Transnationalising the Humanities

The UCD Humanities Institute led research strand in partnership with the College of Arts & Humanities

• UCD College of Arts and Humanities Research Themes

Launched in 2019, Transnationalising the Humanities (TNH) is a flagship research strand under the auspices of the UCD Humanities Institute which aligns with the College of Arts and Humanities and the UCD Strategy Rising to the Future. 

We live in a transnational world. The multi-directional movement of people, languages, ideas, knowledges and religions has created an entangled world that gives rise to opportunities while also challenging the container notion of the nation state and conventional models of citizenship. Transnationalism has not only changed people’s relation to place  by creating new translocalities; it has also given rise to  new transnational identities and modes of decentred attachment. The shift from the international to the transnational implies a shift away from the nation state as an actor on the global stage.  In recent years, however,  there has been pushback against the effects of  globalisation and the  perceived erosion of  national identity and agency.   The  concept of the transnational also captures transnational styles and modes  in literature,  film, art, food and fashion, transnational modes of production, marketing and reception.

In this context, the TNH strand engages with the opportunities and challenges of the transnational turn for the humanities : the strand seeks to explore, test and clarify the meanings and applications of the concept of the transnational and to identify areas in which it can be particularly useful.  The strand specifically aims to a) explore the history of transnationalism  and its precursors; b) develop innovative methodologies, c) produce transnational case studies across a wide spectrum of humanities disciplines; d) contribute to the development of new  transnational pedagogies that decolonise the curriculum.

Report on project activities available HERE.

TNH Reading Group | Affective Citizenship

Research Outputs

TNH PhD Network

TNH Migration Humanities Network

Project Events

Events in 2025 | More details >>

• 27 Mar 2025 | TNH workshop “Migrant Mothers’ Subjectivities' with Prof. Eglė Kačkutė
• 30 Apr 2025 | TNH Roundtable ‘The Crisis of the Humanities, Responses and Interventions: The Academy in Exile, a Case Study’
• 21 Nov 2025 | "Haunting Times" Talk & Discussion with Prof. Sarah Colvin (Univ. of Cambridge)

Events in 2024 | More details >>

• 25-26 Mar 2024 | Transnational Activisms Conference | Reimagining Boundaries in Political Cultural Production
• 29 Apr 2024 | Exchanging Tales: Celebrating Irish and Nigerian storytelling through D.O. Fágúnwà and Peig Sayers
• 1 May 2024 | TNH Workshop with Prof. Monica Miscali: "Investigating Emotions in Migration: The Experiences of Italian Women from the 1960s to Contemporary Times"
• 17 May 2024 | Workshop: 'EURASIAN ZONES OF CONTACT: The Russian & Qing Empires'
• 21 May 2024 | TNH Workshop'Roots in the Air: Multilingualism and Displacement'
• 12 Jun 2024 | Contemporary Tibetan Women’s Writing in English (Reading group + seminar)
• 26 Jun 2024 | Professor Adeeb Khalid: "Getting to Know Central Asia: The Production of Imperial Knowledge and its Discontents”
• 26-27 Jun 2024 | 'Measuring Eurasia' | A Conference on Survey Sciences at the Edges of Empire
• 12-13 Jul 2024 | Artistic Residency: A Conference to Mark the 50th Anniversary of the Anwerbestopp
• 25-26 Jul 2024 | 'Can CEE Lesbians Speak? Towards Central and Eastern European Lesbian Studies' Symposium
• 14 Oct 2024 | TNH Workshop: ‘Un/Successful Funding Applications’
• 18 Oct 2024 | TNH Event: Bilingual Conversation and Readings | From Réunion to Ireland: Gaëlle Bélem in Translation
• 20 Nov 2024 | TNH Event: "Becoming an Author: From Proposal to Publication" Workshop

Events in 2023 | More details >>

• 3 Mar 2023 | 'Transnationalising the Classroom' Symposium
• 25 Apr 2023 | PhD Masterclass in Cultural Memory & Roundtable discussion
• 7 & 8 Sep 2023 | Multilingualism in Ireland - Roundtable and workshop | Thursday, 7th September 2023 (HI H204) & Friday, 8th September 2023 (Newman, D301)
• 16 Nov 2023 | 'Early Modern Italians in Ireland' Symposium
• 7 Dec 2023 | Roundtable: “Women and Labour: Interdisciplinary Perspectives”
• 8 & 9 Dec 2023 | Conference: 'Diaries in the Twentieth Century: Testimony, Memory, Self-Construction'

Events in 2021 | More details >>

• 11 Feb 2021 'Past postcolonialism: Indigenous methodologies as Trans-Indigenous Studies' | Professor Harald Gaski (UiT The Arcrtic University of Norway) | Online lecture
• 27 Oct 2021 | 'Historical Futures: Apprehending the Past and Anticipating the Future' | Workshop with Professor Marek Tamm (Prof. of Cultural History, Tallinn University)

Project News

• Research Lead – Transnationalising the Humanities (TNH) Project |Temporary 36 month post 

In 2023, the HI appointed (opens in a new window)Dr Bianca Cataldi, a scholar in Italian Studies, as the Research Lead on the TNH Project. In early 2025, Dr Megan Kuster, a literary scholar, took over the role. Megan has coordinated interdisciplinary, multi-institutional environmental humanities projects and has strong transhistorical and transnational research interests. She will liaise with the Director of the HI, colleagues in the School of English, Drama and Film, and members of the TNH strand to develop collaborative research on TNH.

• HI Seed Funding Opportunities 2025-2026

The Humanities Institute awarded seed funding for research activities conducted under the auspices of one of the eight College of Arts and Humanities Research Strands:

• Transnationalising the Humanities
• Environmental Humanities
• Thresholds of Knowledge
• Digital Cultures
• Engaged Creativity
• Health, Medicine & Wellbeing
• Ireland in the World
• Violence & Society

The award of up to €5,000 per application will support projects realised between 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. This funding is designed to catalyse research strand activity and be innovative in terms of format, delivery, public engagement and outputs

Applicants were required to be members of the Humanities Institute at the time of applying and when the project takes place. The call was open to members of one of the eight research strands in the College of Arts and Humanities.

• Applications now closed
• Download T&Cs and application form here

Funding application round 2023 (completed)