Women’s Stories is a new radio series featuring professors and researchers from Trinity’s Arts and Humanities talking about women throughout the centuries and challenging dominant narratives about women today.
From history to film, and music, the series will feature free talks and discussions recorded in front of a live audience which will then be broadcast to Near FM listeners on 90.3 FM. Near Media Co-op is a not-for-profit community media project operating across the northside of Dublin City and further across the city.
Women’s Stories is supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and will explore topics as diverse as the story of Giulia Farnese, an Italian born mistress to Pope Alexander VI, to widows in early 17th century Ireland and right through to present day stories from the frontline of Irish women in music technology.
“The Trinity Long Room Hub’s Public Humanities Programme has been successful in recent years in involving members of the public in research-based discussions around topical themes. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to reach new audiences and bring the research from many of Trinity’s brilliant female professors in History, English, Creative Arts and Music into people’s homes highlighting the dynamic roles women have played throughout the centuries”, commented Jane Ohlmeyer, Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub.
Professor Ohlmeyer’s talk exploring women of the 1641 Depositions will kick off the new 6-part series on the 22nd of October. Speaking on what will be the 378th anniversary of the 1641 rebellion which saw Catholics attacking their Protestant neighbours and their subsequent retaliation, Professor Ohlmeyer will look at the evidence from the 8,000 witness testimonies which show how widows experienced warfare in Ireland during the 1640s.
Looking at film and TV, a panel discussion ‘How we Remember Her: Giulia Farnese and The Borgias’, will feature the tv series actress Lotte Verbeek, writer-director Neill Jordan and Dr Catherine Lawless, Director of The Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies at Trinity. Professor Ruth Barton, Associate Professor in Film Studies, School of Creative Arts will explore the fascinating life of screen legend Hedy Lamarr and her forgotten work as inventor, in her talk ‘The most beautiful woman in film.’
Exploring the lives of women in 18th century China, Dr Isabella Jackson and Miss Xun Liu, Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, will discuss both the aristocratic class and servants who lived inside the great Chinese mansions. Other talks will discuss sex and femininity in literature and women in music technology.
Dorothee Meyer Holtkamp, series producer for Women’s Stories said “Near FM are delighted to be collaborating with the Trinity Long Room Hub on a diverse series of talks by women and about women which promises to be a revealing and compelling radio series uncovering new narratives.”
To find out more about this new series and for a full list of talks, visit our website here.