Dean’s Lecture & Inaugural Lecture
The Dean’s Lecture has been a long-standing tradition within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, held annually as part of Research Week. Each year, the Faculty invited a distinguished national or international researcher to present their work, engaging both students and staff in discussions on cutting-edge research.
In 2024, the Faculty introduced a new format, replacing the Dean’s Lecture with the Inaugural Lecture. This new series highlights the research excellence of newly appointed or promoted professors within the Faculty, providing a platform for them to share their expertise with the university community.
The first Inaugural Lecture was delivered by Professor Karen Desmond, who explored the rich complexities of medieval music. You can read more about this event here.
While the format has evolved, the Faculty remains committed to fostering research dialogue and engagement through these prestigious lectures.
Past Dean's Lectures
2023
Professor Michael Cronin (Trinity College Dublin), "The Open Island? Ireland in the More-Than-Human World"
2022
Professor Priyamvada Gopal (University of Cambridge), ‘Gandhiji, I have no country: Caste, Nation and the Question of Decolonisation’
2021
Professor Chi-chi Nwanoku (Royal Academy of Music), 'Own it. If you’re not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem:'
Professor Michael Rothberg (UCLA), 'Debating the Holocaust: Multidirectional Memory and the Politics of Comparison in Contemporary Germany'
2020
Laura Tunbridge (Oxford), ‘Beethoven in 2020 Vision’
Doireann Ní Ghríofa, ‘Chasing the Ghost in My Throat’
Kevin O’Rourke (NYU), ‘Brexit in Historical Perspective’
2019
Ece Temelkuran, ‘The Joy of Dignity Against the Banality of Evil’
2018
A.C. Grayling, ‘The Meaning of Brexit for the “Westminster Model” and the Future of Democracy’
2017
Catriona Crowe, ‘Guilt, Shame, Acknowledgement and Redress: Some reflections on Ireland’s Institutional Treatment of Women and Children’
2016
Sidonie Smith (Michigan), ‘Manifesto for the Humanities: A Twenty-First-Century Doctoral Education’
2015
Jacqueline Rose (Birkbeck), ‘Bantu in the Bathroom: Sex and Race in the New Millennium’