Research
Up to eighty million people around the world identify themselves in some way with Ireland and with Irishness. This includes approximately two million Australians. The Irish diaspora’s relationship to Ireland has long been important, but perhaps never more so than in this globalized era of mass communications. Consciousness of the global Irish experience is burgeoning, not least in Ireland itself, with the Republic actively soliciting the help of the Irish diaspora in navigating its current economic difficulties.
The UNSW John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies places the Irish Diaspora as a people, and the idea of Irishness as a global brand, at the centre of its research remit. It will be an interdisciplinary institute drawing and building on existing strengths across the UNSW Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and collaborating with other Irish Studies initiatives globally.
Research Aims
• To engage in research on the past, the present and the future of Ireland and the Irish globally.
• To act as a catalyst and hub for research into modern Irish history, culture, politics, and society and into relations between Ireland and its diaspora, including its Australian diaspora.
• To generate research outcomes of an academic quality that will not only add esteem to the reputation of UNSW as a leading international university, but also prove of lasting interest and benefit to the Irish-Australian community.
• To undertake and support research that will contribute to the strategic emphasis on international relations, globalisation, migration, transnational cultures and post-conflict communal reconciliation in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
• To propose and support conferences, seminars and exhibitions on Irish, Irish-Australian and Global Irish themes.
• To engage in wide dissemination of its research through public lectures and media. A series of public lectures branded as ‘Global Irish Studies Talks’ (GIST) was inaugurated in 2011, on a range of topics of interest to the wider Irish-Australian public
• To support, in collaboration with the Faculty, and mentor applications from junior scholars working on Irish, Irish-Australian and Global Irish themes.
• To work with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences on the enrolment and supervision of Research Higher Degree Students and Postdoctoral Fellows.
• Apply specific learning outcomes from thematic areas into wider contexts such as conflict resolution, interculturalism, integration and development.
