Gerry Kearns (Professor, Human Geography, Maynooth University, Ireland) presents a lecture on his research on the cultural dynamics of memory in Ireland. He considers the place of objects, commodification, institutions and texts as resources for postcolonial memory. He discusses the Turner-prize-winning work of Duncan Campbell, (It for others, 2013), the reflections of Jonathan Swift upon madness, and the complexity of engaging with the Proclamation of 1916.

Gerry Kearns is a human geographer who works at the intersection of political, historical and medical themes. He is the author of Geopolitics and Empire (Oxford University Press 2009) and is a co-editor of Spatial Justice and the Irish Crisis (Royal Irish Academy 2014). He is working on a project called The Geographical Turn in Irish Culture (Irish Research Council) and another about the place of the Proclamation in Irish Civil Society (Irish Research Council). He is professor of Human Geography at Maynooth University and a member of the Geographical and Geosciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy.