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… explore how poetry and cognitive science The opportunities afforded to me at might be brought into Trinity have enabled my involvement in conversation with some fantastic interdisciplinary initiatives one another alongside my research. During an Early Career Researcher residency in Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Institute, I met many colleagues and friends in different disciplines, and found level. I had to be mindful to avoid the common pitfall of overly hastily ascribing neuroscience as a means of ‘solving’ problems inherent to the arts and humanities, instead devising a reciprocal dynamic between and among disciplines to create a situation where they might talk to one another, working in tandem rather than reinforcing a hierarchy. that interdisciplinarity at the Hub was championed under the leadership of Professors Jane Ohlmeyer and Eve Patten. This resulted in some wonderful public-facing opportunities, such as working with the EU-funded SHAPE-ID initiative, and co- founding the Art+Science Salon with my fantastic colleague Dr Autumn Brown. The Art+Science Salon was a virtual seminar series supported by both the Hub and Science Gallery Dublin My PhD thesis was ultimately quite philosophical in nature, as I grappled with the nuances of interdisciplinarity, investigating ideas pertaining to scientific knowledge versus poetic knowledge, the psychological nature of seeing versus reading, and the ontological status of material textual artefacts such as books and printed poems in the digital age. Structured around the classic metaphor of ‘seeing the forest for the trees’, my project investigated how the ‘local’ and ‘global’ properties of visual poems – poems designed to be seen as well as read, might be approached using both literary ‘close reading’ and empirical methods from the cognitive paradigm. I chose two case studies – one focusing on the that saw us interview thinkers, researchers, and artists who combined art and science through their practice and/or research. Influenced by our own individual doctoral projects, we spoke to a wide range of speakers such as a BioArtist who wove diphtheria DNA into a plague dress in pursuit of the ‘bacterial sublime’, a Creative Technologist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab who explained the connections between origami and robotics that unfold in outer space, and to our friend and colleague at the Hub, Dr Clare Moriarty, who introduced us to Irish mathematician OIiver Byrne’s famous colourful edition of Euclid’s Elements , which used primary colours to explain the conceptions of the geometric line. vibrant tradition of Canadian concrete and visual poetry, and the other investigating visual poetry by women, especially those who experimented with visuality to express their own authorial agency under various patriarchal systems. In my final year, thanks to the invaluable support of Professor Clare Kelly and Professor Paul Dockree at the School of Psychology, an endlessly helpful PhD Psychology researcher Ralph Andrews, and a wonderful undergraduate student in Psychology and English, Marnie Davis, we conducted a small-scale empirical experiment designed to measure participants’ responses to selected visual poems from my two case studies, by investigating their perception of the bigger picture versus the smaller details. The qualitative and quantitative data gathered from this experiment was then integrated into a literary close reading that formed the latter half of my thesis, and reflected upon for its capacity to complement an understanding of these challenging, experimental poems. Inspiring opportunities aside, the PhD was an immensely challenging process, especially during the pandemic, cost of living and housing crises. Over the past year, it has been heartening to see the recent founding of the Postgraduate Workers Union, currently lobbying to have PhD students recognised as workers and remunerated accordingly in line with a living wage. I can personally attest to how needed this is: despite my good fortune to have Irish Research Council funding, I juggled multiple part-time jobs – teaching, tutoring, and administrative – in order to afford rent in Dublin. Overall, having benefitted immensely from my interdisciplinary experience at Trinity, I am now seeking to redirect my focus outwards, ideally reorienting my perspective towards the bigger questions of our time, whether through postdoctoral research, public engagement, or further collaborative work across disciplines: from the ‘local’ to the ‘global’ in more ways than one.
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Channelling the ‘political genius’ of Henry Grattan Trinity’s School of Social Sciences and Philosophy shares how their Grattan Programme gives a platform to influential thought leaders and helps develop the academic and policy leaders of tomorrow In his speech on his role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process, delivered on 24 May 2023 for the 14th annual Henry Grattan Lecture, former UK prime minister, Sir John Major was unequivocal in his support for the Good Friday Agreement: ‘At some time, the British and Irish Governments may wish to review the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement and, perhaps, make some tweaks ‒ but not, I think, very many: the Act has stood up well over a long infancy.’ This followed on a brief and glancing reference to ‘the turmoil of the Brexit years’ but since Sir John’s opposition to Brexit and to the Johnson’s government’s attempt to relitigate the Northern Irish protocol, is well documented, he didn’t need to elaborate or explicate to the audience assembled in the Irish Embassy in London that he was set against any efforts to overhaul, or downplay the significance of, the Good Friday Agreement. He opened his talk by evoking the legacy of Henry Grattan, the 18th century statesman for whom the lecture is named (and whose portrait hangs in Trinity’s Dining Hall). Sir John hailed Grattan as ‘a political genius’ for forcing the parliament at Westminster to make similar concessions to Ireland in 1782 to those granted to the American successionists five years previously; the result was the short-lived period of Irish legislative independence called ‘Grattan’s parliament’, which lasted till the Act of Union. Grattan was a famous orator (‘a gift – in my experience – that is innately Irish’ according to Sir John) and this, together with his formidable political gifts and his being a Trinity graduate, explains why the Trinity School of Social Sciences and Philosophy chose to name their seminal annual lecture series after him. Established in 2011, the Henry Grattan lectures are held annually in Ireland, the UK and the USA, to offer a platform for influential public figures and thought leaders to engage with the public on issues relating to Irish history, politics and economics. Previous speakers include Minister for Finance and Eurogroup President, Paschal Donohoe, discussing the Eurozone and the permacrisis, Philip Lane, chief economist of the European Central Bank, analysing post-COVID inflation and the potential need for further interest rate hikes, and Peter Sutherland, as UN Special Representative for International Migration, talking about Europe’s immigration challenge in 2014. Henry Grattan lectures are current, relevant and revelatory (sometimes provocative), and draw on the speaker’s personal experience. A month previous to the London lecture, Geraldine Byrne Mason, Irish Ambassador to the United States, delivered the US lecture in Washington DC, in conversation with Cóilín Parsons, Director of Global Irish Studies at Georgetown University. Their wide-ranging discussion touched on President Biden’s recent visit to Ireland and US-Irish trade relations, with the Ambassador emphasising that ‘the value of the combined US-Ireland economic relationship, trade and investment is a trillion dollars’. The Henry Grattan Lecture Series is key component of Trinity’s Grattan Programme which also includes the Grattan Scholars, a flagship initiative set up by Emeritus Professor of Economics, John O’Hagan, in 2012. The programme serves as a catalyst for attracting and inspiring the best and brightest postgraduate students from around the world who have the potential to become future academic leaders and influential voices for social and economic development. Candidates are chosen for their academic achievements and passion for teaching, and their ambition to understand and improve society through research and education. The current Gratton Scholars come from a diverse range of countries including Australia, the Philippines and Kenya and undertake research in a variety of areas corresponding to the School’s strengths and expertise, including cultural economics, political careers, migration,
