Fully-funded PhD on the histories of Grangegorman site and society, 1770-2012

Grangegorman Histories is pleased to announce that a unique opportunity has arisen within the TU Dublin School of Media for a fully-funded PhD on the histories of Grangegorman site and society, 1770-2012.

The growing interest in the institutional history of Ireland from the eighteenth to the twentieth century charts the political and social preoccupation with confinement as cure for social deprivations across those centuries. While institutions operated by religious orders have dominated research and discourse in this area in recent times, scrutiny of state-run institutions offer an opportunity to broaden the discourse and examine the material, social and architectural histories of these spaces.

Grangegorman was the site of three such institutions: the North Dublin Union Workhouse (originally the Dublin House of Industry), the Richmond Lunatic Asylum (later the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum, the Grangegorman Mental Hospital and St Brendan’s Hospital) and the Richmond Penitentiary (later the Grangegorman Female Penitentiary and Transportation Depot). The histories of the location –architectural, social and medical– provide a crux case study of institutional experiences across two centuries, with the opportunity to research the physical development of these institutions over time. A study of the Grangegorman site and its immediate surrounding area, from 1770 to 2012, provides an excellent test case to examine how changing attitudes to the social role of institutionalisation inform, and are mediated through, architectural and landscape design.

The PhD course will be supervised by Dr Mary Ann Bolger, Dr Niamh Ann Kelly and Dr Brian Ward. The deadline to submit applications is 7 July 2023.

More information and a link to complete an expression of interest can be found on the TU Dublin website.

Grangegorman Histories is a public history programme of research and shared discovery of the Grangegorman site and surrounding communities. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with our activities.