S2 E5 : Gerardine Meaney (2021)

The Family of THINGS with Helen Shaw

The Family of Things : S2 E 5 Gerardine Meaney www.thefamilyofthings.com #TheFamilyofThings

Today's guest in The Family of Things with Helen Shaw is writer, feminist, digital humanities leader and researcher, Professor Gerardine Meaney of University College Dublin. Helen and Gerardine were both students in UCD studying English and History in the early 80s but while Helen moved on to journalism, Gerardine, a self-confessed book addict, stayed in research and began hunting for the loss voices of women writers, written out or censored in Ireland. Her quest to give voice to the women who were always there but erased led to her work in books like 'Reading the Irish Woman' (2013) and her seminal study 'Gender, Ireland and Cultural Change' (2010).

Gerardine embraced digital technologies as a means of opening access to learning and has been a pioneer in digital humanities using tools like audio podcasting to share knowledge. In this wide ranging conversation Gerardine, who is now Professor of Cultural Theory in the School of English, Drama and Film at UCD, explores what made her focus her attention on women, and how her new research work, around Victorian cultural values and migrant stereotypes, resonates with issues, like Brexit, today. She also talks about her own experience of surviving breast cancer, and how it has, in some ways, made her think bigger, and with more focus, around her work, and her life.

You can find out more about her work here people.ucd.ie/gerardine.meaney You can visit and explore Joyce's Dublin, the pioneering digital humanities project that Gerardine and Helen collaborated on in 2009 on www.joycesdublin.ie

The Family of Things is an independent podcast production by Athena Media. The presenter and producer is Helen Shaw. The digital editor is John Howard and the theme music is by Michael Gallen - 'The Old Haunt' - an instrumental version of a song released by Michael's band Ana Gog.