John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies
Mission Statement
Eighty million people around the world identify themselves in some way with Ireland and with Irishness. Named in honour of the politician and Nobel Laureate John Hume, the mission of the UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies is to
- Engage, connect and develop this diverse global community as an active social network of global citizens.
- Engage with the past, the present and the future of Ireland and the Irish.
- Connect the Irish in Ireland and the global Diaspora as an active community.
- Capture and map the global Irish community.
- Explore new directions in the study of Ireland and the Irish.
- Apply specific learning outcomes from thematic areas into wider contexts such as conflict resolution, interculturalism, integration and development.
The Institute received €2.6 million under PRTLI Cycle 4 for programme funding. The Institute is a member of the Humanities Serving Irish Society consortium headed by the Royal Irish Academy. The Digital Humanities Observatory is a core project of the consortium. Along with the Institute Director, Brian Jackson, there are 4 PIs and 4 associated research staff together with 5 funded post doctoral research staff and 6 PhD students. A further 6 PhD students are currently being recruited.
Transforming the Study of Ireland and its Diaspora
The PRTLI funded programme entitled ‘Transforming the Study of Ireland and its Diaspora’ consists of four core research strands:
- Footprints of Ireland: heritage and landscape;
- Irish Identities from the Seventeenth Century: cultural and linguistic expression;
- State and Society: historical development and contemporary challenges;
- The Irish experience of conflict resolution in a British-Irish, European and global context.
Specific Post doctoral research themes are:
- Natives, migrants or colonisers? Investigating Ireland’s agricultural origins in their European context.
- The effects of transformed family and kinship structures on Irish identity in Irish communities in early modern Europe and in Ireland.
- Taking up the torch: Alice Milligan and the Irish Cultural Revival.
- Institutional design in post conflict Northern Ireland and political participation of new communities.
Specific PhD research themes are:
- The Intellectual and Cultural Mentality of the Irish Soldiers in Spanish Military Service during the 17th Century.
- In Tírechán’s Footprints: The Archaeology of the early medieval Collectanea.
- Consuming Culture in the Early modern Household: An Archaeology of Capitalism in Ireland 1600-1800.
- Crossing Borders: Gender and Identity in Conflict and peace processes: Ciapas, South Africa and Northern Ireland.
- Anti-civilian violence and democratic constitutionalism: the cases of Northern Ireland, Israel-Palestine and Sri Lanka.
- Dominant ethnicities in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Israel: Revisiting ‘God’s People’.
- National Identity in divided societies. Reasons, functions evolutions and effects. Violence and peace process in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country.
The Irish Diaspora Forum, which took place on November 10th 2008, covered 4 main thematic areas:
- New World Order: ‘Change’ and the US Administration
- ‘After the Deluge’ – Ireland and the Global Economy
- ‘Giving Back’ – Can philanthropy shape the future?
- Irish Culture – a global bridge?
www.ucd.ie/hume
