Trinity Tongues: Exploring the history of Modern Languages at Ireland's oldest university

A postgraduate and early-career researcher conference

Venue: Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, 36 Fenian Street
Date: Saturday, 21 March 2026
Register attendance via Ticket Tailor.
Contact: Max Mc Guinness (mcguinm8@tcd.ie)

 

Conference Programme

10-10:15AM – Opening Remarks

Michael Cronin (Department of French, TCD)

10:15-11:50 AM – Panel 1: Building Disciplines

“French in 19th-Century Trinity”

Max McGuinness (Department of French, TCD)

“A Short History of the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies”

Anna Mackey (Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, TCD)

“50 years of The Irish Association for Applied Linguistics and TCD”

Emma Riordan (Department of German, TCD)

11:50AM-12:15PM – Coffee Break

12:15-1:25PM – Panel 2: Languages, Gender, and Empire

“Female Tongues: Women and Modern Languages at Trinity and Beyond”

Enrico Dal Fovo (Department of Italian, TCD)

“Language, Myth, and Feminist Memory: The Intellectual Legacy of Hispanic and Latin American Studies at Trinity College Dublin”

Katarzyna Stepien (Department of Hispanic Studies, TCD)

1:25-2:15PM – Lunch

2:15-3:25PM – Panel 3: Free Speech and Canon Reformation

“Language as Governance: Conor Cruise O’Brien, Section 31, and the Trinity Interpretive Legacy”

Joseph Muratore (Department of Italian, TCD)

“Creating the ‘Contemporary’: Shifting Canons and Temporal Consciousness in Italian Studies at Trinity College Dublin”

Antonio Belfiore (Department of Italian, TCD)

3:25-4:35PM – Panel 4: Samuel Beckett: Modern Languages and Translation as a Way of Literary Life

“Reading and Reinterpreting Dante: From Beckett’s Annotations to More Pricks than Kicks”

Berenice Daniele (Department of Italian, TCD)

“The Inward Turn of Violence: Self-Violence and Internalized Sacrifice in Beckett’s Trilogy”

Hao Yang (School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, TCD)

4:35-5PM – Coffee Break

5-6:10PM – Keynote

“Dante at the Campanile: Politics, Presences, and Purgatories”

Daragh O’Connell (Department of Italian, University College Cork)

 

Graphic with the words Languages 250 at Trinity (1776-2026).

The 'Languages 250 at Trinity (1776-2026)' programme of events marks the 250th anniversary of the establishment of Modern Languages in Trinity College Dublin.