New festival celebrates cutting-edge research & creativity at heart of Trinity’s Arts and Humanities
Posted on: 20 September 2023
A new festival celebrating cutting-edge research and creativity at the heart of Trinity Arts and Humanities will take place from Monday September 25th to Friday 29th.
Organised by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute, topics as diverse as conspiracy, AI, poetry, opera, deaf studies and 16th century beer-making will feature in a range of talks, interactive discussions, lightening presentations, visual art and film screenings. The events are free and open to all.
The festival will provide a fascinating window into Trinity’s Arts and Humanities subjects and the work that university researchers do interrogating culture and history, and exploring language use in the arts and everyday life.
Speakers will include Sean Hewitt, Yairen Jerez Columbié, and Nidhi Zak; writer Sebastian Barry; composer Evangelia Rigaki and playwright Marina Carr; historians Susan Flavin and Jane Ohlmeyer; Scotty McQueen as ‘Crazy Conspiracy Dude’; English scholars Aileen Douglas, Padraic Whyte, Chris Morash, Sam Slote and Darryl Jones; Beyond 2022 artist Mairead McClean and Ireland’s Border Culture archivist Orla Fitzpatrick; Trinity’s Chair of French Michael Cronin; ancient writing expert Martin Worthington, and many, many more!
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.”
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.”
The festival runs all day at the Trinity Long Room Hub with most events un-ticketed and welcome to all. All evening events require online registration.
Evening ticketed events:
- Monday 25th September: As part of a special poetry reading with Trinity writers Sean Hewitt and Yairen Jerez Columbié, the Trinity Long Room Hub’s Rooney Writer Fellow Nidhi Zak will read her new poem, ‘The Honey and the Hare’, to mark the 10th anniversary of Seamus Heaney’s death. (Booking required)
- Tuesday 26th September: ‘Translating Sebastian Barry’ is presented by the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation and is fully booked for in-person attendance but online attendance is still open. Novelist, playwright and poet Sebastian Barry was recently longlisted for the Booker Prize for his book Old God’s Time. (online attendance available)
- Wednesday 27th September: Interrogating the perennial problem of violence, this heavy-hitting discussion 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’. (Booking required)
- Thursday 28th September: Screening of ‘Old Ghosts’, a spectacular Irish National Opera and ANU production which follows the ‘haunting’ of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle in Trieste. Followed by discussion with creators Evangelia Rigaki (Music), playwright Marina Carr, and Fergus Sheil (Artistic Director of INO) chaired by Melissa Sihra (Drama). (Booking required)
- Friday 29th 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). (Booking required)
See the full programme of events on the Trinity Long Room Hub website.
Media Contact:
Fiona Tyrrell | Media Relations | tyrrellf@tcd.ie | +353 1 896 3551