Apr
06
Coffee Morning: Patrick Brodie

Thursday 6 April at 11:00
Patrick Brodie from the School of Information and Communication Studies will be with us to talk about digital infrastructures, energy systems, and climate solutions in Ireland.
Apr
06
Talking Towns: Making art in the rural

Thursday 6 April, 1-2pm on Zoom
Join us for this month's Talking Towns seminar, hosted by the UCD Centre for Irish Towns, exploring making art in the rural.
Co-hosted with Cultural Policy Observatory Ireland
Speakers:
- Dr Bernadette Quinn (Senior Lecturer in the College of Arts & Tourism, Technological University Dublin) 'Harnessing digital infrastructures to make art in the rural'
- Dr Anthony Schrag (Senior Lecturer in Arts Management and Cultural Policy, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland) '"Not Solutions Focused": arts organisations operating in remote and rural areas - findings and discussions from the Rural Arts Network Scotland'
- Catriona O’Reilly (Cavan County Council Arts Officer) 'Inclusivity and Ambition – Cavan Arts a rural border Local Authority perspective'
- Dr Victoria Durrer (Ad Astra Fellow in Cultural Policy, UCD, Dr Aoife McGrath (Senior Lecturer, Queens University Belfast) and Argyro Tsampazi, (Researcher, Queens University Belfast) 'Sites of Significance: Understanding the dance ecology in rural border areas' (a project funded by Cavan Arts / Cavan County Council with support from Creative Ireland).
- Chair: Orla Murphy (Centre for Irish Towns/UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy)
Register via Eventbrite
Full list of Spring 2023 Talking Towns seminars.
Apr
13
Coffee Morning: Olga Lastovetsky

Thursday 13 April at 11:00
Olga Lastovetsky from the School of Biology and Environmental Science will be with us to talk about microbial interactions and plant health.
Apr
18
Unpacking green and just transition policies: instruments and toolboxes

18 April, 1-2pm on Zoom. Please register via Eventbrite.
Speaker bio:
Ekaterina Domorenok is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Padua. Her research interests mainly concern policy design, implementation and learning in multi-level settings, with particular regard to European Union policies for climate, sustainability, environment and cohesion. She has taken part in several European research and cooperation projects dealing with regional and local development, environmental governance, climate policies and participatory forms of policy-making at the local level.
Talk outline:
The need to simultaneously address ecological and social costs and risks of climate change has challenged the established welfare and green state regimes, requiring to coordinate policy strategies and individual policy instruments across a range of sectors. Along with the complexity of practical solutions that this task implies, a range of theoretical and conceptual issues arise for those who aim to map and understand these processes. The rapidly growing though still underdeveloped scholarly debate on eco-social transitions still lacks solid theoretical grounds, especially from the political science perspective, and much empirical research remains to be done to assess how and to what extent governments at the different territorial levels manage to cope with the multifaceted eco-social agenda.
Building on public policy studies and, in particular, policy integration research, this presentation offers a theoretical reflection and some original empirical findings on how social and environmental priorities can be addressed at the level of individual policy instruments.
About this talk:
This talk is organised as part of the Sustainable Wellbeing: Humans, Environment and Liveability network, a Strategic Priority of UCD Earth Institute 2021-2023. It is also jointly hosted with the UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice.
Apr
20
Conversation with theatre artist and director Luke Casserly

Join us (after the coffee morning) on 20 April at 12pm in Science East - E2.14 for an informal conversation with artist Luke Casserly.
Luke Casserly is a theatre artist and director who manufactures live performances invested in stretching out new conversations around the environment through non-conventional theatre forms. His work often touches on environmental and sustainability issues.
Recent work brought audiences on a suburban train to explore our national relationship with the material of plastic through sound (Mould Into Shape, 2019); sparked a national conversation around Ireland's biodiversity decline through planting a network of wildflower meadows across Ireland (1000 Miniature Meadows, 2020); and documented the passing of time on a Midlands bog for an online audience over 6 days (Live Bog Project, 2020). He recently created Root (2021) for the Dublin Theatre Festival, a performative inquiry which looked at the importance of trees in our ecosystem - from the point of view of a tree. The project was sparked by the fact that Ireland currently has the lowest tree cover in the EU at just 11%, and was commissioned through the EU Be SpectACTive! Fund. Reverberations from an Irish Landscape (2021) invited a virtual audience to listen to the passing of time in five unique Irish landscapes, from anywhere in the world at any time of day. Each distinct sound recording was captured from a different geographical site in Ireland, and was accompanied by a portrait of the exact location where the recording took place. Luke is currently a FUEL Artist with Druid Theatre Company and Associate Director of PAN PAN Theatre Company. He has a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College, Dublin.
May
04
Talking Towns: The present and future of the High Street / Main Street in our towns

Thursday 4 May, 1-2pm: The present and future of the High Street / Main Street in our towns
A 'Nations of Towns' seminar co-organised with University of Edinburgh.
- Iain Scott and Mark Bingham (Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh) ''Transforming Scotland's Towns-Reflections on 3 years of ESALA studios on Re-thinking the High Street’.
- Giulia Vallone, (Cork City Council architect)
- Tara Buckley, Director General of RGDATA (Retail Grocery Dairy & Allied Trades Association)
Register via Eventbrite.