Intersections:  Diversity and Decoloniality:  Latin America – Ireland

Centre for Global Intercultural Communications

Panel presentations and roundtable discussion

Trinity Long Room Hub

<h3>REGISTRATION from 9.30am; event starts at 10.00am</h3> <h3>Intersections: Diversity and Decoloniality: Latin America – Ireland</h3> This networking event will include four presentations by our panel members with roundtable discussion, followed by time for networking and a light lunch available. Pre-registration is required. <h3>About the panelists</h3> <h3>Professor Nuala Finnegan (University of Cork)</h3>Nuala Finnegan is Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at University College Cork, Ireland and currently Dean of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Studies. She has published extensively in contemporary Mexican literary and visual cultural studies with a particular focus on gender violence. Interested in multi-disciplinary approaches and community engagement, she has worked collaboratively as curator on many exhibitions, for example, Entre Mundos/Between Worlds: Images from Life between Mexico and Ireland in 2019-2023. Collaborating with Jane Lavery, she is currently completing a book on Day of the Dead and the pandemic and leads an interdisciplinary research team that seeks to bring art practice and feminist epistemology from Latin America into conversations about gender, identity and constitutional futures on the island of Ireland.&nbsp;Abstract: In this lecture, I consider diversity and decoloniality as essential components of existing and future intersections between Latin America and Ireland. From the disparate array of historical figures of Irish origin who have made their mark in Latin America – think Che Guevara, Eliza Lynch, Roger Casement among many others – many were fleeing the extremes of colonial rule in Ireland or seeking to contribute to the construction of independent nations in the Americas. Often, the active rejection of the colonial project and its linguistic and cultural erasure, was a central driving impulse of their actions. Looking to the 21st century, and its changed migratory patterns, we can witness the extraordinary richness of the migrant communities from Latin America currently resident in Ireland. Among them we can count artists, poets, social entrepreneurs, researchers, political activists, writers, and culinary innovators and it is critical for Ireland’s future to enable these dynamic communities and their contributions to society. Perhaps we can contemplate the sparks that have been generated by the encounters between Ireland’s often understated or sometimes invisible presence in Latin America and compare it to Latin America’s presence – similarly understated – in Ireland’s present. Decoloniality, as theorised but also activated, frequently angrily, as a call for transformative change across Latin America, can help us as we imagine a new future for Ireland, seeking innovative and creative modes of forging new intersections.&nbsp;&nbsp; <h3>Professor Laura Izarra (University of São Paulo)</h3>Laura P.Z. Izarra is Professor of Literatures in English at the University of São Paulo, Coordinator of the W.B.Yeats Chair of Irish Studies and co-founder and former president of SILAS- Society for Irish Latin American Studies&nbsp; and ABEI- Brazilian Association of Irish Studies. She is mentor of the Alliance of Chairs of Irish Studies in Latin America and she is IASIL’s vice-chairperson for other countries. She has published widely on the Irish in South America, literatures of the diaspora, cultural trauma, memory studies and contemporary Irish Literature. At present she is Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity Long Room Hub, Dublin.&nbsp;Irish Studies in Latin America at the Intersections of Other Knowledges in Our Time&nbsp; Abstract:&nbsp;This is a reflection upon the role of Irish Studies in Latin America in times of global economic and political uncertainties, fears and instabilities. How can the results of research in Irish Latin American Studies become part of a world knowledge network? Government policies and consequently, university policies, are necessary to support both STEM and STEAM projects with Humanities at the intersections of technologies. Academic networks of multilateral dimensions strengthen diversity, and a decolonial perspective is necessary to undermine the totalising power of global forces on local life. Is Irish Studies open enough to motivate global interactions in multiple directions within Ireland and beyond its borders?  &nbsp; <h3>Kevin Kelly (Trinity College Dublin)</h3>Kevin Kelly is a Professor in the School of Engineering at Trinity College, where he teaches and researches in the areas of design innovation, robotics and engineering education. Kevin is a board member of SUGAR, a global innovation network with university members in 5 continents. In the SUGAR network, multi-disciplinary teams are created across a pair of university partners and these global teams work for 8 months, under supervision, on a challenging innovation problem presented by a third party stakeholder – usually industry or an NGO. During over 10 years of such collaborations, Kevin has worked with universities in Germany, Australia, Italy, Portugal, France, Finland and Colombia. More pertinent to this event, he has had a long standing partnership with University of São Paulo – completing over 9 joint projects including one in the current year.&nbsp; <h4>Innovation Journeys from Dublin to São Paulo and back again. Learnings from 10 years of collaboration</h4>Abstract:&nbsp;Innovation journeys are rarely smooth, but neither are they random. There are ingredients and processes that increase the likelihood of high quality outputs. In the educational context, our graduates are going to partake in societies and work in enterprises that are increasingly complex, change rapidly and are global in nature. Educating our students to partake in such challenges during their studies provides rich opportunities for student learning. Beyond the student learning experience however, the structure of the project teams and mentoring in the SUGAR programme can leverage the geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity to produce more innovative and robust solutions to global challenges. In this talk, Kevin will reflect on the experiences of guiding students through 10 years of such projects and the challenges and successes along the way.&nbsp; <h3>Maurice Nolan (Department of Foreign Affairs; Latin America and Caribbean Unit)</h3>Maurice Nolan is Deputy Director of Latin America and the Caribbean Unit within the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Ireland, UK and the Americas Division. Latin America and the Caribbean Unit oversees Ireland’s bilateral relations with the region, working to enhance political, economic, cultural and values-based engagement with each of its thirty-three countries.&nbsp;He has occupied this position since 2021. Previously, from 2019 to 2021, he served as Consul at the Embassy of Ireland in Colombia.&nbsp;He also has experience working in the Department of Foreign Affairs’ European Union Division, as well as at Embassies of Ireland in Europe.&nbsp;He is a graduate of the University of Limerick (B.A.) and Dublin City University (M.A.).&nbsp; Maurice Nolan  brings a valuable diplomatic experience to the panel, since he has previously served as Consul in the Embassy team in Colombia. Maurice will present Ireland's Strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean to 2025, offering a reflection on Ireland's current focus on the region and efforts to strengthen cooperation with the countries of the region through a variety of initiatives across the political, economic, cultural and values-based spheres. His perspective adds a diplomatic dimension to the discussion, complementing the academic and industry-focused contributions of the other panelists.&nbsp; <h3>About the event series</h3>This event is the second of a series titled Global Intersections organised by Trinity College Dublin's <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/interculturalcommunications/" title="https://www.tcd.ie/interculturalcommunications/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Centre for Global Intercultural Communications</a>. The Centre is supported by the Higher Education Authority's <a href="https://hea.ie/skills-engagement/human-capital-initiative-pillars-1-2-and-3/" title="https://hea.ie/skills-engagement/human-capital-initiative-pillars-1-2-and-3/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Human Capital Initiative Pillar 3 (HCI Pillar 3</a><a href="https://hea.ie/skills-engagement/human-capital-initiative-pillars-1-2-and-3/" title="https://hea.ie/skills-engagement/human-capital-initiative-pillars-1-2-and-3/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">) </a>which aims to increase capacity in higher education to provide skills-focused programmes designed to meet priority skills needs. <h3>Centre contact</h3>Mary Clark, Administrator with the Centre for Global Intercultural Communications, may be contacted via email at cgic@tcd.ie with any queries. <h3>Venue</h3>The event will take place in Trinity's Long Room Hub - Neill Lecture Theatre. <h3>Please note:</h3>Photography and video will take place at this event and could be used in later marketing and social media promotion for the Centre for Global Intercultural Communications. Please inform an organiser if you wish to be excluded.

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Intersections: Diversity and Decoloniality: Latin America – Ireland

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Intersections: Diversity and Decoloniality: Latin America – Ireland

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