"My memory is that I made it back to the bedroom as if I had become a new team member on Floor is Lava. It probably looked much worse in real life."
Blog
Research Radar – Cian T. McMahon
'I also make a point every evening of organizing, labelling, and filing away in my hard-drive everything I collect on that day so that I don’t return to a huge, undifferentiated, digital pile of photos with names like “IMG_2874.”'
Research Radar – Peggy Regan
"Favourite form of procrastination?" "Another cup of tea."
Research Radar – Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha
"I...agree with what many others have said here about imposter syndrome. Everyone has it, and if you don’t, what’s your secret?"
Postcolonial Theory and the GMM Project
"The multiplicity of colonial relations being enacted and negotiated in asylums and jails is truly astounding."
Research Radar – Tim McMahon
"I don’t know that I could have finished my doctoral dissertation if it weren’t for periodic trips to the batting cage."
Research Radar – Jim MacPherson
"The great bell hooks was spot on when she talked about how her work focused on challenging the ‘imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy’ – and that’s a fine path to follow."
The “Limerick Girls”
"What is most disappointing here is that these harmful stereotypes are being communicated and perpetuated by the very people who are supposed to be welcoming and supporting the newly arrived emigrants."
Research Radar – Audrey Walshe
"I think it is important to remember that feeling overwhelmed is normal."
Research Radar – Matina Skalkogiannis
"I definitely miss interactions, and absolutely soak them up when I am on campus."
Research Radar – Martina Hynan
"We have the most innovative women artists here in Ireland, and I want to be part of bringing that rich history into the core of Irish Studies as a field."
When Work Feeds Your Addiction: Researching with Ancestry.com
"Many academics recognize that working with Ancestry.com and genealogical data can become quite addictive. That’s me: I am one of those historians."
Research Radar – Rebecca Barr
"[A] mordant sense of humour is a great resource when surrounded by people taking themselves too seriously."
Not Feeling ‘Excel’lent
"My confession: I don’t know how to use Excel."
Research Radar – Dean Farrell
"[L]earning how to do a PhD is a process. Balance is a goal that is important to work towards, but be kind to yourself and make it work for you."
The Number Paradox
"We did it. We found the Holy Grail."
Research Radar – Julie Guyot
"Even though there is no scientific proof to back me up, I have always found that listening to classical music heightens my receptivity and creativity."
The Brothers Douglas
"Sometimes, as a way to re-envision the lived reality of the people we write about, I play a little game..."
Research Radar – Kate Bevan-Baker
"When I’m practicing or composing new musical ideas, voice memos on my iPhone are invaluable."
Research Radar – Darragh Gannon
"I have to have tea/coffee on hand when I’m writing. It serves as a useful coping mechanism for when words are not appearing during the creative process."
Research Radar – Aileen Ruane
"Everyone works on their conference papers right up till the day they present, especially on the voyage to the conference."
Prioritizing Propensities
"Invariably, I will ignore whatever outline I came up with earlier in the process."
Research Radar – Teresa Dunne
"[W]hen they opened up the library again and I could actually browse the shelves, I didn't know what to do with myself... so much freedom!"
Irish Studies x Food Studies
"Food is politics; knowledge of and access to it, and what constitutes 'healthy' or 'health-promoting' food, is a privilege beyond measure."
Research Radar – José Alavez
"It is essential to write every day. The faster you put your ideas in black and white, the better."
Research Radar – Carmen Mangion
"Pots of Darjeeling to keep me going. Also, lots of Cadbury milk chocolate. I have simple needs."
Collecting and Organizing Data: The GMM Project’s Guiding Principles
Early on in the project, we realized we needed specific guidelines for the collection of data from very different archival sources.
Research Radar – Michele Holmgren
"[G]rant applications aren't a lot of work for nothing. Sometimes you get money if you do one."
Game, Dataset, Match!
"So, what are we going to do with all those entries? How are we going to analyse them?"
Research Radar – Ali Kenefick
"What it comes down to is that you are the expert on your work. You have to trust that."
The Season of the Grant
"There is an art to grant writing... It takes a different set of skills."
Research Radar – Sadie Gilker
"Oh my god. Just ask for help. You’re not supposed to know it all."
Briefly, at the crossroads of women’s health, mental health, and public health
"To me, the overlap between some of the symptoms of 'madness' in the asylums and untreated thyroid disease is striking."
Research Radar – Máirtín Coilféir
"As usual, I have too many books on the go for my own good."
Research Radar – Giselle Gonzalez Garcia
"I listen to music, go for a long walk, or binge-watch Outlander on Netflix."
Archival Love
"So, as a bit of Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend-filler, I thought I would make a completely subjective-and-not-at-all-scientific list..."
Research Radar – Nancy Ávila-Ledesma
"There are so many people that have inspired me in one way or another..."
Reducing Costs or Occupational Therapy?
"Some patients who exhibited very bad behaviour or who were 'excessively filthy in their habits' were sent to 'the Basement'."
Research Radar – Meaghan Landrigan-Buttle
"Cue cards have become a lifeline..."
Research Radar – Zan Cammack
"I have a long-standing crush on the Abbey Theatre Digital Archive at National University of Ireland, Galway. That’s normal, right?"
“You-Know-Who”
"I don’t think anyone in our project deserves to be made into a Voldemort."
Research Radar – Molly-Claire Gillett
"PhD work can be lonely, and these tools helped me to combat that."
Research Radar – Gabrielle Machnik-Kekesi
"If I can avoid doing it on the computer, I do."
Archive Rituals
"[D]oing archival research in Cuba prepared me for a global pandemic."
Research Radar – Patrick Brodie
"No one else *really* knows what they're talking about in the way it seems they do."
Research Radar – Julie Rodgers
"[W]hether I am reading for work or leisure, the common theme is motherhood!"
Briefly, on Dual Pandemics and Archives of Feelings
"I see the materials with which the team has engaged...as a repository of feelings and emotions."
Research Radar – Eimear Rosato
"Enjoy this time! Also, buy a standing desk and a SAD lamp..."
Foucault-ed
"Like clockwork, a haunting happened again in the earliest days of the GMM Project."
Research Radar – J. Marie Perkins
"I spent many happy years deep in the stacks of precisely the kind of space you’d imagine..."
Research Radar – Sarah E. Duff
"Intellectually and in other ways, I am far more a fox than a hedgehog."
Disease-Related Deaths: A Cycle
"Noting the rise in cases, a spike, and then a gradual petering out over time was incredibly calming during the summer of 2020..."
How This All Began, or “Thank you, Margaret Atwood”
"The imagination can run a bit riot when one has an actual abandoned lunatic asylum just down the shore that surprisingly few people know about..."
Research Radar – Jane McGaughey
"I'm still territorial about my seat in Humanities 2..."
Gender, Migration, and Madness Research Project 