Research: Current

Funded by an European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (opens in a new window)Spectres & Camouflage links architecture and construction with music, military history, and acoustics to explore how different disciplines propelled each other forward in the design and exploitation of the silent environment in the twentieth century. Read more >>>>

Funded by an European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, the (opens in a new window)Expanding Agency: Women, Race, and the Global Dissemination of Modern Architecture project is led by Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty.

This five-year project examines the role that women and ethnic minorities, including African Americans, had in the global dissemination of modern architecture and design between 1920 and 1970. It includes considerations of entrepreneurship, journalism, patronage, and philanthropy as pathways through which they exerted influence. Read more >>>>

(opens in a new window)Youth Dance Matters is an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods project combining dance and social science research in a cross-border investigation of the shared value and capacity of youth dance on the island of Ireland.

(opens in a new window)Drawing on learning gained from our previous research, Youth Dance Matters is led by (opens in a new window)Dr Victoria Durrer, UCD School of Art History & Cultural Policy, and Professor Aoife McGrath at Queen's University Belfast. It takes an innovative, mixed methods approach to examining the conditions and value of youth dance as a shared cultural, developmental, and professional endeavour for young people across the island of Ireland. Read more here >>>>

Funded by the Irish Research Council (IRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK (AHRC), the Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage project is led by Dr Sean Leatherbury and Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins (Oxford University).

Growing numbers of digital archive projects are engaging with cultural heritage issues, from digitising historic photos of archaeological sites in regions in conflict, to recording data on sites under threat from climate change, to connecting objects to the regions and sites from which they came. However, often these projects do not communicate with each other as best they could, leading to a duplication of efforts. Additionally, projects have been focused so far on academic audiences rather than on other groups of users, even though they are useful and important resources for museum and cultural heritage professionals, students, and other groups. The Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage research network aims to address both of these issues by promoting collaboration between open-access (i.e. freely accessible) digital projects based in the UK and in Ireland that focus on ancient and medieval cultural heritage, including art, architecture, and archaeology. . Read more >>>>

Funded by an Irish Research Council (IRC) Coalesce Grant the Balancing Heritage and Sustainability in the Retrofit of Postwar Curtain Wall Highrises project is led by Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty (University College Dublin) and Professor Biswajit Basu (Trinity College Dublin).

From the end of World War II until the energy crisis of 1973, curtain wall highrises were built across much of Europe with very little concern for the large amounts of energy that would be required to heat – and more often cool – them. The project addresses their retrofitting. Read more >>>>