29 April 2024 | Exchanging Tales: Celebrating Irish and Nigerian storytelling through D.O. Fágúnwà and Peig Sayers
Date: Monday, 29th April 2024 -350x350.jpg)
Time: 7pm
Venue: Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI)
Join us for an evening of entertainment and conversation to celebrate two of the world's greatest storytellers, D.O. Fágúnwà (1903-1963) and Peig Sayers (1873-1958). Dagogo Hart and Samuel Yakura of WeAreGriot will perform a selection of English translations of stories from Fágúnwà and Sayers. This will be accompanied by a Q&A with Diipo Fágúnwà, Fágúnwà's son, and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, writer and scholar.
All attendees are invited to continue exchanging tales and making new connections at the reception afterwards.
This event is kindly supported by the Transnationalising the Humanities Research Strand, led by the UCD Humanities Institute.
- This event is open to all members of the public. Book your free ticket (opens in a new window)HERE
1 May 2024 | TNH Workshop with (opens in a new window)Prof. Monica Miscali (NTNU): "Investigating Emotions in Migration: The Experiences of Italian Women from the 1960s to Contemporary Times"
Date: Wednesday, 1st May 2024
Time: 1pm
Venue: Humanities Institute, H204
Abstract:
Today, scholars increasingly recognize that emotional expressions are critical to understanding social, cultural, and political change and provide an important correction to the historically dominant approaches in migration studies. Yet, despite the growing significance of emotions in migration studies, less attention has been dedicated to the emotional impact of emigration on solitary migrants, particularly women, who decide to leave alone, without family or a husband. Leaving alone entails having to provide for oneself in a different country, presenting a significant emotional challenge that requires substantial preparation compared to those who decide to emigrate with their families. The purpose of my presentation has two main objectives. Firstly, it aims to explore the emotional impact that migration evokes in Italian women who choose to immigrate to Norway alone. Secondly, the study introduces a temporal perspective by comparing the emotional consequences of migration experienced by Italian women who immigrated during the 1960s and 1970s with those who immigrated after 2008. This comparative analysis of two different time periods facilitates an examination of how emotions and feelings can change over time and in response to the environment. Additionally, it allows us to evaluate how social factors, environments, and societal perceptions of a phenomenon can influence people's emotions.
2 May 2024 | Silent Book Club
Date: Thursday, 2nd May 2024
Time: 2.30-4pm
Venue: Humanities Institute, H204
In a time of noise and multi-tasking activities, it has become particularly difficult to sit down with a book and focus on our reading. This might be a problem, considering that reading is such a fundamental part of our career as graduate students, early-career academics, and academics. For this reason, every two months, on a Thursday from 2.30 to 4 pm, the UCD Humanities Institute offers a safe and quiet space to read together… in silence! The aim is to share our love for reading and for our research without feeling the pressure to talk about it. There is only one rule: bring your book or e-book along (it doesn’t matter which one) and enjoy with your fellow readers!
- Register at (opens in a new window)humanities@ucd.ie to join
Next date:
- TBC
Directions to the Humanities Institute
9 May 2024 | Workshop by Dr (opens in a new window)Wajeehah Aayeshah
"Designing kind educational practices"
Time: 1pm
Venue: HI Seminar Room (H204)
This workshop will explore and develop our understanding of the shape of kindness in educational settings. Students, as fellow educators, will be required to reflect on their experiences and practices of kindness. This reflection will contribute to a discussion about pragmatically embedding kindness in everyday educational life. A ‘Framework of kindness’ is going to be used for this.
Grounded in pedagogy of kindness (Denial 2019), this framework takes the immersive practices of ‘decolonisation of education’ (Brown, Kelada, & Jones 2020) and the idea of ‘Restorative Practice’ (Morisson 2015) and applies it to all relationships within the academia, and not just that of teachers and students. In the framework of Kindness, ‘decolonised restorative practice’ needs to be implemented in the whole academic eco-system.
The ‘Framework of Kindness’ is based on real-life examples of students and staff in higher educational settings. Dr Aayeshah is calling these settings, ‘pockets of healing’. To offer an education which is ‘inclusive’, ‘recognises prior knowledge’, ‘cultural capital’, and considers different needs of participants, and partners, we need to create eco-systems within academia that are kind. The Framework of Kindness in academia is a step to do so. It does this by acknowledging the challenging aspects of our eco-system and identifying ‘pockets of healing’ where positive change is gradually happening. Dr Aayeshah hopes that this workshop itself would be considered as a ‘pocket of healing’ as well.
This workshop is a part of an on-going collaborative research. Dr Aayeshah would ideally like to use the insights and stories as research data. However, this will only be done if participants are comfortable with it and give her explicit permission to do so.
17 May 2024 | 'EURASIAN ZONES OF CONTACT:The Russian & Qing Empires' Workshop
Date: Friday, 17th May 2024 
Time: TBC
Venue: Science Hub, Room H2.20
The workshop seeks to generate conversation about local and regional entanglements, networks, and exchanges across these vast Eurasian territories. While conventional histories of the two empires have treated them as two separate political entities, the workshop aims to adopt transregional and transnational approaches to overcome the narrow and traditional idea of territory – and in doing so, to propose alternative spatial, economic, and cultural histories of the region that contribute to attempts to de-nationalise and de-territorialise the historiography.
Confirmed speakers:
Yuexin Rachel Lin (Leeds)
Eric Schluessel (George Washington)
Sören Urbansky (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Meng Zhang (Vanderbilt)
16 & 17 May 2024 | 'Nonhuman Animals in the Age of Extinction and Mass Production' Conference
Date: Thursday, 16th May (online) & Friday, 17th May 2024 
Time: TBC
Venue: Science Hub, Room 1.51
The Nonhuman Animals in the Age of Extinction and Mass Production conference will critically examine the paradoxical situation of nonhuman animal life in the age of mass extinction and mass production. The conference theme addresses one of the most urgent challenges facing humanity and other animals in the context of the climate crisis and the global capitalist system: the destruction of habitats and exploitation of animals that drives both extinction and consumption. It will explore how literature and other cultural productions criticise and rethink the ethical, ecological and social implications of this scenario, fostering a dialogue between Animal Studies and Environmental Humanities, two interdisciplinary fields that share concerns but also have tensions and are rarely in direct conversation with each other.
Keynote speakers:
- (opens in a new window)Dr Sarah Bezan (University College Cork
- (opens in a new window)Dr John Miller (University of Sheffield)
Conference website: (opens in a new window)Animal Studies
For further information, please contact: (opens in a new window)animalstudiesucd@gmail.com
Partial funding support for this event is provided by the UCD Humanities Institute and the UCD College of Arts & Humanities.
20 May 2024 | 'Landings: Art after Extractivism' Art Exhibit Launch
Date: Monday, 20th May 2024
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: HI Seminar Room (H204)
Opening remarks by Professor Karen Robson Brown, Vice President for Research, Innovation and Impact (VPRII), followed by Professor Regina Uí Chollatáin, Principal/College of Arts and Humanities, and Professor Anne Fuchs, Humanities Institute Director
The launch will be followed by a wine reception.
- The event is free but please register on (opens in a new window)EVENTBRITE to reserve your place | Registration closes on 16th May @ 12pm
The artworks in this exhibit have been produced in response to the (opens in a new window)2022/23 CHCI Global Humanities Institute 'Post-extractivist legacies and landscapes: Humanities, artistic and activist responses’ which was led by the UCD Humanities Institute. This exhibition marks the end of the Andrew W. Mellon funded transnational research project which has resulted in a rich international network and many diverse outputs, spanning academic publications, blogs, an online syllabus and artistic works.
Image artworks by:
Judy Carroll Deeley | Sarah Comyn | Helen Doherty | Katherine Fama
- The exhibition will be open to the public in the HI Seminar Room (H204) from
Tuesday, 21st May to Saturday, 25th May 2024 | 12-7pm
23 May 2024 | 'Extractivist Landscapes: Humanities, Artistic and Activist Responses' Workshop Series
Date: Thursday, 23rd May 2024
Time: 1.30-4.45pm
Venue: Humanities Institute, H204
Workshop 2:
Dr Conor Sweeney (School of Mathematics and Statistics, UCD): "Visualising Climate Modelling”
Dublin artist Sarah Bracken Soper: "Making Impressions”
- For queries about the workshop series, contact:
Dr Megan Kuster ((opens in a new window)megan.kuster@ucd.ie) and Dr Sarah Comyn ((opens in a new window)sarah.comyn@ucd.ie)
Image credit: ‘Goldmine: Germiston’, Natalie Fuller c.1928, with watercolour additions by S. Comyn. Used with kind permission by the owner D. R. Comyn
12 June 2024 | Contemporary Tibetan Women’s Writing in English (Reading group + seminar)
Date: Wednesday, 12th June 2024
Time: 10.30am-4pm
Venue: Humanities Institute, H204
- Places are free but please register (opens in a new window)HERE
This event comprises a reading group followed by a seminar where three of the most celebrated and emerging Tibetan female writers- Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Tenzin Dickie and Tsering Yangzom Lama, in their capacities as writers, editors, translators, come together to introduce, inform and critically discuss their work as well as the future of Tibetan literature in English from the perspective of many combinatory concepts like exile and diaspora studies, neo-colonialism, resistance writing, among others. This gathering aims to put Contemporary Tibetan Women’s Writing on the World Literary map by providing a platform to such writers who are working on a burgeoning field of literature.
20 June 2024 | 'Extractivist Landscapes: Humanities, Artistic and Activist Responses' Workshop Series
Date: Thursday, 20th June 2024
Time: 1.30-4.45pm
Venue: Humanities Institute, H204
Workshop 3:
Professor Maeve Cooke (School of Philosophy, UCD): "Engaged Theorising”
Dublin artist Conor Nolan: “Wish You Were Here”
- For queries about the workshop series, contact:
Dr Megan Kuster ((opens in a new window)megan.kuster@ucd.ie) and Dr Sarah Comyn ((opens in a new window)sarah.comyn@ucd.ie)
Image credit: ‘Goldmine: Germiston’, Natalie Fuller c.1928, with watercolour additions by S. Comyn. Used with kind permission by the owner D. R. Comyn