The Moore Institute, along with other research institutes within NUI Galway, have formed COVID-19 Response Groups within their respective areas of research. The purpose of these groups is to draw on colleagues’ expertise with regard to the impact of COVID-19 and to foster potential research and collaboration.

In leading the initiative from a humanities and social studies perspective, the Moore Institute is exploring the effect of this pandemic in relation to areas such as political culture and its influence on decision-making; social media and the virus; education; racism; historical precedents; the psychology of infectious disease; security; and globalisation.

The Moore Institute also continues to publish contributions from colleagues, in the form of blogs, on topics relating to the impact the crisis is currently having, how it compares to pandemics of the past, and what we think the future might look like as a result.

Political and societal considerations

Political and societal considerations of COVID-19 were the topics of the first session chaired by Moore Institute Director, Prof Dan Carey on 2 April. The speakers were Dr John Morrissey (Geography), Dr Nessa Cronin (Irish Studies), Dr Kevin O’Sullivan (History) and Dr Pádraic Moran (Classics).

Surveillance and societal benefit

This session on 23 April explored questions of surveillance and social benefit in the midst of the corona virus pandemic. Topics included data gathering and contact tracing apps, and the associataed advantages, risks, and ethical challenges. Chaired by Prof Dan Carey, the panelists were Professor Mathieu d’Aquin (Director of Insight and the Data Science Institute, NUI Galway), Dr Heike Felzmann (Philosophy, NUI Galway), Professor Rob Kitchin (Geography, Maynooth University), Karlin Lillington (Irish Times) and Professor Linnet Taylor (Law, Tilburg University)

Education during COVID-19

This seminar looked at pressing concerns emerging from current research on education provision, such as the exacerbation of existing educational inequities and the pivot to technology. Speakers also considered longer-term implications and asked whether this could be an opportunity to reimagine education and schooling. The session was chaired by Dr Manuela Heniz and the participants were Dr Cornelia Connolly, Tony Hall, Ian Munday and Clíona Murray, all from the School of Education

Writing during the crisis

This seminar heard from contemporary Irish authors who discussed the challenges, dislocations and opportunities of writing during the Covid-19 crisis. Chaired by Prof Dan Carey on 4 May, the event included Mike McCormack and Sinéad Gleeson. Mike is the author of two collections of short stories Getting it in the Head and Forensic Songs, and three novels Crowe’s Requiem, Notes from a Coma and Solar Bones, winner of the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize and the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award. Sinéad is an essayist and short story writer. Her debut essay collection, Constellations: Reflections from Life, won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at 2019 Irish Book Awards.

Slavery, Race and Covid-19

The unfolding coronavirus crisis has revealed deep structures of inequality manifested in the death toll in the United States and other countries. This seminar examines patterns of racism and legacies of slavery that have informed the pandemic, especially in the US and UK.

Ireland, Borders, and Covid-19

This panel brought together perspectives from Sociology, Political Science and Public Health to examine debates surrounding boundaries and pandemic-control in Ireland and their relationship to pandemic controls in Britain, Europe and the wider world. It examines the extent, and the limitations, of an all-Ireland approach, the significance of variation within the United Kingdom, and the nature of borders within and around post-pandemic Ireland.

Art and Digital Technology in a Time of Crisis

The public health restrictions implemented in many regions around the world, such as social distancing, have led to increased reliance on digital technologies. Creative work is no exception. In this panel, artistic practitioners and scholars discussed how the current crisis informs engagement with digital technology along with the possibilities and limitations of creative practice that arise at this time.

Universities and the Covid-19 Crisis: Problems, Prospects and Pathways

Immense challenges face universities as a result of Covid-19, including the move to online education, the financial impact of the crisis, and the implications for internationalisation and recruitment. Universities have also made vital contributions in research and provided repositories of much needed expertise. This panel discussion features four university presidents (representing Bristol, St. Andrews, NUI Galway, and Uppsala) who will discuss their response to the pandemic and assessment of its impact in planning for the future.

Philosophy and the Pandemic: Reasoning in Unreasonable Times

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, fundamental philosophical questions have come into sharp focus. In this panel discussion, faculty members from the discipline of philosophy at NUI Galway will discuss a range of issues related to these times of change and uncertainty, including the role and rhetoric of expertise; “states of exception” and governance; the trust invested in decision-makers; the nature of goodwill in a moment of crisis; how we engage in reasoning about uncertainty and catastrophic outcomes; and the nature of nostalgia and how we (mis)remember the past.

Sport and Covid-19

The advent of the Covid-19 crisis has brought unprecedented challenges to all areas of social, cultural, and economic life. As one of the most popular cultural practices, sport has been particularly impacted with the cancellation since mid-March of most sporting events in countries across the world. Sport has nonetheless continued to occupy an important place in people’s lives and in the contemporary media landscape. This webinar brings together a range of speakers engaging with sport from a variety of perspectives, including sports history, sports governance and policy, sports practitioners and representative organisations, sport and the media, and gender and sport, to consider the impact of the pandemic on sport in Ireland and internationally.

Language in a Health Crisis: Navigating Covid-19 in a Multilingual Ireland

This webinar addresses key sociolinguistic dimensions of the Covid-19 crisis in Ireland, looking at Irish and immigrant languages. Panelists will explore challenges posed by the crisis for speech and language therapy services and EAL (English as an additional language) provision; the role of the state in providing public health information in languages other than English; and surprising opportunities that have emerged in terms of home language maintenance and language learning.

Literature, Narrative, and Covid-19

This webinar, arising from NUI Galway’s participation in the new ENLIGHT consortium of European universities, concentrates on literature and narrative in relation to the current crisis. Daniel Carey was joined by Marysa Demoor, Ghent University (Belgium), Stephen Donovan (Uppsala University, Sweden), and Raili Marling (University of Tartu, Estonia) to discuss in Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year and The Storm; coverage of epidemics in 19th-century periodicals; and the representation of epidemics as looming but invisible crises in fiction.

The Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies