Identities in Transformation Theme

The Identities in Transformation theme is a major new research focus for the Trinity Long Room Hub and our seven partner Schools and the Library. The theme is also one of the university’s 19 strategic multi-disciplinary research areas. These are research fields in which TCD has a critical mass of world-class researchers, and which have the scale, resources and ability to address important research challenges with considerable social, cultural and economic impact.

Overview

Identities, both on the level of the individual and the collective, are formed and develop in complex processes that negotiate attitudes, values and behaviours, and shape our social and cultural practices. Identity debates are occurring through reflection on the decade of commemoration and the wider re-evaluation of Irishness, and also in the context of massively changing migratory patterns in both Ireland and Europe.  These transformations are embedded within the context of greater global interconnectedness, but con-currently greater individualisation and associated notions of risk and uncertainty.

Cultural memory, how it is constituted and contested, plays a central role in the formation of such identities. The complex and shifting dynamic between memory and identity becomes particularly relevant in times of crisis, disruption, and rapid change, such as what we are currently experiencing.

This research field undertakes a multi-facetted investigation of how the negotiation of identity is linked to processes of transformation on the level of history and culture. It is an investigation which allows deeper insight into the dynamics between social and political change, shifts in cultural memory, cultural and artistic practices, and human agency.

TCD research on this theme

A topic of this complexity can only be investigated in an inter-disciplinary setting which brings a multitude of disciplines together. In Trinity College, questions of identity are examined from a rich variety of perspectives. For instance:

• Identity politics and memory contests are central research topics for political and social historians as well as for cultural studies and literary scholars;
• There are distinctive viewpoints which researchers from across the Arts & Humanities bring towards an investigation of identity and memory such as national identity and the identity of social groups, linguistic identity, religious identity, identity of gender or the way identity is narrated, translated or performed in arts and culture;
• The theme also forges multiple connections to related work in, for example, the Social Sciences, Psychology and Neuroscience.

Currently over 70 researchers and their postgraduate research students across 10 of the 24 Schools in Trinity College are actively involved in this research theme.  They represent and bring together fields as varied as History, Classics, Art History, Music, Drama and Film Studies, English and Irish Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies, Linguistics, Philosophy, Health Sciences, Theology, Peace Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology, Psychology and Neuroscience.

Thematic Clusters

To focus research in a field of such breadth and complexity, work on the theme will be organised in six clusters:

• Concepts and Theories: The self and the other; the individual and the collective; imagology, concepts of alterity, processes of othering;
• Identity Politics and Memory Contests: Concepts of Irishness on the island of Ireland and in the diaspora; the decade of commemorations; national stereotyping and European identity;
• Narratives and Performances of Identity: Literature and drama; life-stories and case histories, creativity and imagination;
• Globalisation, Migration and Belonging: Migration and the new Irish; hybrid and intercultural identities; the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion;
• The Self in the Digital World: Digital identities; virtual communities; de-territorialisation of experience;
• Somatic Identity: The body; emotions; parenthood; concepts of (dis-)ability, illness and wellbeing.

Benefits

Investigation of topics related to this theme already yields rich and much needed benefits for Irish society in a time of crisis and re-orientation. This new theme will bring cohesion to the diverse research underway across the university, the outcome of which will have considerable impact on attitudes, policies, and practices in a range of central concerns for society today. For example: 

• Investigation of memory contests around the decade of commemorations will allow us to better understand and overcome historic and current political, social, religious and cultural divisions in Ireland and Europe;
• Research on national stereotyping, national myth building, and the narratives around it, will enable us to relate with more openness and insight to other cultures, and will also allow us to position ourselves as a nation with a clearer sense of self and with more confidence in a changing European and global landscape;
• The exploration of the cultural representations of exile, and the changing self-images of emigrees, will help us to better appreciate the position of the Irish diaspora in the past and today;
• Analysis of the complex life stories of the new Irish will aid their integration and facilitate embracement of the new multi-cultural Ireland and building a more welcoming society in general; 
• Reflection on the experiences of rapidly increasing mobility and migration in a globalized world through the lenses of arts & culture will bring the increasing importance of trans-cultural identities into sharp focus. It will also enable us to rethink concepts such as citizenship, belonging, solidarity and the status of those who are deemed not to belong;
• Inquiry into the impact the digital revolution has on knowledge acquisition, communication patterns, and the growing phenomenon of virtual identities, will allow us to better face the massive technological, societal and cultural changes of the digital age;
• The analysis of narratives and performance of identity will heighten our awareness of the central role of literature and imagination for the negotiation of identities;
• The examination of  historic and current attitudes towards notions of health and illness, (dis-) ability and norm, and related mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, will aid us in improving healthcare, the support of marginalised groups, and in building a more inclusive and tolerant society overall.

Steering Committee

A Steering Committee has been established to oversee the research theme and guide the development and delivery of new research projects and activities related to the theme over the course of its duration:

• Prof Juergen Barkhoff (Chair), Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub and Theme Convenor
  
• Prof Cornelius Casey, Confederal School of Religions, Theology and Ecumenics
  
• Prof Daniel Faas, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy
  
• Prof Joan Lalor, School of Nursing and Midwifery
  
• Prof Kathleen McTiernan, School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences
  
• Prof Elaine Moriarty, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy
  
• Prof Ciaran O’Neill, School of Histories and Humanities
  
• Prof David O’Shaughnessy, School of English
  
• Prof Christine Poulter, School of Drama, Film and Music
  
• Prof Clemens Ruthner, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies

Funding Bodies