College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences - Doctoral Theses
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Item Approaches to adopt the principles of Cosán, the Irish national framework for teachers’ professional learning, into the professional practices of primary teachers while cultivating teacher agency through the process(University College Cork, 2024) Foley Murphy, Kathleen; O'Sullivan, Dan; Cahill, Kevin; American Council on The Teaching of Foreign LanguagesThis study aimed to discover what approaches would best incorporate the principles of the Cosán framework (the Irish national framework for teachers’ professional learning [TPL], Teaching Council, 2016) into the professional practices of primary teachers in Ireland. These need to be practical for Cosán to be utilised by teachers when they are reflecting on and seeking to enhance their professional abilities so any TPL undertaken leads to changes to in practice or transformation of practice. Throughout the study, there was a focus on whether the development of reflective, collaborative cultures within primary schools has the potential to positively influence professional development amongst teachers, while also examining what factors may inhibit or facilitate teachers’ ability to engage with impactful TPL. This study also assessed the potential of Cosán to cultivate teacher agency, as primary school teachers incorporate the principles of this framework into their practices, so engagement in their career and growth as professionals are enriched through critically reflective, autonomous practices. This study addresses a gap in the research as, since its publication in 2016, there is no published literature on Cosán’s impact on the professional practices of teachers, despite it being decisively important to the development of teachers. As a result, this research study will contribute significantly to public policy on the continuum of teacher education in Ireland as its findings will have universal implications and opportunities for teachers in how they may engage with TPL. This research drew upon current literature on TPL and sought paradigms of best practice in TPL that may be applicable to this research. A qualitative, multiple case study, based on the experiences of fourteen primary school teachers in the Republic of Ireland, was the methodology employed. The participating teachers’ views were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, as they utilised Cosán as a lens to assess their professional practices and assist them in furthering themselves professionally. The data was thematically analysed as I identified patterns that were specific to this research and constructed themes from which the findings were generated. A tripartite theoretical framework, comprising sociocultural and constructivist perspectives on learning, along with complexity theory, further informed this study, as I examined and constructed knowledge emanating from the dynamic, lived experiences of the participants and their engagement with professional learning. The findings and conclusions of this research were addressed thematically according to the four main research questions. The findings recognised that school-based professional learning, whether formal or informal is a significant approach to TPL. Correspondingly, both networked learning communities and online professional learning were identified as effective approaches to TPL, external to the school, which lead to transformative practices. This study also ascertained a need for the system of TPL for individual teachers to be overhauled. Significant factors that enable professional learning for primary teachers’ were identified through this research and include, leadership, school culture, collaborative practices, reflective practices, resources teacher autonomy, relevance and the multi-faceted factor of the holistic view of a teacher. This research further built on international research which recognises the importance of both collaborative practices and reflective practices in TPL, however, it indicated a need for more supports to be put in place to encourage both individual teachers and schools to utilise these approaches to benefit the most from them and ultimately promote a school culture which fosters collaborative reflection. Finally, this research established that Cosán has the potential to cultivate teacher agency, nevertheless, teachers need further support to become authentic reflective practitioners who are aware of their evolving professional identity. Furthermore, this study identified that many of the ecological factors necessary to engender teacher agency are also necessary to facilitate TPL.Item Sound-mediated environmentalisms in contemporary Tuscany: towards eco-ethnomusicological frameworks in central Italy(University College Cork, 2024) Gambirasio, Luca; Stock, Jonathan; Khalil, Alexander; University College CorkThe environmental crisis is one of the most pressing issues of our time. While many stakeholders focus on scientific and economic solutions, research concerning cultural responses remains limited—specifically, the role that music and sound may play in contributing to environmentalism. Given that the world's largest polluters are developed nations, research in these contexts is crucial for understanding how music can help address environmental challenges. This study focuses on a series of music and sound-based events in Tuscany, Italy, where my personal and professional connections as a native and artist offer unique insights into the region's human–nature relationships. Through applied ethnomusicological research, combined with my own artistic practice, I investigated the interplay between musicians, their local environments, and the ways in which performances can address the cultural component of the environmental crisis. Fieldwork was conducted with a diverse group of participants, including musicians, sound artists, event organizers, biologists, ornithologists, and attendees. The aim was to explore the potential of music and sound-based activities to raise environmental awareness and inspire the social change necessary to confront the crisis. Using this blended methodology, I documented a series of local events and festivals in Tuscany that incorporated music to emphasize the interdependent relationship between humans and nature, raise environmental awareness, promote nonconsumptive experiences in natural areas, and educate about sustainability. Adopting a post-humanist approach, I also examined human reactions to sounds produced by non human entities, conducting fieldwork among sound-walk participants to create a comprehensive view of the various sonic interactions related to the environmental crisis. After outlining the key research questions and framing this study within ecomusicological theory and practice—as well as the Sustainable Development Goals— in the introduction, Chapter 2 details the fieldwork, including event sampling, participant selection, and the crafting of performances and compositions to which I contributed. Chapter 3 focuses on the role of listening in fostering environmental awareness, highlighting soundwalking as a practice that blends environmental and musical sounds. Chapter 4 presents case studies of music and sound-based practices in ecotourism, enhancing public understanding of local environmental features and concerns. Still within the ecotourism frame, Chapter 5 explores a series of music videos featuring Baroque musicians performing in a nature park, questioning whether such performances qualify as ecotourism and considering their implications for human–nature relationships in virtual spaces. In Chapter 6, I document how music festivals and events are used to educate participants about sustainability, inspire interest in environmental issues, and promote pro-environmental behaviours. Chapter 7 investigates how certain music and sound based events can encourage a non-dualistic understanding of nature, challenging the cultural divide between humans and the natural world. The concluding chapter synthesizes these findings, outlines future research directions, and reflects on the role of music and music studies in fostering environmentalism and an ecocentric worldview. Though different countries have adopted diverse strategies to promote ecological consciousness, this Italian case study offers valuable insights into the strengths and limitations of the specific approaches examined. It also provides a model that can inform future eco/ethnomusicological research and policy interventions on a broader scale, contributing to the use of cultural practices in facilitating the transition toward a more ecocentric society.Item Reimagining keening: an examination of the reinvention of Irish lament as a healing tool in the contemporary world(University College Cork, 2024) Caulfield, Marian; Butler, Jenny; De Sondy, Amanullah; University College CorkThis study explores the contemporary revival of the once widely practiced Irish funerary lament tradition known as keening (from the Irish caoineadh, meaning "to cry"). Keening has declined as a funerary practice since the early twentieth century but is now being reimagined in contemporary Ireland as a healing practice in workshops and retreats. Through ethnographic fieldwork (2017–2019), this study examines how groups in Ireland, (and to a lesser extent involves groups in Finland), are repurposing lament as a tool for emotional and spiritual wellbeing. This new way of doing ‘keening’ has found how, through a reinvention of this old tradition, a synthesis of the sonic and the spiritual generates the development of ‘sonic wellbeing tools’ for workshop participants. At its core, this thesis is an analysis of the identity and cultural dynamics at work in the revival of lament practices, and it examines the mechanisms involved when people reconnect with historical ritual and cultural practices. In the analysis of the myriad of connecting themes found in the ethnographic data, this study also elucidates the importance of ritual as a means of meaning making in the contemporary world (Bell 1997; Bowie 2006a, Collins 2014; Geertz, 1957; Grimes 2000; Turner, 1995). The theoretical framework for this thesis draws on a combination of sound studies, which emphasizes the overlooked role of raw vocal expressions like wailing, crying and moaning found in lament practice as well as ritual studies, orality/literacy, post-materiality, collective identity and memory studies. The significance of sound studies is elucidated in this thesis drawing on notable specialists in the field (Becker 2004; Stephen Feld 1984; Gershon 2013; Hackett 2011; Schulze 2012; Sterne 2012 and Voegelin 2014). The study also examines the spiritual ‘cosmology’ that could be identified in the discourse of the research groups and networks, firmly situating this study within the field of contemporary study of religions. This study demonstrates, however, that in such sound making, important spiritual meanings are found, and it offers a distinctive perspective on this cultural phenomenon. This study is unique in its exploration of lament as a healing tool and is also innovative in its focus on contemporary lament practice through the lens of sound studies within the field of study of religions. As such, the study builds on the existing literature and knowledge about lament, while adding valuable insights into the mechanisms of contemporary spirituality and ritual, healing practices, and cultural life.Item ‘When and how will it all end?’ Bishop Daniel Cohalan of Cork: the Irish republican movement, just war theory and evolving perspectives, 1916-1923(University College Cork, 2024) O'Connell, Therese; Doherty, Gabriel; Bielenberg, AndrewThe research will incorporate this significant period of Daniel Cohalan’s episcopate into a wider examination of his life and career, beginning with his formative years in Kilmichael and the early influences which continued to inspire his thinking throughout his life. His time as both student and professor at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth is also examined, and it is during his tenure as professor that we see insightful glimpses of the character and personality of the future Bishop of Cork. Alongside an examination of his views on Irish republican tactics during the revolutionary period, the study also explores Cohalan’s broader outlook. It considers the initiatives he supported and engaged with as the newly formed Irish Free State worked to define its social, moral, religious, and political identity. The presence of 'fifty thousand people' lining the two-mile route from the Bons Secours hospital to the North Cathedral on 25 August 1952 — just two hours after Cohalan’s death — arguably indicates how the ordinary people of Cork viewed their late bishop. This thesis analyses Cohalan’s interactions with agents of Irish political and physical force nationalism, international agencies, his peers and lower clergy, and the ordinary people who looked to their church for temporal and spiritual succour. Through this research, a lacuna in the literature of Irish history is narrowed and an enduring imbalance is addressed.Item Contested nationhood: Literary Geographies of contemporary Italian Alpine borders(University College Cork, 2025) Turini, Jacopo; Ross, Silvia; Giuliani, Chiara; Irish Research CouncilThis thesis examines the articulation of spatial identity, and the sense of nationhood as expressed in Italian literature set in the Alpine border regions from the 1980s to the present. It explores how the presence of the national border, along with its related geopolitical, cultural, and social dynamics, influences Italian-language literary production and the imagined geographies created by it. Texts provide insights into the geographical spaces they represent, while geography, in turn, influences the textual representation of place and spatial identity. Employing a geo-literary approach developed at the intersection of Literary Geography and Geocriticism, this study investigates how national, regional, and local belonging is expressed in selected works set in three Alpine border regions, in relation to the geo-social transformations that have occurred since the 1980s. These regions are the Piedmontese and Ligurian valleys along the Franco-Italian border, the Canton Ticino in Italian-speaking Switzerland, and the multilingual autonomous Italian region of South Tyrol. My geo-literary analysis identifies three types of textual geographies, that is, what emerges from the intersection of the places represented in the texts and the geographical contexts in which these texts are produced. Consequently, the thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1, on the Franco-Italian border, focuses on what I term geographies of transgression. Through the analysis of Vento largo (1991) and Le parole la notte (1998) by Francesco Biamonti, Il mangiatore di pietre (2004) by Davide Longo, and Un viaggio che non promettiamo breve (2016) by Wu Ming 1, the chapter explores how representations of the areas’ traditional transnational identity become tools to address geopolitical and environmental issues and challenge the normative geographies of the nation-state. Chapter 2 examines the Canton Ticino in Italian-speaking Switzerland, analysing Adrea Fazioli’s crime fiction novels L’uomo senza casa (2008), La sparizione (2010), Gli svizzeri muoiono felici (2018), and Le strade oscure (2022); Alberto Nessi’s poetry, and his novel Tutti discendono (2000); and Fabio Pusterla’s poetry, beginning with his debut collection Concessione all’inverno (1985). Their representation of the industrialised and globalised border area between Italy and Switzerland delineates geographies of ambivalence, as I have labelled them, which reflect the region’s cultural marginality and, at the same time, express tension between rootedness and displacement. Chapter 3 focuses on South Tyrol through Francesca Melandri’s Eva dorme (2010), Maddalena Fingerle’s Lingua madre (2021), and Luca D’Andrea’s La sostanza del male (2016). The three writers’ relationship with the region is developed through what I have called geographies of detachment, which reflect a deliberate effort to distance themselves and their work from cultural isolationism and ethnonationalist localism, while critiquing the region’s rigid linguistic boundaries. The Italian Alps represent a complex border zone – sometimes porous and open, at other times closed and isolationist. The findings of this study reveal that the national border is addressed in contemporary Italian literature primarily through local and regional perspectives strongly tied to the experiences of autochthonous communities. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the Alpine borders are a crucial site for examining the tension between change and resistance in the evolution of Italian spatial identities and the sense of cultural and national belonging.