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Department of History

Poul Holm

Professor Poul Holm

Professor of Environmental History

Research Interests

My research develops new modes of historical inquiry into human exploitation of the sea, integrating marine science and history to understand the long-term environmental impacts of resource extraction. I specialise in North Atlantic fisheries c. 1400–1700 and, more broadly, in maritime and marine environmental history.

My doctoral research examined the impact of war on everyday life in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark between 1550 and 1914. Since then, I have published widely on the medieval and early modern marine environment, coastal communities, and maritime culture. I also maintain a particular interest in Viking settlement in Ireland.

I am Director of the Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities, which promotes environmental awareness and action through interdisciplinary research and education. From 2021 to 2027, I serve as Corresponding Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Synergy Grant 4-OCEANs.

Previously, I was founding Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub (2008–12) and Director of the Digital Arts and Humanities Consortium of Ireland (2011–16). I began my career as a curator at the Danish Fisheries and Maritime Museum, later becoming Professor at Aarhus University and subsequently at the University of Southern Denmark. Before moving to Ireland, I served as Rector of Roskilde University.

I have a strong engagement with humanities research policy. I served as Chair of the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and, in 2008–09, chaired the European Commission’s METRIS Committee (Monitoring European Trends in Research in the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities). From 2015 to 2018, I was President of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities.

I was elected a Member of Academia Europaea in 2015 and served as Chair of its Humanities Section (2018–2025). In 2024, I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy. I have served as President of three international scholarly organisations: the European Society for Environmental History, the Association for the History of the Northern Seas, and the European Consortium of Humanities Institutes and Centres.

I serve on the editorial boards of several journals, including Humanities, The Mariner’s Mirror, Global Environment, and the Journal of Marine and Island Cultures. I have held visiting research fellowships at the University of Cambridge, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, the San Cataldo Foundation (Amalfi), and Renmin University (Beijing).

I was co-awarded the 2009 Best Research of the Year Prize by videnskab.dk, and in 2008 I was knighted by the Danish Crown for services to research. In 2011, the Japanese Cosmos Prize was awarded to the Scientific Steering Committee of the Census of Marine Life, of which I was a member.


Select Publications

  • P Holm, P. W. Hayes, and J. Nicholls. Historical Marine Footprint for Atlantic Europe, 1500-2019. Ambio 53 (2024): 624–36,  https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-023-01939-9
  • Poul Holm, John Nicholls, Patrick W. Hayes, Josh Ivinson, Bernard Allaire, Accelerated extractions of North Atlantic cod and herring, 1520-1790. Fish and Fisheries 2022 DOI: 10.1111/faf.12598
  • John Nicholls, Bernard Allaire, Poul Holm, The Capacity Trend Method: A new approach for enumerating the Newfoundland cod fisheries (1675–1790). Historical Methods, 54 (2021) 80-93. DOI: 10.1080/01615440.2020.1853643
  • P Holm & V Winiwarter, Climate change studies and the human sciences, Global and Planetary Change, 156, 2017, p115 – 122
  • D L Aksnes &  P Holm et al., Food from the oceans: how can more food and biomass be obtained from the oceans in a way that does not deprive future generations of their benefits?, Berlin, SAPEA, Science Advice for Policy by European Academies, Nov , 2017, p1 – 154
  • Travis, Charles & Holm, Poul (2017), Lessons for the Anthropocene from the Recent Past: Tobacco Use, HIV/AIDS, and Social Transformation. Global and Planetary Change 156, 167-175
  • Holm, P., Jarrick, A., Scott, D., Humanities World Report 2015. London: Palgrave 2014. Translated: 世界人文學科研究概況報告, Taipei, National Taiwan University Press, 2016, 291pp
  • Holm, P., Climate Change, Big Data and the Medieval and Early Modern in, editor(s)R. Hutton , Medieval or Early Modern. The Value of a Traditional Historical Division, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015, pp70 – 84
  • Holm, P., Manning and Paying the Hiberno-Norse Dublin Fleet in, editor(s)Emer Purcell, Paul MacCotter, Julianne Nyhan & John Sheehan , Clerics, kings and Vikings: essays on medieval Ireland in honour of Donnchadh Ó Corráin , Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2015, pp67 – 78
  • Holm, P., World War II and the 'Great Acceleration' of North Atlantic fisheries, Global Environment, 10, 2013, p66 – 91

Teaching and Supervision

Currently, I do not teach at the undergraduate level. I am happy to supervise graduate students on maritime and environmental history, cultural heritage, and Viking and North Atlantic studies.

Professor Holm on the TCD Research Support System

Contact Details

Prof Poul Holm
Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities
Trinity College Dublin
Arts Building, 6.002
2 College Green
Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 1 896 8490
Mobile: +353 (0)876 188 039
Fax: +353 1 896 4220
https://www.tcd.ie/longroomhub
Email: holmp@tcd.ie