History, Classics, Art History & Creative and Cultural Industries Summer School

‘From Minotaurs to Emperors: Introducing Classics’ & Visit to UCD Classical Museum

Using one of the School’s fieldwork projects at the world-renowned site of Knossos, Crete, as an example, this session will showcase the diversity of Classics as a subject. You’ll learn how
we draw upon ancient literary and historical texts, archaeological remains, art and artefacts to understand the human past (and how our students can get involved with this research!), as
well as how the Classical world continues to inspire popular culture. We’ll also explain what studying Classics at UCD involves, and will visit the unique resource that is the UCD Classical Museum.

The World of the Artist – Jack B. Yeats Studio

This session uses the contents of Jack B. Yeats’s studio, now in the National Gallery of Ireland, and the prominent paintings by the artist in the collection of the Gallery, to show how Art History analyses visual material and documents to understand how artists work, what sources and ideas they use, how artworks are made and how they come into the collections of major museums.  This is a whistlestop tour of the practice of one of Ireland’s most exciting, diverse and challenging  artists, offering you an insight into the discipline of Art History and how it works in actuality.

History, Memory & Constructions of Power

This session will be about the political and social uses of memory to construct useful pasts. Drawing on specific examples from the 20th century, we will examine the ways in which governments, political parties and social movements created narratives about the past to promote their agendas. Memories can be difficult to control, however, and attempting to define politically useful pasts can have unintended consequences. We will explore how historians’ differing approaches to the study of the human past can reveal hidden stories, complicate collective remembrances and offer challenging narratives about identity and the construction of power.

Introducing Creative & Cultural Industries

Drawn from materials from a first year core module, Introduction to Creative and Cultural Industries, this session considers the resurgence of craft and craft-branded production in 21st century urban economies. From artisan bakeries and craft breweries to heritage clothing manufacture, discourse around craft is commonly linked to new, post-digital vocational paths as well as processes of gentrification and urban change. How do craft and neo-craft industries fit within conceptualisations of creative and cultural industries more broadly?