By Tomás Sullivan – Staff Writer
College has appointed several leading individuals from the arts world, including novelist Terry Pratchett, playwright Michael West and the film-maker Lenny Abramson, as adjunct lecturers and professors.
These appointments are part of a college initiative to improve the links between the college and creative practise in several departments. Individuals are currently working in various creative industries and are at the top of their respective fields. Appointments range from writers, music composers, theatre and filmmakers, to graphic designers and a museum director. They will run classes in the skills of the respective trades, including creative writing and music composition, give lectures, hold readings and collaborate on research projects. The appointments will last for three years.
The provost has said that the new adjunct staff ‘will bring the world of academia and creative practise closer together’, the appointments are part of a much wider college initiative aimed at changing Dublin and Ireland as well as the college, and he said ‘this is but the first step’.
The Discworld novelist Sir Terry Pratchett, the founder of the Gallery Press Peter Fallon and Irish editor and literary agent Jonathon Williams have been appointed to the Oscar Wilde centre for Creative Writing, historically the first of it’s kind in Ireland. The centre has trained successful young authors such as Claire Kilroy and Chris Binchy. Previously the centre had focused on writing classes but now it is expanding areas such as publishing and literary translation. Sir Terry Pratchett is seen as an author that has achieved both ‘practical artistic commitment’ and commercial success. He is to give a lecture to the undergraduates of the School of English on Wednesday, 9th of March. Commenting on his appointment last year he said: ‘Until recently I couldn’t even spell academic and now I are one!’
Playwright Micheal West, as an adjunct lecturer, and director of Siren productions, Selina Cartmell, as Arts Council Artist in Residence will join other practitioners such actress Fiona Shaw and playwright Marina Carr in the Drama department. Next year, the School of Drama, Film and Music will open the Lir, also known as NADA, in conjunction with RADA (National/Royal Academy of Dramatic Art respectively), which will offer programmes such as a new BA in acting and Ireland’s first Masters in Playwriting.
New fields are being opened in areas such as creative technology, where computer science and the arts meet. The new Centre for Creative Technology benefits from five appointments, including the Chief Scientist of a leading visual effects software company, the foundry. The School of Histories and Humanities will gain the expertise of Microsoft Principle Researcher Curtis Wong, a researcher into interactive, data visualisation and media technology.
The great benefit of adjunct professors, the fact that they continue to work in their various fields, also means that they are not comparable to full time academic staff. Yet this new, more practical, and job based, approach to the Arts and Humanities no doubt makes sense in the current climate, and in the context of Trinity, where 50% of students are belong to the Arts and Humanities faculty.
