Category: Community News

Locating Nineteenth-Century Studies

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Nick Daly, UCD

Title: Gentleman Burglars and Sorceresses: Late Victorian Crime Fiction and the Rise of the Criminal Mastermind.

This interdisciplinary event, held at Queen’s University Belfast (16th June), seeks to bring together nineteenth-century scholars from across the island of Ireland. This will be an inclusive and welcoming day with the goal of allowing networking and the sharing of resources, methodologies and critical ideas among our growing community of nineteenth-century scholars. We welcome scholars at all levels, including postgraduate and early-career researchers. The event will include an early career workshop, a reading group and a keynote by Professor Nick Daly. The day will conclude with a wine reception and dinner.

This year’s theme can be interpreted broadly. We are calling for 7-10 minute work-in-progress papers on any aspect of nineteenth-century studies from researchers across a broad range of specialisms, including literature and modern languages, history (including the history of art and science), politics, geography, theatre studies, and those who work at the interface of different disciplines. We look forward to a broad-ranging discussion in which we might situate our research in temporal, local, national, global, disciplinary/ interdisciplinary terms, in the context of genre, and in relation to the politics of class, ethnicity and gender. You are also welcome to register without delivering a paper.

.
Please send a paper title with your university affiliation and 150-word abstract to Dr Justin Livingstone (j.livingstone@qub.ac.uk) by 12th of May 2023, with INNS in the email heading. This event is supported by the School of Arts, English and Languages. We look forward to welcoming you to Queen’s in June.

Author James Poskett, Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Warwick, will discuss his new book of ‘Horizons: A Global History of Science’ (Penguin, 2022).

In conversation with Diarmid Finnegan, Reader in Human Geography at Queen’s University Belfast.

For further details and to register go to https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/horizons-a-global-history-of-science/

Nowlan Digitisation Scheme. This scheme, which was set up thanks to a bequest from the late Prof. Kevin Nowlan aims to expand the range of digitised historical sources available through open and free access to researchers, for private study or education purposes and is open until 12^th April.

For full details, see https://www.ria.ie/nowlan-digitisation-grants

The Decade of Centenaries Bursary scheme. This scheme aims to encourage new local research and local history studies (local, national and regional) as a means of recognising the significant contribution of local historians in furthering fields of study relating to the struggle for independence and the civil war period within their communities and is open until 5^th April.

For details, go to https://www.ria.ie/decade-centenaries-bursary

The Irish Committee of Historical Sciences will host a symposium at the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland at Helen Roe Theatre, Society House, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 at 2pm on Saturday 25^th February 2023. The symposium will look at Historians and National Archives. Our speakers at the symposium will be Dr. Ciarán Wallace of Trinity College Dublin, Zoë Reid, Keeper of Collection Care and Public Services, National Archives of Ireland, and Stephen Scarth, Head of Public Services at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.  The meeting will be chaired by Professor Steven Ellis of NUI Galway and Chair of the ICHS.

This year marks the centenary of the foundation of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, as well as the 45^th anniversary of the opening of the doors of the National Archives of Ireland, following the amalgamation of the Public Records Office of Ireland and the State Papers Office under the National Archives Act of 1986. Both repositories inherited their National Archives function from the PROI founded in 1867. From the beginning, what was available for consultation, who had access to public records and their interpretation in the contested arena of Irish history proved controversial. Historians have played a role in forming policy and public opinion, being critics of government policy towards archives, as well as advocating for access and resources for repositories.

With the recent Decade of Centenaries the issue of digital inclusion has come to the fore, with a number of projects such as the large scale digitization of records at the Military Archives of Ireland, or the Beyond 2022 project. This symposium will examine how historians, conservators and archivists can come together to advocate for access, resources and digital inclusion into the future.

All are welcome to attend.

For more information contact our secretary, Kieran Hoare, at kieran.hoare@nuigalway.ie

Dr Elizabethanne Boran, Edward Worth Library ‘Science in Trinity College Dublin in the seventeenth century’

Online, 1 March, 15.00-16.00hrs

All welcome

Abstract: This paper examines the teaching of science at Trinity College, Dublin in the seventeenth century. It focuses on three periods: from the foundation of the University of Dublin in 1592 to the 1641 rebellion; Cromwellian innovations of the 1650s; and the impact of the new science in the later seventeenth century. By reconstructing the college’s early library collections, in conjunction with staff and student notebooks, it explores the factors affecting the teaching of the scientific curriculum up to 1641, focusing in particular on the dominance of Ramism. The impact members of the reformist circle of Samuel Hartlib (1600- 82), such as Miles Symner (d. 1686), in attempting, in the 1650s, to implement a Baconian-inspired agenda devoted to experimental and applied learning, is likewise investigated. Finally, by using the Loan Books for the college library in the 1680s and 1690s, and the papers of the Dublin Philosophical Society from the 1680s onwards, the paper illustrates the availability and access to works of the new science, and outlines the dominant themes and favoured authors of books borrowed by members of Trinity College Dublin’s. The paper ends with an analysis of official attitudes to the relationship between science and religion in the last decade of the seventeenth century. 

For further details and to register, please follow this link: https://hstmnetworkireland.org/2023/02/14/hstm-seminar-series-1st-march-2023/

Details of upcoming webinars (and registration links) are available here: https://hstmnetworkireland.org/public-events/

HSTM Network Ireland run a monthly online reading group.

The next meeting will take place on Friday 24th February 2023, 1-2pm

We will be discussing:

Slagstad, K. (2022). Bureaucratizing Medicine: Creating a Gender Identity Clinic in the Welfare State. Isis, 113(3), 469-490.

For details and to join the reading group, please follow this link: https://hstmnetworkireland.org/2023/02/15/february-2023-reading-group-hstm-network-ireland/

All are welcome.

Irish Association of Professional Historians, Friday, 24 February 2023

Shut Up and Write Workshop

Are you struggling to write ‘that’ Chapter, Article or Abstract? Do you struggle to put your ideas on paper or, even worse, are you struggling to get into the groove of writing? Join us for ’Shut Up and Write’, an IAPH writing workshop for PhD students who need help kickstarting or maintaining their writing habit. ’SUAW’ is as simple as it sounds. We meet for several hours, put all distractions aside and write for 45 minutes uninterrupted. Nothing is needed except your laptop or, if you’re old school, a pen & paper.
This is a practical workshop designed to a) provide a collaborative space to write b) address any pressing issues PhD students have when it comes to writing and/or publishing their work. Held in Ulster University’s new Belfast campus (just a stone throw away from the famous St. George’s market), this four hour event is split between a writing workshop and a writing Q&A forum.

The tentative timetable is:
11am: Meet and Greet/Set Writing Intentions
11.15am – 12pm: First Writing Bloc
12.15pm – 12.30pm: Tea Break (provided free of charge)
12.30 – 1.15pm: Second Writing Bloc
1.15pm-2pm: Lunch (provided free of charge)
2pm-3pm: Q&A on writing (how to publish, how to write PhD chapters, how to edit etc.)

This is a great opportunity for IAPH members to improve their writing, network with
fellow PhD students and to gain an insight into the academic process.

Costs & Registration
This event is free for all IAPH members but registration is essential. Please register in
advance by emailing info@irishhistorians.ie with the subject heading Workshop
Registration. There is a €5 charge for non-IAPH members to cover catering.

Host Bio:
Dr. Conor Heffernan is a Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Ulster University. Conor
finished his PhD in History at University College Dublin in 2019. In that time he has
published over 50 academic articles and chapters, two single authored books and one
co-edited book. Outside of academia Conor holds a regular writing position
with Barbend.com

We are pleased to announce the Robert Boyle Winter School will return in-person this year, organised by Calmast SETU in association with the RDS Science and Technology Committee. The Robert Boyle Winter and Summer Schools examine the place of science in our society and is designed for a general audience. Following on from the interest shown in the 10^th annual Robert Boyle Summer School in Waterford, this year’s Winter School will further explore the topic of Science, Ireland & Colonialism.

Date: Saturday, 18 February 2023

Time: 10 – 4pm

Venue: RDS Dublin

Cost: Event is free but booking is required

Speakers include:

Prof Peter Bowler, Professor Emeritus in the History of Science, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Ciaran O’Neill, Department of History, Trinity College Dublin

Rachel Hand, University ofCambridge Ethnographic Collection

Dr Sherra Murphy, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire

Chairs

Dr Ida Milne, Chair of Irish History of Science and Medicine Network, lecturer in history Carlow College

Tommy Graham, Editor History Ireland, Host on Newstalk’s Talking History.

Peter Bowler will examine 19^th C scientific racism (including that directed at Ireland) and its role in sustaining colonialism. Trinity College, due to its age has significant colonial legacies many of which have been aired in the media in recent months. Ciaran O’Neill will relate the work of the Trinity Colonial Legacies Project. The National Museum of Ireland also has issues to address and Rachel Hand will talk about aspects of the museums’ collection, while Sherra Murphy will focus on Dublin’s treasured Natural History Museum.

Waterford born, Robert Boyle (1627 – 1691) is one of the most important figures of science and is commemorated in the RDS Boyle Medal. Boyle’s father Richard was the most successful colonial adventurer of the 17^th Century. Income from lands in Ireland help fund Boyle’s scientific programme. Boyle also had interests in certain colonial enterprises. In the succeeding centuries, there has been an interrelationship between science and colonialism. Meanwhile Ireland both suffered under colonialism and participated in, and benefitted from colonialism. It is important and timely that we examine these issues with respect to Ireland.

Thanks to the support of our partners, South East Technological University, the Royal Dublin Society and Science Foundation Ireland, we are pleased that we can offer this programme free for participants but as places are limited booking is essential.

For more information http://www.robertboyle.ie/robert-boyle-winter-school-2023/

To book, please visit http://www.robertboyle.ie/robert-boyle-winter-school-2023-sign-up-form/

Full details below, to register please follow this link: https://form.jotform.com/223423318584355

19th January

19th Century Ireland, Context and Causes of the Great Irish Famine.
Dr. Áine Doran, Ulster University.

The Province of Ulster and The Great Famine.
Dr. Gerard MacAtasney.

26th January
The Workhouse: Creation of the workhouse system during the famine with case study, Lurgan Workhouse, Co. Armagh.
Dr. Gerard MacAtasney

The Master of Portumna Workhouse: Corruption and Exploitation.
Mr. David Broderick.

2nd February
How The Great Famine Affected Irish Women.
Asmae Ourkiya

Reforming Food in Post-Famine Ireland & Subsequent Nutritional Decline.
Dr. Ian Miller, Ulster University

The Earl Grey Scheme: Irish Famine Orphans in Australia.
Jonathon Fairall, Australian journalist and author.

9th February
Famine Roads: Archaeological Insights into the Public Works Schemes from the Great Famine in Ireland.
Dr. Colm Donnelly, Queen’s University Belfast.

Subject Lacking Words?:The Gray Zone of the Great Famine.
Prof. Breandán Mac Suibhne, University of Galwa

16th February
Famine Migration to British North America (Canada).
Prof. Mark McGowan, University of Toronto.

Voices from the American Civil War: The stories of Ireland famine-era emigrants and the conflict that changed their lives.
Dr. Damian Shiels, Research Fellow at Northumbria University.

23rd February
The Impact of Irish Refugees in shaping Liverpool.
Emma Smith & John Maguire, Irish Liverpool Festival.

Was The Great Irish Famine an Ecological Disaster: Lessons for Policy Makers today?
Dr. Alan Fernihough, Queens University Belfast.

Further details can be found at: https://www.armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk/famine/