The O’Mahony Visiting Research Fellowship in Music 2025/2026

Music has played a prominent role in the life of Trinity College Dublin since its foundation in 1592. The university established a Professorship in Music in 1764, one of the oldest academic Chairs in the country. With thanks to the generosity of Rosemary O’Mahony, the Trinity Long Room Hub is delighted to introduce a three-month funded fellowship dedicated to music and music-related research, awarded annually on a competitive basis.

The O’Mahony Visiting Research Fellowship in Music will be open internationally to musicologists, music theorists, textual scholars, music technologists and composers with a strong record of research and/or creative output.

Applicants will be invited to propose a project in collaboration with a nominated academic partner from the Department of Music and/or other Trinity Arts and Humanities departments. For details, please see below.

Music at Trinity College Dublin

Music has played a prominent role in the life of Trinity College Dublin since its foundation in 1592. The university established a Professorship in Music in 1764, one of the oldest academic Chairs in the country. Today, the Department of Music is a dynamic hub of creative and scholarly activity. Its academic profile spans historical musicology, composition, performance, and interdisciplinary research. The department is particularly noted for its strengths in composition and choral studies, the study of English Renaissance music, 19th-century music and aesthetics, women composers, explorations of music technology, and the intersection of music with other art forms such as film and sustainability-focused research. Faculty and students produce innovative works across genres, from experimental music theatre and contemporary opera to choral compositions. Research engages with music as a humanistic discipline, considering it within the context of the cultural, social, and political practices within which it functions. By fostering a vibrant exchange between humanistic study, historical inquiry, and contemporary exploration, the Department of Music endeavours to advance the field of music both nationally and internationally, building on its rich legacy to inspire new directions in scholarship and creativity. Trinity Library holds extensive Music Collections, some of which are digitised through the Virtual Trinity Library project Music Collection / Digital Collections. As a copyright library, Trinity Library holds the first standard editions of the works of many canonical figures.

Applications to the O’Mahony Fellowship in Music

The Visiting Research Fellowship in Music is open to musicologists, music theorists, textual scholars, music technologists and composers of international standing not resident or employed on the island of Ireland with a doctorate or equivalent degree and a strong record of research and/or creative output appropriate to their career stage. Applicants must have fluent spoken and written English. The fellowship is open equally to established and mid-career researchers, but not normally postdoctoral researchers.

Applicants should apply with a research proposal in collaboration with an identified potential academic partner from the Department of Music and/or another Trinity Long Room Hub partnering Arts and Humanities School (see terms and conditions). NOTE: Applicants are not required to contact their proposed academic partners in advance of the proposal submission, just to identify them.

Projects will be bespoke and particular to the applicant’s strengths and interests. A project could take the form of a composition, performance, peer-reviewed article or archival work. It could respond to a specific music collection in Trinity Library; or to one of Trinity’s arts and humanities research themes, such as creative arts practice, digital humanities, identities in transformation; or to emerging interdisciplinary fields supported by the Hub, such as the history of the book, resistance studies, democracy and the media, neuro-humanities, or

Please click HERE for the terms and conditions and how to apply. The deadline for applications is 5pm GMT on 5pm GMT on Friday 24 October 2025.