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
Contact: Max Mc Guinness (mcguinm8@tcd.ie)

 

Conference Programme

10-10:20AM – Opening Remarks

Michael Cronin (Department of French, TCD)

10:20-11:30AM – 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)

11:30AM-12PM – Coffee Break

12PM-1:10PM – 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)

1:10-2PM – Lunch

2-3.10PM – 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)

3.10-4.20PM – Panel 4: Samuel Beckett: Modern Languages and Translation as a Way of Literary Life

“Reading and Reinterpreting Dante: From Glosses to Beckett’s Earlier Works”

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)

4.20-4.50PM – Coffee Break

4.50-6PM – 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.