MESSAGE FROM CORMAC O CUILLEANAIN
cocullnn@tcd,ie
TO THE ITALIAN-STUDIES LIST
Monday 10 March 1997
Subject: Come and work in Dublin!
Dear Colleagues,
If you know anyone who would like to come and work in Dublin for the
next three years, please tell them about the lectureship in Italian
which Trinity College Dublin is about to advertise.
Trinity has a small but growing Italian Department, with something over
a hundred students. We run two four-year degree programmes: Italian
language and literature as half of a “Two-Subject Moderatorship”
combination; and Italian in European Studies (where they spend the third
year in Pavia). A feature of the Two-Subject Moderatorship is that
students taking Italian in their fourth year do quite a bit of
independent research including a substantial degree dissertation.
Our permanent staff are four in number: Corinna Salvadori Lonergan (Head
of Department), whose research interests lie mostly in the Renaissance;
Roberto Bertoni, who publishes in the twentieth century; myself (mostly
Boccaccio and translation); and an Italian Government appointment. This
Italian Government “lettorato di ruolo” was formerly held by Roberto
Bertoni, but he has recently become a permanent member of Trinity
College’s own staff. His replacement, who has just joined us from Kuala
Lumpur, is Giovanna Domenichini.
In addition to these four posts, we have a language assistant, Marco
Sonzogni, who recently completed a master’s in Anglo-Irish literature
with a thesis on J.M. Synge’s Petrarch translations and has begun a
doctorate in translation studies.
The post now being offered is a lectureship replacing Joanna Stephens, a
twentieth-century specialist who has worked with us since 1994. We have
benefited greatly from her presence, and from that of Robbie Carroll,
over the past couple of years. Robbie’s short-term appointment ended
last December; Joanna’s three-year contract ends this summer. Current
College policy is that this lectureship must remain a three-year
non-renewable contract. Although we are very sorry indeed to lose
Joanna, we cannot protest too loudly: the fifth post, even on a contract
basis, represents a 25% increase over our strength before 1995.
We are casting our net as widely as possible for the new three-year
contract post, which will be tenable from the first of October 1997. Our
advertisement asks that applicants should have proven research potential
in any one of the following areas: post-Renaissance drama, the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, or Italian women writers. It then
goes on to say that “other areas of expertise are not excluded”. Please
emphasise this if you are telling anyone about the job: we will be
delighted to consider serious candidates from all areas of Italian
studies. (In a small department, they may have to teach some unexpected
topics anyway!) The advertisement also states that “particular emphasis
will be placed upon innovative methods of language teaching”. We aim for
a high standard of language competence among our students, and we try
all sorts of things to achieve this end: formal grammar lessons,
conversation, video and audio classes, translation classes, student
plays, computer exercises. Any candidate who can support our aspirations
on the language front will get a very sympathetic hearing.
The salary range for this post will start, I am told, between £14.673
and £20,703, with an examining allowance of £476 and a 5% premium in
lieu of pension rights. An Irish pound is currently worth 97% of a
British pound. Our cost of living is slightly higher than in Britain,
and we hear they pay less tax over there.
On the other hand, working in Trinity has several advantages. We have a
copyright library with three and a half million volumes, including some
good early collections. Our campus is quite beautiful in places, and
despite having about ten thousand students it retains something of a
human scale. We are right in the middle of Dublin, which has recently
(much to the surprise of its inhabitants) emerged as one of Europe’s
favourite tourist destinations. The city has good bookshops, museums and
galleries, a strong theatrical and musical life, and it is said to be
well supplied with pubs. Up to recently, travel to Britain and Europe
was prohibitively expensive, but the EU policy of air transport
liberalisation has brought significant savings and we are much less
isolated than before.
The advertisement (which should appear in the Irish Times and elsewhere
next Friday) states that “Trinity College is an equal opportunities
employer”. The Italian Department too is positively Benettonian in its
inclusiveness. We look forward to receiving applications from
Italianists of all kinds. Official information and application forms for
the post may be obtained from the Establishment Officer in the Staff
Office, Trinity College, Dublin 2 (telephone +353-1-6081678, fax
+353-1-6772169). Informal enquiries may be addressed, in English or
Italian, to the Department office, where the fax number is
+353-1-6082062. Email messages addressed to myself can be passed on to
Mrs Lonergan, the Head of Department. We will very shortly have our own
Departmental web page; http://www.tcd.ie has information on Trinity
College in general.
We look forward to many replies. Please feel free to post this message
to any other newsgroup.
Cormac O Cuilleanain
[log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|