Our News

As part of SHARED GREEN DEAL (a five-year, European Union Horizon-2020-funded project), members of the Clean Energy experiment team led by University of Galway’s Prof Frances Fahy met in Jaywick, the United Kingdom for a study tour. They exchanged experiences with facilitating community visioning for clean energy futures in different locations and learned about the challenges of future visioning and community energy in Jaywick. Postgraduate researcher Emily Gray represented the University of Galway at the study tour.    

We are delighted to announce that Dr Eamon Maher has received a College of Arts Visiting Fellowship to work with the Centre for Irish Studies and the University Library as part of his ongoing research on John McGahern this summer. Eamon Maher is a lecturer in the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management and Joint Principal Investigator (with Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire) of the Centre for Irish Studies. He founded and acted as Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies (NCFIS) from 2005-2025, and served as President of its offshoot, AFIS (Association of Franco-Irish Studies), from 2005-2020. In 2016 Eamon was made an Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, an Honour bestowed on him by the French Government for the promotion of Franco-Irish Studies. Eamon has written widely on representations of Catholicism in 20th-century fiction in France and Ireland and has published two book-length studies and several articles on the Irish writer John McGahern, on whom he is a recognised international expert. He is co-editing the Companion to John McGahern, which is due to appear in 2026, the 20th anniversary of the author’s death. His most recent monograph, which will appear in 2026, is titled The Prophetic Voice: Jean Sulivan’s Ongoing Relevance in France and Ireland. Eamon did his PhD thesis on Sulivan and also published a monograph in French, with L’Harmattan, on this intriguing Breton priest-writer who lived from 1913-1980, which were seismic years for France and the world in general. Eamon is General Editor of the highly successful Irish Studies series, Reimagining Ireland, as well as of Studies in Franco-Irish Relations, both with Peter Lang Oxford. He has edited and co-edited numerous books in these series and is a regular contributor to The Irish Times.  

The Climate Campaigners project team are hosting an event aimed at preparing for the European elections in 2024. The primary goal of the event, ‘The right to have a choice to live sustainably with Climate Campaigners Amplifier Cities’, is to spearhead a "Go Vote" campaign advocating for a robust European Green Deal with collective action at its core. Climate Campaigners project aims to be the mechanism for citizen-driven change in a way that is fully immersed in behavioural research and integrated with local, national and EU-level policy goals. Event Details: Date: 20 February 2024 Time: 4-6 PM CET Platform: Zoom (Will be sent upon registration) Register here.

Dr Aaron Potito and three Geography undergraduates just returned from a 10-day field class in Chengdu, China, with Sichuan University’s University Immersion Program. The field course in Environmental Change and Sustainability included students and teachers from China, Italy, Australia, United States and Ireland.

Natural and Human Heritages

Dr John Morrissey has won the President’s Award for Teaching Excellence for a second time. Programme Director of the MA in Environment, Society and Development and Lecturer in Geopolitics and International Development, John previously won the award in 2011. He is pictured here receiving his award from NUIG President Prof. Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh at the recent College of Arts conferring in the Bailey Allen Hall.

Dr Eugene Farrell received the 2018 President’s Award for Societal Impact from NUIG President Prof Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh. This award stems from his work with local communities in The Maharees (Co. Kerry) to find solutions to coastal pressures from storms and human activities that have led to the chronic destabilization of the fragile dune ecosystems and increased erosion and flooding risks.

The School of Geography and Archaeology is running another Spring Lunchtime Lecture Series this year, with the first lecture starting on Monday, January 15th.  The lectures will take place in the Town Hall Theatre, Woodquay, Galway.  Please note, while the event is free it is advisable to come early to ensure a seat as pre-booking is not available. Download full programme here:  Spring Lecture Series 2018

John Morrissey, Senior Lecturer in Geography and Associate Director of the Moore Institute, has published a new book critically telling the story of repeated US military interventions in the Middle East and Central Asia over the last 30 years. Entitled The Long War, the book focuses on the archives of US Central Command, and engages a wide range of scholarship on imperialism, geopolitics and neoliberalism, in critiquing the US military’s role in enacting US foreign policy in the most energy-rich region on earth, and in documenting the profound human consequences of military violence.