Material Witnesses: Sixteen Objects and the Shaping of Global History

Overview

Overview

Material Witnesses endure not only in museums, but in the art, architecture, and texts left behind by people—individuals who dreamed, believed, resisted, and remembered. Each carved statue, work of art, sacred manuscript, monumental structure or historical document is more than an artifact; it is a witness to human lives. These objects speak not just of empires, ideologies, and revolutions, but of the humanity within them: the aspirations, fears, and questions that have shaped our shared story. This lecture series—spanning Ireland, Europe, and beyond—places that humanity at its centre. From the grandeur of state architecture to the quiet symbolism in devotional art, from the language of treaties to the margins of personal letters, we find the traces of human voices struggling with power, identity, memory, and meaning.

Delivered by scholars from History of Art and Architecture, Classics and History, Material Witnesses is an interdisciplinary lecture series exploring how art, architecture, text—and everyday objects—are entangled with human lives. Across sixteen talks, it considers how materials have helped construct and question authority, express belief, survival, and protest, and shape public memory. From monumental buildings to worn tools, sacred texts to personal letters, these objects reflect the full range of human experience. They remind us that history lives not just in events, but in the everyday encounters between people and the things they create, use, and carry with them.

Date, Time and Place

This lecture-only module comprises of 16 lectures, eight in semester 1 and eight in semester 2, commencing the week beginning 29 September 2025 and recommencing 19 January 2026. Lectures take place on Mondays 7 – 8 pm on Trinity Campus. Lectures will be live streamed but not recorded.