to respect life and other people, it is visible there.” Linda 34 yo

How is flow art used to playfully challenge and rethink urban and rural spaces? What kind of communities are built around the artform? And further, how is ‘flow’ linked to creating individual and collective wellbeing?
This presentation will provide an understanding of how Finnish flow art communities occupy and transform different urban and rural spaces with the means of their embodied and collective art. These creative and situational take-overs include, for example, park rehearsals, demonstrations, forest festivals and planned as well as spontaneous performances. Further, flow art is deeply connected to community building and creating wellbeing.
We understand flow art as an embodied, movement-based art discipline, which makes use of several props familiar from circus, such as sticks, fans, hoops, and poi. Flow art is closely intertwined into music, especially rave, psychedelic trance and electronic music in general. Further, the communities shared an understanding of the importance of achieving a state of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1990), through constant interaction between the prop, movement, music, and one’s own body. They frequently linked ‘flow’ to, not only personal wellbeing but critical potential for wider change, including positive impact on communities and the society (Helne 2021; Vasileva & Honkatukia 2022).
The presentation is based on ethnographic fieldwork in flow art communities including participatory observation and interviews with the flow artists. The participants of the research are young adults and adults, many of whom are active performers in led and fire art groups. In terms of theory, the presentation is located at the intersection of urban studies (Lefebvre 1974/1991; Georgiou 2013; Tani & Pyyry 2017), performance studies and studies connected with art in urban spaces (see, e.g. Meehan et al 2021; Järviluoma et al 2021) and studies on wellbeing in contemporary societies (Helne 2021; Vasileva & Honkatukia 2022).
Dr Heta Mulari is a post-doctoral researcher at the Unit of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. She is currently working in the research project Into the Flow (2021-2023), funded by the Kone Foundation, which focuses on flow art in Finland from the perspectives of space, community, and subculture. Mulari’s current research interests include youth and subculture studies, circus studies, urban studies, and feminist ethnography. She is co-editor of Nordic Girlhoods – New Perspectives and Outlooks, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (with Bodil Formark and Myry Voipio). Her publications also include: ‘Emotional encounters and young feminine choreographies in the Helsinki Metro’, Girlhood Studies, 2020; and ‘“Everyone here is willing to teach each other”: Negotiations over hippie culture and resistance in Helsinki-based flow art community’, Journal of Youth Studies, 2021.
MA Maaria Hartman is a project researcher at the Unit of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. She is currently working in the research project Into the Flow (2021-2023), funded by the Kone Foundation, which focuses on flow art in Finland from the perspectives of space, community, and subculture. Hartman’s previous research include, for example, a research on young peoples’ art experiences (‘Young people’s experiences of art visits and cultural participation in the Art testers campaign’, Finnish Youth Research Society, 2020, Sofia Laine & Maaria Hartman). Hartman’s current research interests include feminist ethnography, subcultural art and folklore, alternative sports, ways of resistance and different ways of living youth and adulthood/.

University of Galway History Research Seminar: Writing Haughey: Ethics and Dilemmas in Political Biography
2023-10-11 16:00 - 17:30 | THB-G010 Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway & online via Zoom
University of Galway History Research Seminar
Writing Haughey: Ethics and Dilemmas in Political Biography
Professor Gary Murphy (Dublin City University)
Abstract
On his death in June 2006, Charles Haughey was little mourned. Beyond his circle of family and close friends his death was met largely with indifference by the Irish public. Yet during his political life Haughey rarely engendered public indifference. Instead, he inspired feelings of devotion and hatred amongst his followers and enemies. The roots of his success and failure in politics – his charisma, his intelligence, his ruthlessness, his secrecy – rendered almost impossible any objective evaluation of his life and work. In late 2021 Gary Murphy published a widely acclaimed, if at times criticised, biography, of Haughey. Based on exclusive access to the Haughey archives, held at Dublin City University, and interviews with over a hundred of Haughey’s contemporaries, it offered a major reassessment of one of Ireland’s most significant and controversial politicians. Containing new information on almost every aspect of Haughey’s life, the book provided an encompassing view of a man of prodigious gifts and fatal flaws. In this paper Gary Murphy explores and reassess Haughey’s role at heart of Irish political life for over three and a half decades, his legacy in the intervening years, and examines the difficulties and opportunities of writing authorised biography.
Speaker Biography
Gary Murphy is Professor of Politics in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. He has held visiting professorships at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the University of Notre Dame. He has published extensively on modern Irish politics and regularly appears in the print and broadcast media. Among his books are: In Search of the Promised Land; The Politics of Post War Ireland, Electoral Competition in Ireland since 1987: The Politics of Triumph and Despair, and most recently Haughey, the best-selling biography of the former Fianna Fáil leader, and Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughey.
Registration
The next University of Galway History Research Seminar will take place at 4.00pm on Wednesday, 11 October 2022. This is a hybrid event: the seminar will take place, in-person, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/92355128199.
To attend via Zoom, please register at: https://forms.office.com/e/8gnVmsVNzZ.
This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series and organised jointly with the Centre for the Study of Religion at the Moore Institute.
All are welcome!
