Dr Aidan O'Sullivan BA, MA, PhD
Teaching Interests:
My teaching programmes tend to explore how people in the past used places, objects, animals and their environments to create and inhabit social worlds that are very different than our own, and thence reveal the potential diversity of the human experience. I am Module Co-ordinator for seven undergraduate and graduate modules in UCD School of Archaeology.
I have supervised 10 PhD theses and co-ordinate UCD School of Archaeology's Early Medieval Research and Viking Age Research Group (EMVARG) of Post-Doctoral Fellows, PhD and MA students - the largest and most successful (i.e. in terms of postgraduate scholarship awards) community of graduate students investigating early medieval archaeology in Ireland.
I have supervised c.20 MA theses. Three of my previous MA students were awarded the UK's Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG) John Hurst Prize for the Best Thesis on Medieval Settlement in Britain and Ireland, including Triona Nicholl, (2004) Experimental archaeology and early medieval houses; Jonathan Kinsella (2005) Locating the poor and unfree: early medieval low-status settlement in Ireland and Niamh Arthur (2009) The Viking Age longphort in Ireland.
Modules Co-ordinated:
| 2011 ARCH10010 Archaeology: Exploring Archaeology |
| 2011 ARCH30270 Archaeology: Early Medieval Societies |
| 2011 ARCH30240 Archaeology: Experimental Archaeology |
| 2011 ARCH40400 Archaeology: Extended Essay |
| 2011 ARCH40480 Archaeology: Research Placement |
| 2011 ARCH40310 Archaeology: MA Dissertation |
Recent Postgraduate Students:
Post-Doctoral Fellowships Mentored
Harrison, Stephen (2009-2011) Viking Furnished Graves: Early Medieval Death and Burial in Britain and Ireland (IRCHSS Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2009-2011; mentor and colleague for this fellowship)
PhDs Awarded
Greene, Sharon, 2009 Settlement, Identity and Change on Connacht's Atlantic Isles, AD 400-1100 (IRCHSS Postgraduate Scholar) (PhD awarded December 2009)
Nugent, Louise 2010 Medieval Pilgrimage in Ireland, AD 600-1600 (PhD awarded, January 2010)
Doyle, Maureen, 2011 Dress, Ornament and Bodily Identities in Early Medieval Ireland: an Archaeology of Personhood (UCD Ad Astra Scholar; awarded February 2011)
Nicholl, Triona 2011 'Houses, Dwelling Spaces and Daily Life in Early Medieval Ireland: an Experimental Archaeological Approach' (IRCHSS Scholar; awarded February 2011)
Current PhD students
Boyd, Rebecca, (forthcoming) Norse Houses in Ireland and Western Britain, AD 800-1100: a Social Archaeology of Dwellings, Ethnicity and Cultural Identity (UCD Ad Astra Scholar; currently on sabbatical)
Dolan, Brian, (forthcoming) The social and Technological Context of Ironworking in early medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100 (IRCHSS Scholar; NUI Travelling Scholar; Marie Curie Fellow).
Keating, Denise, (forthcoming) Early medieval childhood in Ireland: perspectives from archaeology and human osteology' (PhD; IRCHSS Scholar; supervised with Dr. Helen Lewis)
O' Hagan, Terry (forthcoming) In Tírechan's footprints: an archaeology of the early medieval Collectanea (UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies (GII) Scholar)
Seaver, Matt (forthcoming) Living with the dead: Early medieval cemetery/settlements, AD 400-1100 (PhD: IRCHSS Scholar, previously supported by INSTAR and CRDS)
Harney, Lorcan (forthcoming) Living with the church in early medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100: Archaeological perspectives on the sacred and profane (IRCHSS Postgraduate Scholar)
I have acted on Doctoral Supervisory Panels (DSP) for these PhD scholars:
O'Donnell, Lorna 'People and Woodlands: an Investigation of Wood and Charcoal Remains as Indicators of Cultural Selection and Local Environment in Prehistoric Ireland' (supervised by Dr. Rob Sands)
Corliss, Adrienne, 'Woodturning and the Woodturners in Viking Age and Anglo-Norman Dublin, and their association with the surrounding woodlands' (supported by National Museum of Ireland; supervised by Dr. Rob Sands)
Current Postgraduate Students:
| Rebecca Boyd, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - Thesis Supervisor |
| Denise Keating, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - Thesis Supervisor |
| Terence O Hagan, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - Thesis Supervisor |
| Matthew Seaver, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - Thesis Supervisor |
| Brian Dolan, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - Thesis Supervisor |