Three candidates for Trinity’s next provost – Prof Jane Ohlmeyer, Prof Linda Hogan and Prof Linda Doyle – have cleared the interview stage of the election process and will compete in the election campaign starting next week.
The three candidates previously confirmed to The University Times that they had been deemed eligible to contest the election.
The list of names was published on Trinity’s website this afternoon. Prof Sarah Alyn-Stacey was not included on the list.
The official campaign period starts today, and a “kick-off meeting” for all staff and members of the electorate is planned for Monday. The candidates will each give an opening statement and will answer questions from participants.
The campaign will also include a debate on climate change, meetings with faculties and heads of schools and several hustings.
The campaign will end on April 7th, and the election will take place on April 10th. The name of the elected candidate will go to the Board for approval and the new Provost will take up office on August 1st.
Ohlmeyer was previously the director of the Long Room Hub until earlier this year, having been elected in 2015. She is also a Fellow and is an expert in early modern Irish and British history, holding the title Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History at Trinity. She is also the chair of the Irish Research Council. She ran unsuccessfully for Provost in 2011.
Doyle recently stepped down from her position as the Dean of Research, a role she has held since January 2018. One of Ireland’s leading researchers, she was the first woman to take up the role in almost a decade.
Hogan is currently Professor of Ecumenics and was Vice-Provost from 2011 to 2016. Her tenure saw Trinity deal with the fallout of the 2008 financial crash and its impact on higher education.
The brief of the role of Provost is vast: a 10-year term of office at the helm of Ireland’s most prestigious university, leading its academic, administrative and financial affairs.
