Lisa Godson

NCAD

Dr Lisa Godson is a cultural historian, writer and curator with a specialism in material culture, architecture and design. She is director of the MA in Design History and Material Culture at the National College of Art and Design, a unique postgraduate programme in partnership with the National Museum of Ireland. 

Her books include Modern Religious Architecture in Germany, Ireland, and Beyond (with Kathleen James Chakraborty); Uniform: Clothing and Discipline in the Modern World (with Jane Tynan); Making 1916: Visual and Material Culture of the Easter Rising (with Joanna Brück). Forthcoming publications include the monograph How the Crowd Felt: Space, Memory and Ritual in the Irish Free State, ‘Materiality, Architecture and Catholicism’ in Religion and Irish Literature (Cambridge University Press) and essays for monographs on the architects Ryan Kennihan and Tom de Paor. Other publications include ‘Charting the material culture of the Devotional Revolution’ in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (116C) and essays for various RIA publications including Ireland 1922 and History of Art and Architecture of Ireland.

Godson often works with creative practitioners including Still Films on the award-winning documentary feature Build Something Modern based on her research into the work of Irish architects in Africa c.1948-1975; the artist Jesse Jones for the Irish pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Art and as research collaborator with Jones and Sarah Browne on the major Arts Council of Ireland 1916 Centenary project ‘In the Shadow of the State.’ 

Godson was Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Histories and Humanities, Trinity College Dublin (2016-21) and is Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy, UCD (2022-7).