School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, TCD

16/10/2026

on TUE 20 OCT at 5pm, Maxwell Theatre, Hamilton Bldg
Speakers: Visiting scholars from Poland, including two deans from the Jagiellonian University, and Professor Gerard McCann from Northern Ireland.

Housed at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, the Varnhagen Collection contains remarkable historical documents, including letters and manuscripts associated with figures such as Daniel O’Connell, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and Charles Dickens.

Long inaccessible to the wider public, this extraordinary collection is now being rediscovered through an international research and digitisation project involving scholars from Poland and Northern Ireland.

During the event, researchers from the Jagiellonian University and St Mary’s University College Belfast will share their discoveries and discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in bringing these historical documents to light.

We are also delighted that the event will be opened by His Excellency Mr Artur Michalski, Ambassador of Poland to Ireland.

Attendance is free, although we recommend registering in advance to secure a seat:

What can a remarkable archive in Kraków reveal about Ireland and Britain’s cultural and historical past?

15/10/2026

On the great Frederic Jameson

Fredric Jameson seemed to me to have read absolutely everything. He was the very antithesis of the intellectual type I...

06/10/2026

Now unlocked: Salman Rushdie asks if literature, if anything, is sacred. Read at the link in our bio!

https://ocean.exacteditions.com/issues/85391/page/7?rc=d0ed177c-ef5c-4e94-b317-02f837ad8810

02/10/2026

Much of Sigmund Freud’s work has been dismissed as quackery—but it might align with modern brain research more than we think, Scott Stossel wrote in August. https://theatln.tc/Non0wjXE

In the 1970s, the mental-health profession fled from many of Freud’s psychological concepts, such as transference and countertransference, the death drive, and seduction theory—as well as more outlandish ones like p***s envy, castration anxiety, and the Oedipal complex.

“To announce that you are embarking on a course of psychoanalytic training today is tantamount, in many quarters, to admitting that you plan to treat your patients using astrology or by parsing the entrails of a goat,” Stossel writes.

But as most experts continue to cast Freudianism aside, one neuroscientist is returning to Freud’s work, and making a “case for both his theory of mind and his psychoanalytic method as the best—indeed, the only—approach that can cure emotional disorders,” Stossel continues.

At the link, read more about Mark Solms, the author of the new book “The Only Cure: Freud and the Neuroscience of Mental Healing,” and his ambitious—and contentious—case for what Freudianism could offer patients.

🎨: Eleni Kalorkoti

28/09/2026

in - 1776–2026 and Beyond on FRI, 09 OCT 2026, 9am - 6.30pm: A to mark the 250th anniversary of the establishment of Modern Languages at in 1776

A conference to mark the 250th anniversary of the establishment of Modern Languages at Trinity College Dublin in 1776.

27/09/2026

Pierre Bourdieu's contributions to Sociology.

16/09/2026

New documentary on Edward Said

For anyone interested in what shaped Said as a man, a critic, an activist, and intellectual, Edward Said: Between Worlds offers a superb introduction. Assembled from hundreds of hours of interviews and media appearances, and told entirely in Said’s own voice, the film depicts him in all his contradictory splendor: the elegantly coiffed and perfectly tailored tribune of an oppressed people, the man of the left who proclaimed, “I seem to be the father of identity politics, but it’s a thing I totally disbelieve in,” unfashionably tenacious in his defense of humanism and cultural autonomy, yet utterly intransigent when it comes to Palestinian rights.

That intransigence is crucial; the Palestinian cause would never have survived without it. But Said also argued that defiance alone, however essential, was not enough. His early complaint that “we have no narrative as a people,” the lack of academic attention to the Palestinian past, has been handsomely remedied by Nur Masalha, Rashid Khalidi (the Edward Said Professor Emeritus at Columbia), and other historians. However, the question of a Palestinian future has become even more fraught in the years since his death. And here the film offers two propositions, neither of them destined for universal assent. Read more from D.D. Guttenplan: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/edward-said-documentary-palestine/

06/09/2026

Trinity’s Centre for English Language Learning and Teaching (CELLT) provides a wide range of language modules each term. These classes are open to all registered Trinity students, undergraduate and postgraduate. They are tailored in particular to the language needs of international students. This email outlines the availability of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) modules this semester.

Our modules are designed to foster advanced spoken and written discourse skills required for effective participation in lectures, tutorials and labs, for oral and written assignments, for capstone projects, and dissertations. Classes are free of charge and they are taught by an experienced team.

CELLT offers:

- In-sessional EAP modules, focusing on Academic Writing, Oral Fluency and Dissertation Writing. Classes run weekly in-person Monday-Friday throughout the semester, open to all Trinity undergraduates and postgraduates. Students may select more than one in-sessional module where spaces are available.
- A 10-credit advanced EAP module open to all Ph.D. students for whom English is a second language, part of Trinity’s Structured Ph.D. programme.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information about these modules, via [email protected].

Welcome to the Centre for English Language Learning and Teaching at Trinity College Dublin. We offer a rich range of Academic English language learning opportunities for all Trinity students. Our research and development in the field of English language learning and teaching ensures the provision of...

29/07/2026

Starting from 12 August, we’re launching a new round of 5-week online German courses for levels A1.1. to B2.2. designed to fit your schedule and lifestyle.

If your goal is to maximise your German, we will also be running an on-site super intensive 2-week A1.1. German course, starting 10 August, and an intensive 4-week A1.1. German course, starting 24 August.

And don't forget to use your discount when booking:

Get 10% off group courses and camps with the code SUMMER26
Get 15% off 2-week and 4-week A1.1 courses with the code INT26

Book now! https://www.goethe.de/ins/ie/en/spr/kur.html

27/07/2026

We will teach in (3rd year) - here comes a bit of ahead of term

Zuerst wollte Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) Musikkritiker werden. Der Augsburger Bürgersohn hatte Klavier- und Violinunterricht genossen, Bach und Wagner im Konzert bescherten ihm rauschhafte Erlebnisse. Nicht weniger groß war seine Begeisterung für Bänkelsänger, Leierkasten und Moritaten aller Ar...