This very special episode features members of the English and Theatre Studies teaching team at SETU who share their innovative approaches to teaching and research. In studio with Jenny are Dr Kate McCarthy, Dr Christa de Brún, Dr Úna Kealy, Dr Helena Walsh-Kiely and Deirdre Grant who each bring a variety of skills and to their roles. During the episode, we discuss approaches to teaching and learning, the team’s ongoing research and creative work, and what we love about our jobs and our students!

Every year, we try to do an episode in which staff from various departments within SETU give us their recommendations for good Christmas reads and activities, and this year is no different! In this episode, Jenny is joined by Neill Wylie, a Learning Technologist from the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning, Dr Caroline McGarry from the School of Education and Dr Felicity Kelliher, a Professor of Management Practice and Academic Lead at the RIKON Centre. Featuring books by Irish authors, and events, activities and products for you to savour during the festive season, this is a must-listen for anyone looking for gift inspiration and some Christmas cheer!

Recently featured in The Sunday Times’ Christmas gift guide, The World Between the Rain is a new children’s book by debut author Susan Cahill. A story that plays out themes of grief and resilience within a swirling, watery adventure set in another world, it has at its centre a quiet girl called Marina who can’t shake the feeling that there is magic in the air around her. Susan herself couldn’t quite shake this story that rattled around in her head as she became more and more successful in the world of academia, ultimately reaching a tenured position as Associate Professor of Irish Studies in Concordia University, Montreal. In the episode, she talks about leaving this permanent position behind in order to pursue writing full-time, the long process of writing the book and her own podcast, Storyshaped, which focuses on the stories that shape the people we become.

In this episode of the podcast, Jenny chats to Dr Renée Hulan, a Professor of English Language and Literature at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She was the Craig Dobbin Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at University College Dublin in 2020-2021 and has written several books that bring together her interests in climate fiction, Canadian heritage and indigenous communities. She has also edited collections on these themes and recently gave a fascinating online lecture at South East Technological University, entitled “To bring the breathing world close: Reading Cli-Fi from Canada” which was run in conjunction with the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies at SETU.

In this episode of the podcast, Jenny speaks to Jim Nolan and Michael Power who have just finished their sold-out run of Jim’s new play Castel Gandolfo at Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford. The play revolves around a family whose long-buried secret threatens to unsettle the delicate balance they have established. The production also featured IFTA-nominated Carrie Crowley in the role of the returning mother-figure, Dolly, and a cast from the Four Rivers company which aims to bring new and classic plays to audiences in the south east. In the podcast, Jim discusses the play and his life as a playwright and director from the 1970s to the present, and Michael reflects on his development as an actor as he has moved from variety shows and musicals to parts in Normal People, Vikings, and a variety of roles in local and national theatre productions.

This episode of the podcast is dedicated to first year students and how they can get the most out of this next chapter of their lives. For most, it is both an exciting and overwhelming time when students must learn how to navigate a new level of independence and cope with new academic, financial and social responsibilities. In studio are Conor Phelan, of SETU’s Student Life and Learning Office, Erin McNamara-Cullen, the course leader for the BA Arts programme at SETU and Corey Shanahan, the new Education Officer for the Students’ Union at SETU Waterford. Each of them discuss the challenges and opportunities of university life and offer advice about how to get the best out of the college experience.

This episode of the podcast features the collaborative team of lecturers and students who are working on the project “Diversifying the Curriculum”. The project is funded by N-TUTORR, and aims to decolonise and diversify the third-year English module, The Literature of Family. The team presented at the recent national N-TUTORR showcase in Dublin and aims to change the teaching, learning and assessment focus of the module. Also in studio is the SETU N-TUTORR co-ordinator for Student Empowerment, Catriona McGrattan and Student Champion Sarah Daly, both of whom discuss the ways in which students can earn digital badges and what it means for students and educators to come together and work in partnership.

Members of the Diversifying the Curriculum team in studio were Dr Jenny O’Connor, Dr Christa de Brún, Chika Dike and Graeme Murphy. Also working on the project are students Emily Fleming and Mariya Lyash.

This is a very important and special episode of the podcast, in which Fadi Zmorrod, the recipient of the SEVN (South East Venue Network) bursary joins Jenny in studio to talk about his work with Doulab Circus and Dance. When Fadi was younger, he left the oppressive environment of occupied Palestine and went to study computing in the United States. Yet his heart was simply not in it: he was drawn back to the arts and to his home, where he met his Irish wife, Juliet, and where Doulab Circus and Dance was born. Across Palestine, Fadi and Juliet used dance and circus movement to offer children a space in which movement and intellectual curiosity could come together, and where trust and confidence could be built. The decision to leave Palestine was extremely difficult; Fadi speaks of what it was like to leave those children behind and what it is to cope with the conflicting emotions of relief and guilt that a new life of safety presents. Doulab Circus and Dance currently works with the residents of Direct Provision centres, members of the Travelling community and children with diverse and special needs.

Also in studio are Dr Kate McCarthy, who has galvanised SETU staff as part of a solidarity initiative called Gather for Palestine, and Sinead Bolger, an arts and migration facilitator who talks about meeting Fadi for the first time and offers some suggestions on readings by Palestinian authors that you can find below.

Book Recommendation List:

I saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti – non-fiction

Award-winning account of the human aspects of the Palestinian struggle.

Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco - Graphic Novel

Joe Sacco’s visual journalism about the massacre of 111 Palestinian refugees by Israeli soldiers in 1956.

The hundred years' war on Palestine : a history of settler colonial conquest and resistance by Rashid Khalidi– Non-fiction

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.

Palestine +100 : stories from a century after the Nakba, edited by Basma Ghalayini. – short stories

What might your home city look like in the year 2048 - exactly 100 years after Nakba, the displacement of more than 700,000 people after the Israeli War of Independence?

Enter ghost by Isabella Hammad - fiction

An actress returns to her home city of Haifa after many years in London and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank.

Against the loveless world by Susan Abulhawa - fiction

Nahr, a resilient but exhausted woman, tells the story of her life from an Israeli solitary confinement cell.

Mornings in Jenin / Susan Abulhawa – fiction

A multi-generational story about a Palestinian family as they live through half a century of violent history.

Qissat : short stories by Palestinian women, edited by Jo Glanville - fiction

In a cross-generational compilation, editor Jo Glanville chronicles the varied lived experiences of Palestinian women, from domestic to diaspora.

A woman is no man by Etaf Rum

The debut novel by Palestinian-American Etaf Rum takes us inside the lives of a conservative Arab family living in America.

Salt houses / Hala Alyan

Salma is forced to leave Palestine and move to Kuwait City, but when Saddam Hussein invades, she must leave again.

They called me a lioness: a Palestinian girl’s fight for freedom by Ahed Tamimi – non-fiction

A Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving, deeply personal memoir.

Out of place : a memoir / Edward Said.

An extraordinary story of exile and a celebration of an irrecoverable past.

The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi.

This award-winning novel-in-translation is clever tragicomedy that demonstrates the complex life of a Palestinian living in Israel.

As policies on EDI are rolled out in higher education institutes, increased efforts are being made to diversify and decolonise a wide range of curricula across the sector. With thanks to SATLE funding (Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement) from the National Forum, Dr Ebun Joseph joined us at SETU for two seminars (one with students and another with staff) on understanding racial diversity and talking about race in the classroom. In this episode of the podcast, Jenny chatted to Ebun about her educational journey, setting up the Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies, and how Irish universities can improve their efforts at inclusion. Also in studio was the organiser of the event, Dr Christa de Brún, who discussed the importance of Ebun’s visit, and second year student, Chika Dike, who spoke about what she learned from attending the event.

This episode sees us welcome our very first spoken word poet to the podcast! Caoimhe Weakliam joined us to chat about the power of spoken word poetry after a talk with English students that was funded by the Strategic Alignment for Teaching and Learning Enhancement initiative from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. In the past year, Caoimhe has performed as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival and Culture Night and has delivered two sets at Electric Picnic. She has also worked as a youth worker and creative practitioner, and her main aim is to create positive change in the world and to empower young people through spoken word methodologies. Also in studio is English lecturer and poet Dr Christa de Brún, and Sasha Terfous, a first year student (and herself a spoken word poet) who attended the event.

You can follow Caoimhe on Instagram @caoimheweakliam