TLRH | Fellow in Focus with Dr Roisín Higgins (Teesside University)

Recorded April 25, 2023. A lunchtime 'in conversation' event featuring Visiting Research Fellow Dr Roisín Higgins (Teesside University) in conversation with Dr Mark Hennessy (School of Natural Sciences, TCD), organised by the Long Room Hub. Roisín Higgins is an Associate Professor at Teesside University with a research focus on historical memory. Her book on the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, Transforming 1916: Meaning, Memory and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Easter Rising (Cork, 2012), won the ACIS James Donnelly Sr Prize for History and Social Science. Roisín was involved in many aspects of the Centenary of the Easter Rising, including acting as historical consultant on the ‘Commemoration’ zone of the permanent exhibition GPO: Witness History. Her wide-ranging public-facing work also includes the popular RTÉ programme National Treasures. Roisín’s current work explores sensory experiences of living through the recent conflict in Northern Ireland. In 2021-2, she received a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for her project ‘Sensing the Troubles: A Critical Re-Imaging of Life in Northern Ireland’. She is currently the recipient of an AHRC Networking Grant for ‘Towards a Socio-Somatic History of the Troubles’, which brings together scholars, arts practitioners and community organisers to explore the impact of society on the body. While at the Hub, Roisin will be collaborating with scholars whose work reframes stories of post-war Ireland, under the ‘Making Ireland’ theme. Through her project, ‘Fragments of Conflict: A Sensory History of the Troubles, she will explore new methodologies for writing histories of Ireland. Mark Hennessy is Assistant Professor in Geography and Convenor of Trinity’s Making Ireland research theme. He holds a B.A.(Hons.) and Ph.D. from the Department of Geography, University College Dublin. In 1984/'85 he was a Research Fellow in the Flinders University of South Australia. He was a Research Assistant in the Departments of Geography and the Medieval History in 1985-1987 and Lecturer in Geography in UCD from 1987-1991. Hennessy then became a Lecturer in Geography in Trinity, before taking up his appointment as Assistant Professor in Geography. Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/