It's mid-September in Maynooth University’s Department of Geography.
This is a month of renewal: last week we celebrated Graduation with one group of students, and this week we meet the incoming First Years. The trees turn; leaves on South Campus, and particularly around Rhetoric House, put on a stunning display. The campus was at its very best for the graduates and their families and friends last week; it is such a special occasion. Over 250 students received their degrees in Geography; we were especially proud of our prize-winners: Darren Clarke, for the best overall performance in final year Geography (Darren also received the equivalent prize in Business); Gareth Delap as the best physical geographer; Aoife Kavanagh and Michael Murphy as the best human geographers; and Alan Costello who made the most progress between second and third year.
Geography staff and researchers have had a very busy summer. In no particular order:
- Ronan Foley was invited as a speaker to the 4th Global Blue Mind Summit, in Cornwall, co-hosted by the University of Exeter Medical School, the LivBlue Foundation and Ocean Revolution. He's also been awarded an Erskine Fellowship at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, for the first few months of 2015.
- Gerry Kearns spent time in South Africa, researching an HIV prevention organization, Health4Men. Gerry has also been honoured by the Association of American Geographers, becoming the Distinguished Historical Geographer for 2015. This is a highly prestigious award, personally very valued because it is determined by the academic community. Many congratulations Gerry!
- Karen Till conducted research this summer in Cape Town, Berlin and Minneapolis for her book 'Wounded Cities', for which she was invited to present at 'People Matter: The Human Impacts of Planned Redevelopment', an international symposium at MIT.
- Chris van Egeraat also started work on a new research project on the potential for all-Ireland clustering, involving the ESRI, QUB and DCU and funded by InterTradeIreland.
- Sinead Kelly saw publication of a jointly edited book with Andrew MacLaran, in mid-August: Neoliberal Urban Policy and the Transformation of the City: Reshaping Dublin. She undertook further research on the financialisation of the city and contributed to an ERC-funded research 3 day seminar on the Real Estate/Financial Complex at the University of Leuven.
- Cian O'Callaghan also immersed himself in writing, revising papers for Political Geography and Space and Polity, and presenting at the major conference of UK Geographers in London.
- Mark Boyle completed his text 'Human Geography: A Concise Introduction' , written to support GY123 learning, and our colleagues in NIRSA relaunched the AIRO project to great acclaim (airo.maynoothuniversity.ie).
- Shelagh Waddington has been exploring developing geography-related graduate attributes and curriculum change.
- Bettina Stefanini led a group of incoming 2nd year Geography and Biology students in plant and animal identification and habitat mapping for the Green Campus initiative.
- ICARUS continues to go from strength to strength, with staff in demand by the media. The latest publication, in the top journal Nature Climate Change, was led by Tom Matthews (with Conor Murphy and Shaun Harrigan), focusing on last winter's storms. John Coll submitted funding proposals and reports to the Environmental Protection Agency. Rod Teck began work on a European funded project modelling climate change for invasive species, notably pine weevils.
- Earlier in 2014 Steve McCarron and Gill Scott were on an offshore research 'cruise' and started to write this up over the summer. Gill also taught a specialist, intensive GIS course for geoscience PhD students from all over Ireland. Kieran Craven was preparing manuscripts on sea level change in the Shannon region.
That's a taste of our activity. The next few weeks see the arrival of new postgraduate students... but more about these in October.
Dr. Jan Rigby
Head of Department