The festival includes a range of talks, interactive discussions, lightning presentations, visual art and film screenings, which are free and open to all, and will showcase new research happening across a wide range of disciplines in Trinity’s Arts and Humanities, from literature to law and history to music. Collectively, the festival will illuminate the contribution that Arts and Humanities disciplines make across their disciplines, from enriching understanding of diverse cultures and histories to providing a reflection on how cultural expression can challenge conventional thinking.
Programme Launch
Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub Eve Patten said the festival was “an opportunity to celebrate the range of research taking place across Trinity’s Arts and Humanities schools, representing over twenty disciplines. I want to thank all the arts and humanities community for coming together to share their research, exchange ideas, and discuss their passion for their topic with the wider public.”
Prof Eve Patten
She highlighted the opportunity to link up with the START European Researcher’s Night in Trinity which takes place on the 29th of September. “We’re delighted to be collaborating with START on this so that our week-long festival can dovetail with researchers across the university in bringing research to a public audience, and getting people involved and excited about what’s happening in Trinity.”
Professor Eve Patten and Trinity Provost Linda Doyle will launch the festival on Monday the 25th of September with a discussion asking ‘What have the Arts and Humanities ever done for us?’
Each morning, members of Trinity’s Arts and Humanities community and PhD candidates will discuss their research at the Hub’s ‘Coffee Mornings’, and in the ‘Thesis in 3’ lightning presentation talks. Throughout each day, we’ll hear about fascinating research projects, from children’s literature to quick picks from Trinity’s research library collections, discussions on displacement and conflict, and talks around AI and Music.
On Thursday 28th September, festival-goers will be treated to a special conversation with Trinity Professor of German (1776) Jürgen Barkhoff as he talks to his predecessor in the role, scholar and memoirist Eda Sagarra, who was also Trinity's first woman College Officer ever. They’ll be asking ‘What has changed’? as they explore gender, academia and Europe from 1953-2023.
There will also be a celebration of research publications by Trinity’s Arts and Humanities over the last number of years with a large visual display which encompasses the range and diversity of these research disciplines from books on silent films, to works looking at language and identity in Europe.
Lunchtime Professors
Across five days, our lunchtime talks will see distinguished professors across the Arts and Humanities bringing their research to public audiences, and taking a wide view on their disciplines.
Kicking off these lunchtime sessions on Monday 25th, Chris Morash, Trinity’s Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing, will give a talk on ‘Deep Time Encounters: Technology, Landscape and Irish Modernity.’
Discussing the role of the university and our place on the planet, Trinity’s Chair of French (1776), Professor Michael Cronin, will pick up on some provocative themes around language and geography as he delivers his talk ‘The Terrestrial University’ on Tuesday 26th September.
Following on this discussion about our role in today’s planet, Professor of Ecumenics Linda Hogan will discuss ‘Securing Human Rights in the Anthropocene: the Role of Religion’ on Wednesday’s lunchtime session, on the 27th September.
On Thursday 28th of September, we’ll be joined by Carmel O'Sullivan, Professor in Drama and Arts Education, School of Education as she talks about ‘Getting Creative in the Education System.’
More questions will be posed on Friday 29th in this lunchtime slot as Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History (1762) will ask ‘Did Ireland have an empire?’ Professor Ohlmeyer will shed new light on this topical subject from the perspective of the early modern period in Irish history.
Evening Ticketed Events
All events are open to the public and most events are free to attend but our evening events require registration.
On Monday evening, September 25th award-winning Trinity writers Sean Hewitt and Yairen Jerez Columbié join the Trinity Long Room Hub’s Rooney Writer Fellow Nidhi Zak, who will launch a new poem for Seamus Heaney's tenth anniversary. This event is titled’ Writing Nature, Remembering Heaney’ and is available to book here.
‘Translating Sebastian Barry’ is presented by the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation and is fully booked for in-person attendance but online registration is still open here. Novelist, playwright and poet Sebastian Barry was recently longlisted for the Booker Prize for his book Old God’s Time.
Interrogating the perennial problem of violence, a heavy-hitting discussion on Wednesday 27th, will see Trinity author David Shepherd (Religion) with colleagues Neville Cox (Law), Ruth Karras (History) and Michael Kirwan (Theology) and Bridget Martin from UCD come together for ‘King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue’. Book now.
Join us at the Opera on Thursday evening, 28th September, for the screening of ‘Old Ghosts’, a spectacular Irish National Opera and ANU production which follows the ‘haunting’ of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle in Trieste. Book here for the screening and discussion with creators Evangelia Rigaki (Music), playwright Marina Carr, and Fergus Sheil (Artistic Director of INO) chaired by Melissa Sihra (Drama).
On Friday evening, 29th of September, the premiere of a new documentary about brewing beer from the sixteenth century (‘Would you drink beer from 1574?’) will be followed by a fascinating discussion with ERC-funded FoodCult Project leader, Susan Flavin (History); Film Director Shreepali Patel; and Food Historian Marc Meltonville. Chaired by Ruth Barton (Film Studies).