Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Review 2013
In keeping with the DCU strategic plan, Transforming Lives and Societies, staff in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences continued to produce research in 2013 that delivered societal and economic benefit for Ireland. Across the five Schools in the Faculty, staff published articles in leading academic journals, chapters in influential edited volumes and authored/edited several well-received books. In addition, staff participated in external conferences and other public fora in the dissemination of research findings. Our research has contributed to public debate and policy development at a national and international level on important societal challenges such as government reform, educational reform, multi-lingualism and translation, conflict resolution and political extremism.
The Faculty signed research contracts with the EU valued at almost €10m and with Irish national funders, such as the Irish Research Council and Government Departments for over €1m. Faculty research
was presented at more than one hundred international conferences and staff regularly contributed to media debates as experts in their areas of research. Among the many achievements in 2013 was the award
of the DCU President’s Award for Excellence in Research to Dorothy Kenny, Head of SALIS. During the year, the Faculty graduated 33 PhD students, and through a combination of internal and external
funding supports, including Government of Ireland scholarships and a Daniel O Hare scholarship, maintained a new stream of research students in all five Schools. The items identified under each individual
School in this short report provides an overview of some of the research activity in the Faculty in 2013.
SALIS
During 2013, SALIS staff published in leading journals in their areas including Language Teaching Research (Niamh Kelly and Jenny Bruen), Irish Educational Studies and the Journal of Political Science Education (Jenny Bruen) and Education and Information Technologies (Marnie Holborow).
Book publications included Translation in the Digital Age, (Routledge) and the Korean translation of Expanding World: Towards a Politics of Microspection (Zero Books) both authored by Michael Cronin. Patricia Garcia collaborated with Professor David Roas of the University of Barcelona to edit Visiones de lo fantástico: aproximaciones teóricas [theoretical perspectives on the fantastic from an interdisciplinary angle] ( Libros: Malaga). In collaboration with Dr. Gabriela Saldanha of the University of Birmingham, Sharon O’Brien published Research Methods in Translation Studies (St Jerome). Several colleagues also published book chapters in prestigious volumes such as the Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies (Minako O’Hagan).
Research was recognised internationally in a number of ways: Aine McGillicuddy was awarded a 3-month fellowship at the International Youth Library, Munich, Germany; Jenny Bruen was invited to join the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Social Science Education; the School hosted a major international conference in Asian Studies (Qi Zang); Patricia Garcia presented at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Jenny Bruen was invited to deliver a public lecture to the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics.
FIONTAR
In addition to continuing to publish in Irish and international journals, and to present at a conferences such as the Annual William Carleton Summer School (Ciarán Mac Murchaidh); the International Conference of the International Academy of Linguistic Law (Peadar Ó Flatharta, with Colin Williams); and the Babson conference on Entrepreneurship (Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, with Brian Stinchfield), Fiontar continued its successful track record with Irish language publications. Aengus Finnegan’s paper on ‘What Kind of Irish was Spoken in Westmeath?’ was awarded a prize of €500 and commended in the highest terms by the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society. Brian Ó Raghallaigh’s Fuaimeanna na Gaeilge and the fifth edition of Ciarán Mac Murchaidh’s highly successful Cruinnscríobh na Gaeilge were both published by Cois Life.
Fiontar (Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín) was awarded a research grant of €1.3m to coordinate digitization and on-line publication of the National Folklore Collection held by University College Dublin, who will collaborate in the project and co-fund the current strand 2013-2016.
Fiontar (Emer Ní Bhrádaigh) in conjunction with the School of Education Studies (Peter Tiernan) was awarded €64,000 by the HEA through the ACE Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship consortium to develop and deliver a blended learning post-graduate module on entrepreneurship education for academics and non-academics in Irish higher
education institutions.
Law and Government
Book publications in 2013 included Iain McMenamin’s If Money Talks, What Does It Say? Corruption and Business Financing of Political Parties (Oxford University Press) and Michael Breen’s The Politics of IMF Lending (Palgrave Macmillan).
Along with participation in leading international conferences and publication of book chapters, staff also contributed research articles in leading academic journals including Advanced Economies and International Studies Quarterly (Michael Breen and Iain McMenamin); European Public Law (Roderic O’Gorman); Mediterranean Politics (Paola Rivetti); Nations and Nationalism (Donnacha Ó Beacháin); European Political Science Review (Eoin O’Malley, Heinz Brandenburg, Roddy Flynn, Iain McMenamin, Kevin Rafter); Democratization (Dawn Walsh and Eoin O’Malley).
In June 2013 the School hosted the Politics of Sovereign Debt conference (organised by Iain McMenamin) while Robert Elgie was appointed sole editor of French Politics, the highest cited French studies journal on Google Scholar.
External grants awarded in 2013 included an EU Network of Excellence on Violent Online Political Extremism (Maura Conway); Irish Research Council and Campus France (Robert Elgie); Royal Irish Academy Mobility Grant (Paola Rivetti) Post-Soviet Tensions: A Training Programme in Post-Soviet Affairs for Early Career Researchers - FP7/Marie Curie Initial Training Network, (Donnacha Ó Beacháin, John Doyle, and Eileen Connolly).
Education Studies
Book publications in 2013 included Digital Literacies in Education (Peter Lang) by Y. Crotty and M. Farren; Rethinking Learning Networks. Collaborative Possibilities for a Deleuzian Century (Peter Lang ) by A. Kamp; and Boy Republic: Patrick Pearse and Radical Education (History Press, Ireland) by B. Walsh.
Along with book chapters, staff published research articles in 2013 in journals such as Eurasian Journal Of Educational Research (Corrigan, T, McNamara, G, and O'Hara, J.); Education and Information Technologies (Tiernan, P.); Behavioural Development Bulletin (Scanlon, G., Mc Entaggart, C., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Homes, D., & Stewart, I.).
Yvonne Crotty, Margaret Farren and Martin Owen were involved in a successful €3m EU Competitiveness and Innovation application involving 30-European partners.
Other awards in 2013 included from the Standing Committee of Teacher Education North South (Annelies Kamp; Majella McSharry); DCU Intergenerational Learning Programme Award (Trudy Corrigan); and the EU Grundtvig Project (Kathy Harrison, Trudy Corrigan and Professor Gerry McNamara).
Communications
Book publications in 2013 included Jim Roger’s The Death and Life of the Music Industry in the Digital Age (Bloomsbury Academic Press); Kevin Rafter (with John Coakley, UCD, eds.) The Irish Presidency: Power, Ceremony and Politics (Irish Academic Press); and Colum Kenny (with Daire Hogan, eds.) Changes in Practice and Law (Four Courts Press). Along with book chapters, staff published in academic journals including International Journal Of Cultural Studies (Eugenia Siapera); Media History (Kevin Rafter); Journal Of Elections, Public Opinion And Parties (Jane Suiter and Eoin O’Malley); Creative Education (Miriam Judge).
The School hosted the IAMCR conference in June 2013 (organised by Paschal Preston and other colleagues) with President Michael D. Higgins delivering the opening address in the Helix. Staff also organised several other conferences with leading international industry and academic participants including Newspaper & Periodical History Forum of Ireland (Mark O’Brien) and Can we trust our news? (Kevin Rafter).
Research funding was secured in 2013 from external agencies including the Irish Research Council and the Dept. of Children and Youth Affairs (Debbie Ging) and Forum Polonia (Neil O’Boyle with Bryan Fanning, UCD). In March and April 2013 Karl Grimes held an exhibition, Irish Wave 2013 at the Irish Festival of Visual Art, Beijing and Shanghai, China.