Trinity Long Room Hub

Recorded October 15th 2025. The Trinity Long Room Hub is delighted to welcome author and historian William Dalrymple to present the 2025 Edmund Burke Lecture, entitled 'The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire', which is supported by a generous endowment in honour of Padraic Fallon by his family. About William Dalrymple William Dalrymple is one of Britain's great historians and the bestselling author of the Wolfson Prize-winning White Mughals, The Last Mughal, which won the Duff Cooper Prize, and the Hemingway and Kapuściński award-winning Return of a King. His book, The Anarchy, was long-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2019, and shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History, the Tata Book of the Year (Non-fiction) and the Historical Writers Association Book Award 2020. It was a Finalist for the Cundill Prize for History and won the 2020 Arthur Ross Bronze Medal from the US Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a revolutionary new history of the diffusion of Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. A frequent broadcaster, he has written and presented three television series, one of which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA. He is the co-host of the Empire podcast, which explores the intricate stories of revolutions, imperial wars, and the people who built and lost empires. He has also won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, The Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Foreign Correspondent of the Year at the FPA Media Awards, and been awarded five honorary doctorates. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held visiting fellowships at Princeton, Brown and Oxford. He writes regularly for the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the Guardian. In 2018, he was presented with the prestigious President's Medal by the British Academy for his outstanding literary achievement and for co-founding the Jaipur Literature Festival. He was named one of the world's top 50 thinkers for 2020 by Prospect. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 26th, 2025. Government Science Advisor, Aoife McLysaght, joins a lively conversation with Hub Director Patrick Geoghegan on bridging research and public policy. Drawing on her career as a geneticist and public communicator and adviser, Dr McLysaght reflects on how Science and the Humanities can work together to shape understanding and create impact. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 24th 2025. How do we locate books in time and place? Nicole Volmering (History) and the Trinity Centre for the Book invite you into the world of early medieval manuscripts for an interdisciplinary showcase exploring how we trace the movement of texts, through language, material, and meaning. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded Tuesday, 23rd September 2025. Join James Joyce expert Sam Slote (English) for a sharp look at censorship, copyright, and Ulysses in this festival edition of the School of English Staff and Postgrad Seminar Series. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded Monday 22nd September 2025. Gina Moxley and the creative team behind I Fall Down: A Restoration Comedy give us a behind-the-scenes look at this punk-feminist production taking place in Trinity as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Hosted by the School of Creative Arts Research Forum. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded Tuesday, 23rd Setpember 2025. Join Georgina Laragy (History) and Mandy Lee (Medicine) to explore past achievements and future directions for Trinity's expanding Medical and Health Humanities Network. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 24th, 2025. Stephen O'Neill (English) looks at writing and partition in this festival edition of the Modern and Contemporary Irish History Seminar Series, hosted by Carole Holohan (History). Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 23rd, 2025. From emojis in online condolences, to legendary goat-riding criminals and mapping wild urban plants, this panel (Shannon Mora, Noel Castro Fernandez, Nicole Basaraba, Ginevra Santivale and Vicky Garnett) explores how plants and animals are featuring across Trinity's digital humanities research. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 23rd, 2025. James Hanrahan (French) hosts a difficult and timely conversation with Tylor Brand (Near & Middle Eastern Studies), in this festival edition of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultural Studies Research Seminar. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 24th, 2025. In this joint session chaired by AHSS Faculty Dean Carmel O'Sullivan, Shannon Mora (Digital Humanities) will explore mourning as a social and cultural determinant of health. Sarah Jane Scaife (Drama Studies), Conor McGuckin and Aoife Lynam (Education) will discuss their project ‘Illuminating the Shadows of Grief: Unveiling Adult Experiences of Childhood Bereavement using the Creative Arts.' Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 25th 2025. Reflecting on her new publication Theology and the University, Fáinche Ryan (Theology) explores whether the university is or could be 'a refuge of truth-telling' (Hannah Arendt). Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded 25th September 2025. Hub Director Patrick Geoghegan speaks with Dr Clare Moriarty (Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy) on communicating research, public engagement and making big life choices. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded Monday 22nd September 2025. Mary Rogan (Law) discusses her pioneering research on human rights and detention, and how people in prison experience the protection of human rights through monitoring. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 25th 2025. Why do some creators of Gothic and Horror fade into obscurity, while others become icons? Bernice Murphy (English) chairs a panel with Trinity literary experts Darryl Jones, Orla Donnelly, Dara Downey, and Janice Deitner, each championing an overlooked talent. The event explores literary celebrity, cultural memory, and why some voices are marginalised while others are rediscovered. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded 22nd September 2025. Why are we so drawn to true crime? And what are the ethical stakes behind the stories? Join popular literature experts Clare Clarke, Bernice Murphy, writer Una Mannion (English), and Ailise Bulfin (UCD), whose research focuses on cultural representations of major social issues, for a discussion on the moral complexities of creating and consuming true crime narratives. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 26th, 2025. What does artificial intelligence mean for research in the Humanities? This panel brings together David Brown (the IRC-funded Empire project), Micheál O'Siochrú (History) and Hub Director Patrick Geoghegan to explore how AI is reshaping research, archives, and the way we think about the future. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 25th, 2025. Should Northern Ireland, or Ireland, have a new flag? David Michell and Etain Tannam (Peace Studies) explore this long-debated idea. A timely conversation on identity, representation, and national symbols. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded 22nd September 2025. This international history seminar focuses on the US, with Dan Geary (History) discussing 'Forgotten American Liberals: Why American Politics isn't all about Trump'. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded Monday 22nd September 2025. The Hub's Behind the Headlines series begins its second decade with a public discussion on the Irish Presidency. The panel is chaired by David Kenny (Law) and features Etain Tannam (Peace Studies), Declan Leddin (History), John Walsh (Education) and Gail McElroy (Political Science). Behind the Headlines is supported by the John Pollard Foundation. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 25th, 2025. Franciszek Krawczyk (Education) explores the role of the university in advancing international solidarity, comparing Trinity and the University of Warsaw and their geopolitical positions and legacies. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded Tuesday, 23rd of September 2025. Ben Jonson's claim that "Greek was free from Rime's Infection" has echoed for centuries, although rejected by some. Leon Wash (Classics) revisits the debate, sharing striking evidence of rhyme in ancient Greek, including a poem about beer among the Celts. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded September 25th, 2025. Library staff share favourite finds from current projects. From autumnal windmills and apples to cartoons, maps and Michael Davitt's favourite colour, come along for a celebration of the unexpected wonders in the archives. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded June 14, 2025. Emer McHugh (Queen's University Belfast): ‘National Questions: Shakespeare and Ireland studies, and where we are now' Final Round Table: Andrew Murphy (Trinity College Dublin), Edel Semple (University College Cork), Ramona Wray (Queen's University Belfast), Stephen O'Neill (Maynooth University) Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded June 14, 2025. Conrad Brunström (Maynooth University): ‘Shakespeare and Sheridan's Coriolanus: Who banished who?' Ceola Daly (St Cross College, Oxford): ‘“Ó Moeloins” Malone: Ireland's Most Famous Forgotten Shakespearean' Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded June 14, 2025. Eilís Smyth (Trinity College Dublin): ‘The Smock Alley Promptbooks in the 21st Century' Madeleine Saidenberg: (Worcester College, Oxford): ‘Hamlet in Irish Wool: Fashioning an Anglo-Irish Shakespeare, 1721' Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded June 14, 2025. Tara Lyons (Illinois State University): ‘A Colonial Collection? English Drama in the First Duke of Ormonde's Irish Libraries' Andrew Murphy (Trinity College Dublin): ‘Shakespeare, the Charlemont Library and the Politics of Identity' Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded June 14, 2025. David Dickson (Trinity College Dublin): 'The social backdrop: Eighteenth-century Dubliners' Linzi Simpson: ‘Smock Alley: the rediscovery of Dublin's oldest surviving theatre' Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded July 22nd 2025. An in conversation event with Prof David Kinley (The University of Sydney) and Prof Blanaid Clarke (TCD) organised by the school of Law. Who cares when corporations kill? The remarkable story behind suing one of the worlds largest asbestos companies for transnational negligence. In Conversation - Professor David Kinley, Chair of Human Rights Law, Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney hosted by Professor Blanaid Clarke, McCann FitzGerald Chair of Corporate Law, Trinity College Dublin, Convenor of the School's Corporate Law, Governance and Capital Markets Research Group. Professor Kinley is the author of In a Rain of Dust: Death, Deceit, and the Lawyer who Busted Big Asbestos (2025). Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded July 2nd, 2025. 46th Annual Memorial Lecture Barbarous Cuisine: T. S. Eliot in Ireland (1936 & 1940) Fran Brearton - Queen's University Belfast Chaired by Patrick Query, T.S. Eilot Society President Fran Brearton is Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen's University Belfast. Her books include The Great War in Irish Poetry, Reading Michael Longley, and, as editor, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry and Incorrigibly Plural: Louis MacNeice and his Legacy. She is a former president of the Robert Graves Society and appears regularly on BBC R4's ‘In Our Time' to discuss modern poetry. She was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2018. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded May 21, 2025. A keynote lecture for the Global Intersections: Communication and Resilience Across Borders conference, by Chris O'Connell (Trócaire, Policy and Advocacy Advisor in Human Rights and Civil Society Space). The Global Intersections: Communication and Resilience Across Borders conference was hosted by Trinity Centres for Global Intercultural Communications; Forced Migration Studies; and Resistance Studies. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded May 13th, 2025. A seminar by PhD Music students presenting their research, organised by the Department of Music. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded May 13th, 2025. A seminar by PhD Music students presenting their research, organised by the Department of Music. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded May 13th, 2025. A seminar by PhD Music students presenting their research, organised by the Department of Music. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded May 13th, 2025. A seminar by PhD Music students presenting their research, organised by the Department of Music. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded May 8th, 2025. A talk by Dr. Barry Devine as part of the TCD Medical/Health Humanities Seminar Series. Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars is often described as a play about The Easter Rising, but the ever-present spectre of tuberculosis in the play overshadows the politics in favor of more humanitarian concerns in 1916 Dublin. Barry Devine is an Associate Professor of English at Heidelberg University (Ohio). He teaches Irish modernism, critical theory, women's literature, and queer literature.

Recorded April 22, 2025. A lecture by Dr Eilís Smyth (School of English, TCD) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded May 12th, 2025. The Trinity Long Room Hub Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture for 2025 was delivered by Bruce Shapiro, on "The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts": Violence, Journalism and the Democratic Future. Are today's journalists the unwitting enablers of autocrats or the last bastion of democratic defence? Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, reflects on how stories get told amid sweeping catastrophes and surging authoritarianism. The Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture was established in 2013 to provide a significant contribution to reflection on and advocacy for the Arts and Humanities. About Bruce Shapiro Bruce Shapiro is Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of Columbia Journalism School, encouraging innovative reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy worldwide. An award-winning reporter on human rights, criminal justice and politics, Shapiro is a contributing editor at The Nation and U.S. correspondent for Late Night Live on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National. He also teaches ethics at Columbia Journalism School, where he is adjunct professor and Senior Advisor for Academic Affairs. His books include Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America and Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America's Future. Shapiro is recipient of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies award for "outstanding and fundamental contributions to the social understanding of trauma." He is a founding board member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded March 21st 2025. The annual seminar for the CONUL Teaching and Learning Committee organised by Trinity Library and with a keynote by Dr. John Danaher (School of Law, University of Galway). Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded March 25th, 2025. A lecture by Dr James Wood (University of East Anglia) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded March 14th, 2025. A lecture by Dr Sanjoy Som (NASA Ames Research Centre, USA) organised by Trinity's MPhil in Identities & Cultures of Europe and funded by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. Come and listen to an astrobiologist working at NASA on how space exploration can reshape human identity in times of crisis. This event explores the relationship between space exploration and human identity in the context of the climate emergency, the new (commercial) space age and the highly unpredictable state of world politics. Dr Sanjoy Som, a scientist based at NASA's Ames Research Center (California, USA), will delve into this topic in a public lecture, reflecting on how enhanced awareness of the Earth's interconnections with biology and the human civilization it hosts, the vastness of space to which the Earth system belongs, and the depth in time that has led to the present moment can create a sense of identity that can be as strong as cultural identities. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded April 8th, 2025. A lecture by Dr Dilek Ozturk & Dr Elliott Mills (School of English, TCD) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. This weeks seminar will cover two lecture: Revisiting Brian Friel: Space, Place, and Text & ‘I always make a point of following the works of Mr Eliot': T.S. Eliot in Flann O'Brien's Undecidable Modernism. English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded April 9th, 2025. A discussion between Prof Chris Morash (English) and Dr Mark O'Connell (Author and Rooney Writer Fellow, Trinity Long Room Hub) organised by the Library of Trinity College Dublin. Professor Chris Morash, Trinity's Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing, and prize-winning author Dr Mark O'Connell discuss on the writing of John Banville. This event coincides with the inclusion of works from Banville's archive, housed in Trinity, in the current exhibition in the Old Library Long Room. On display in the exhibition is the manuscript draft of The Singularities (2022), which – differing from the published text - concludes with the line “at the last inscribe a full, and infinitely full, full stop.” Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded March 20th, 2025. Trinity Long Room Hub Visiting Research Fellow Dr Nina Lamal (Huygens Instituut, KNAW, Netherlands) in conversation with Dr Ann-Marie Hansen (Fagel Collection Project Manager, Library, TCD). Bio: Dr Nina Lamal is an early modern historian based at the Humanities Cluster of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam. Her research focuses on early modern political history, diplomacy, the transnational histories of the book, and digital humanities. She studied early modern history at the KU Leuven. In 2014, she received her PhD from the KU Leuven and St Andrews University for her thesis on Italian news reports, political debates and historical writing on the Revolt in the Low Countries (1566-1648). Her book Italian Communication on the Revolt in the Low Countries was published with Brill in 2023. From 2015-2017, Lamal worked as postdoctoral research assistant at the Universal Short Title Catalogue project (university of St Andrews). In 2017, she moved to the university of Antwerp, after she had obtained a three-year individual postdoctoral fellowship of the Flemish Research Council. From 2020-2024, she was postdoctoral researcher on project Inventing Public Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe and editor of the of the correspondence of Christofforo Suriano, the first Venetian envoy in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. (https://suriano.huygens.knaw.nl/). Apart from the digital scholarly edition of Suriano's letters, her most recent publications include a co-written article with Helmer Helmers on Dutch diplomacy in the seventeenth century, two journal articles: one on foreign powers influencing the first Italian newspapers, and one the role of cross-border printing privileges in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. As a Trinity Long Room Hub Fellow, she will examine how the Fagel library functioned as a tool of statecraft from the Fagel regent family in the eighteenth century. Drawing on recent digitization and cataloguing projects, the proposed research use book historical methods to bring the library into dialogue with the Fagel Archives in The Hague and to study how it was used for political education, referencing and networking. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded March 11th, 2025. A lecture by Prof Jarlath Killeen (School of English, TCD) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded March 11th, 2025. A lecture by Fergus Sheil (Founding Artistic Director of Irish National Opera) for the Music Composition Centre Talks. Fergus is the founding artistic director of Irish National Opera. He has conducted a wide-ranging repertoire of over 50 different operas in performance, recordings and on film. Highlights include Strauss' Salome, Der Rosenkavalier and Elektra, Rossini's William Tell and La Cenerentola, Brian Irvine and Netia Jones's Least Like The Other, Verdi's Aida, La traviata and Rigoletto as well as Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Before founding Irish National Opera in 2018, Fergus was Artistic Director of Wide Open Opera, which he founded in 2012 and Opera Theatre Company. He has produced opera in over 30 venues throughout Ireland as well as bringing productions to the UK (Edinburgh International Festival, Royal Opera House and The Barbican), USA, Holland, Luxembourg and Italy. As conductor, Fergus has worked with major orchestras and opera companies in Ireland as well as fulfilling engagements in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, UK, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Malta and Estonia. Fergus Sheil studied music at Trinity College, graduating in 1992. While at TCD he founded the Trinity Orchestra. He currently delivers a module in career development at TCD's Music Department and in 2023 he was awarded an honorary Doctor in Letters from TCD. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded February 25, 2025. A lecture by Alan Armstrong and Yael Bassan (School of English, TCD) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. This weeks seminar will cover two lectures: Hares Upon Hearthstones – Envisioning the Death of Civilization in Medieval Literature & Cognitive Reading of the Supernatural in Shakespeare's Plays. English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded February 22nd, 2025. A Keynote Address by Dr Miranda Corcoran (Chairs: Janice Deitner and Dara Downey, TCD),entitled “Lizzie in America: Transatlantic Transformations and the Figure of Elizabeth Style in Shirley Jackson's Fiction.” Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded 13th February 2025. A hybrid seminar by Prof Cathriona Russell (School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies) as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Seminar Series. Healthcare faces comparable challenges to those of every other sector in society in the context of a changing climate. In relation to ongoing international agreements, healthcare will, for example, have to enact mitigation strategies for net-zero in its contributions to emissions, currently c.4.5% of global GHG emissions. More significantly however healthcare will need to design strategies for adaptation, aiming at resilience in ongoing provision and effectiveness in securing justice; resilience in the face of more extensive and more frequent temperature and precipitation extremes, sea level rise, changes in land-use and food production; and resilience in social conditions, in housing provision, in providing access to health care, in disease prevention, all while demographies continually shift (age and gender, poverty, and displacement)[1]. The expected continuing increase in intensity and frequency of adverse events will worsen health outcomes and health inequalities, which themselves are drivers of climate change. If healthcare contributes to the ‘good life' through its impact on health, then a key measure of its effectiveness will be its commitment to building capability e.g. for preventative medicine (A. Sen), and for ‘living with and for each other in just institutions' (P. Ricoeur). [1] IPCC, 2023 Summary for Policy Makers, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/ Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded February 13th, 2025. Pay Attention!: Literary Studies, Neurohumanities and the ‘Distraction Economy' Trinity Long Room Hub Visiting Research Fellow Prof Ronan McDonald (University of Melbourne, Australia) in conversation with Prof Christopher Morash (School of English, TCD) and Prof Shane O'Mara (TCIN, TCD). ‘Attention studies' is burgeoning in academic and popular fora, not least because there is a common perception that we live in an era of digital distraction. Drawing on insights from neuroscience, this project considers the relationship between reading and attention in literary studies. It considers how reading orientates our mind, between various affective states that compel or distract: between willed concentration, raptured enchantment or receptive, wide-minded noticing. Opening up a cross-disciplinary conversation between literary studies, psychology and neuroscience,  it seeks to provide new purpose and direction for literary studies. ​​​​​​​ About Ronan McDonald: Ronan McDonald holds the Gerry Higgins Chair in Irish Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is widely published in Irish literary studies, with a particular interest in Irish modernism and Irish-Australian literature. He also has a research interest in the history of criticism and the value of the humanities. His books include Tragedy and Irish Literature (2002), The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett (2007) and The Death of the Critic (2008). Recent edited collections include The Values of Literary Studies: Critical Institutions, Scholarly Agendas (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and Flann O'Brien and Modernism (2014). He is series editor of Cambridge Themes in Irish Literature and Culture. Current projects include an ARC Discovery Project with Prof Katherine Bode and Maggie Nolan, ‘Close Relations: Irishness in Australian Literature'. and a ARC Discovery Project, with Professor Simon During, on 'English: The History of a Discipline, 1920-70'. He is currently working on a book on ‘attention' in literary studies. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded January 16th, 2025. A hybrid seminar by Dr Tylor Brand (Near & Middle Eastern Studies, TCD) as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Seminar Series. Children were among the most vulnerable groups within the famine that struck Lebanon during World War I, which made them a special focus of humanitarian interventions during the wartime period. However, shifting social perceptions of poverty and vulnerability over the years of the famine altered how people who lived the crisis regarded children, and even the very concept of childhood. Based on memoirs, humanitarian reports, and contemporary accounts, I argue that as a "discourse among adults" (Maksudyan, 2014) childhood in the famine was conceptually fractured and redefined according to famine-specific biases. As a result, a child's identity and social standing made them either worthy of a protected childhood that shielded them from the realities of the famine, or of pity and often revulsion befitting their physical and social misery.  Speaker: Tylor Brand is assistant professor in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. He specializes in the history of crisis and famine in the Middle East, in particular the famine in Lebanon during World War I. His book, Famine Worlds: Life at the Edge of Suffering in Lebanon's Great War (Stanford University Press, 2023) examines the intimate effects of famine on the lives and the perceptions of those who endured the crisis in World War I Lebanon. Learn more at www/tcd/ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded 09 December 2024. Mohamed Jama, Chairperson National Disability Agency, Somalia A symposium on food insecurities organised by the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences.  Funded in part by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Events Fund. Learn more at https://www.tcd.ie/triss/people/SADIE/index.php and https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/