NEW MEMBER: Cormac O Cuilleanain (or thereabouts)
This discussion list is a geat invention: congratulations to its
founders and users. I must apologise for the delay in introducing
myself, and for misspelling my own name. There are two acute accents, on
the second O and the last a. As our email system misprints accented
letters, I haven’t tried to include them.
I teach Italian at Trinity College Dublin (founded 1592, Italian taught
here since 1776), in a small but growing department. Among my research
interests is Boccaccio; my book on Religion and the Clergy in the
Decameron appeared in 1984. Other publications include two books jointly
edited with colleagues from University College Dublin: Italian
Storytellers (1989) with Eric Haywood, and Dante and the Middle Ages
(1995) with John Barnes.
Another interest is translation, in which I offer an option course.
Twelve years ago I was involved in founding the Irish Translators’
Association, which has more than 200 members. Over the last decade,
Dublin has become the “software localisation” capital of Europe, which
means that the city has many foreign translators, including Italians.
There has also been a huge increase in the numbers of Italian students
and tourists — all of which means that proper coffee can be found in
Dublin, notably at the “Steps of Rome” snack bar in Chatham Street.
A search for new (and preferably miraculous) resources for teaching
language and literature has led to an involvement with TAP (Technology
Awareness Programme) and LIP (Learning on the Internet Project) within
Trinity College. One of the most effective computer teaching programmes
that we use is the LUISA course produced by Brian Richardson in the
University of Leeds: solid, traditional grammar drills, with vocabulary
and comprehension exercises added. It's well worth trying.
Recently I have become a member of the Italia 2000 group which is based
in Cardiff and brings together universities in Italy, Spain, Britain and
Ireland for the production of learning resources on video, with computer
and CD ROM offshoots.
I spent some years on the executive of the Academic Staff Association
in Trinity. We are affiliated to the highly effective Irish Federation
of University Teachers. Academics in Ireland are not subjected to
ideological hate campaigns by politicians — almost everyone seems to
believe in educational values, including academic freedom — but as
third-level student numbers grow we are inevitably subject to increasing
financial pressure and bureaucratic harassment by Government.
I have a slight tendency to overload myself with commitments and run
after them like those who compete in Verona for the green cloth. In
fact, the only reason I’ve got around to writing this
“autopresentazione” is that we are just about to advertise for a new
colleague (3-year contract post) and I’m drafting a message to the
Italian-Studies list about it. Please tell anyone you know who might be
interesting in applying.
Email: [log in to unmask]
Telephone (+353-1) 6081527
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