Enriching Our Student Experience
APRIL 2022
The corpus stylistics workshop introduced students to some free, online tools that can support research on how the English language is used by real speakers. Working through a series of exercises, using real language data and online or freely-downloadable tools, the workshop was a great success, with over 30 UG and PG students from across AEL in attendance.
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MARCH 2022
‘The field trip to Derry allowed students to physically and sensually experience the ‘sites of memory’ that we have been studying in our MA module ENG7365 ‘Trauma & Memory in Irish Literature’. In particular, it complemented our analysis of Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark, which is set in Derry, spanning the period from 1920s to the outbreak of the Troubles. The novel details specific sites of memory which contain the post-memory of traumatic events; these include the An Grainan fort, which we visited and, in its location, architecture and mythological resonances, it made a notable impressions on the students. Given the importance of post-memories in our curriculum and this year’s Bloody Sunday anniversary, we also visited the Museum of Free Derry, and students were able to encounter the post-memories of that important event in Northern Irish history through the materials, footage, and testimonials exhibited therein. Overall, this trip productively complemented our curriculum by offering the students important insights and understandings into post-memories of recent Northern Irish history, as reflected and represented through literature.’ Dr Stefanie Lehner, MA Module Convenor and SL in Irish Literature
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MARCH 2022
Final year students in Professor McCusker's Caribbean Cultures module were delighted to talk to Dr Emily Zobel Marshall @EmilyZMarshall, granddaughter of Joseph Zobel and Reader in Postcolonial Literature at Leeds Beckett. We discussed Emily's relationship with her grandfather, the importance of La Rue Cases-Nègres in Caribbean literature, and the pernicious effects of the pigmentocracy. We also reflected on the continuing legacies of slavery, all highly relevant against the backdrop of Kate and William's tour in Barbados. Thanks so very much to Emily for her fascinating insights.
MARCH 2022
A successful day out was had on the Trail with expert guides Deidre Galway (guitar), Jason O’Rourke (concertina) and Annette Collins (dancing). Deirdre is the guitarist for the well-known Belfast band Realta while Jason is a grandee of the local scene with several successful albums to his name over the years. Annette is a dancing instructor with Belfast Trad, based at the Crescent Arts Centre.
We began our trip in The Second Fiddle in the Cathedral Quarter before taking in a stop at Belfast’s Assembly Rooms (home of The Belfast Harpers’ Assembly of 1792). The guides told the students about the route of the Farset river, under High Street, which gave Belfast its name. In McHugh's Basement we had a dance demo from Annette and some of our students learned how to dance the polka set.
MARCH 2022
MA and PhD students from the Centre for Translation and Interpreting braved the weather on their way to Titanic Belfast on the 9 March 2022. Facilitated by the AEL Education Fund, the trip was designed to enable Translation and Interpreting students to learn about audio description and audiovisual translation in a real-life context.