对于詹姆斯·凯利来说，约翰·J. 伯恩斯爱尔兰电子游戏正规平台访问学者 at 电子游戏软件 this semester, 历史最好在地面上观察, rather than through sweeping narratives of l和mark events 和 high-profile personalities.
凯利审视爱尔兰历史的镜头包括体育, 决斗, 性别关系, 行医, 食品骚乱, 和 satirical 写作 和 imagery; in recent years, he also has taken an interest in climate- 和 environment-related aspects. Such is the toolkit for a scholar of social history, he said.
“Social history allows you to get a sense of the construction of the world that people lived in, in ways that focusing purely on political or intellectual history cannot,凯利解释道。, 都柏林城市大学的历史教授, 和 until recently the head of its School of History 和 Geography. “历史的电子游戏正规平台和教学, 几代人以来, 一直在关注“国家故事”,’ but that ignores other stories that are equally fascinating 和 revealing. 通过社会历史, we can engage in all sorts of inquiry 和 investigations that give us an often far more meaningful picture of lives in the past.”
3月17日, 凯利将主持伯恩斯讲座, “Satirical Fun: Irish Single Sheet Caricature in the Late Eighteenth 和 Early Nineteenth Centuries,下午五点半.m. 在伯恩斯图书馆汤普森室. 他的演讲将在下午4:30开始.m. 接待. 两者都是免费向公众开放的.
凯利将展出的漫画, 创作于18世纪70年代末至19世纪20年代末的都柏林, were mostly Irish copies of images developed in London by famed caricaturists like James Gillray 和 Thomas Rowl和son. But they offer a unique perspective on what people living in Irel和 found humorous 和 are revealing of the politics 和 society of the era, 据凯利说.
“These caricatures interest me because they convey what visually appealed to people then, 和 what they found satire-worthy—the pomposity of soldiers 和 their colorful uniforms, 例如，从高级时尚到政治的方方面面,他说. “The period in question begins a few decades after the death of Jonathan Swift, 爱尔兰最伟大的作家之一, who demonstrated the capacity of satire to cast a critical eye on people 和 events.”
Social history can help illuminate or even correct our underst和ing of past events, 行为, 和风俗.
自1991年以来, BC邀请了杰出的学者, 作家, 艺术家, 记者, 图书馆员, 和 notable public figures who have made significant contributions to Irish cultural 和 intellectual life to serve as Burns Scholars. Appointees teach courses, offer public lectures, 和 use the University’s John J. 伯恩斯图书馆正在进行的电子游戏正规平台, 写作, 以及与爱尔兰历史有关的创造性活动, 艺术, 和文化.
Kelly concentrates his research on the years 1660 to 1860, a period when Irel和 made the transformation from “Early Modern” to “Modern,他解释道:“在17世纪60年代, 爱尔兰仍然非常内向, 和 only beginning to find its place in the Atlantic world; its people had access to a limited diet 和 were susceptible to famine 和 disease. But this was also the beginnings of what would become the Enlightenment, when humans began seeking to identify solutions to the problems they faced, rather than simply accepting them as beyond their control. The danger in doing so, as they sometimes found, is that the answers can generate new problems.”
在BC任职期间, 凯利正在电子游戏正规平台伯恩斯的几部作品, including nine volumes of pamphlets assembled by renowned 19th-century Irish Catholic political leader Daniel 奥康奈尔—who sought to repeal the Act of Union that incorporated Irel和 into the United Kingdom—和 another of correspondence between Irish immigrants 和 family members back home around the time of the Great Famine.
“These 和 other materials in Burns provide interesting insights into how people—whether 奥康奈尔 or others less prominent—saw what was happening around them, 以及他们是如何表达自己的观点的,凯利说。, who also is teaching a seminar which explores the exercise of Protestant power in Irel和 和 the challenges to it by, 等, 奥康奈尔.
Social history can help illuminate or even correct our underst和ing of past events, 行为, 和风俗, 凯利说, such as in his study of 决斗 (That Damn’d Thing called Honour: Dueling in Irel和, 1750-1860). “We tend to think of 决斗 as an indulgence of man’s violent impulse, 但这并非没有根本的理由. Male society of that age was an honor-based society; without honor, a man lost his place in society. Dueling was, as one contemporary wrote, a necessary piece of a young man’s education.”
凯利对爱尔兰食品骚乱的电子游戏正规平台, 与此同时, contradicts the impression that Irish people did not take action in the face of food scarcity, including during earlier crises preceding the Great Famine. 事实上, he found there had been more than 280 food riots—in which protestors targeted ships, 驳船, 运输食品的大车, then sought to make it available to the public at an affordable price—from the early 18th century through the beginning of the famine in 1845.
“The people who rioted weren’t hungry: It was the threat 和 fear of hunger, 以及食物的供应, 这是它的驱动力,他说. “People were in fact very active early in the Great Famine. But after that they were too exhausted or ill to do anything.”
Kelly’s favorable impressions of 电子游戏软件 和 the Burns Library were first fueled by the experiences of friends 和 colleagues who served as Burns Scholars, 和 later by his 2018 visit to the University to take p艺术 in a book launch—walking around the campus, 他回忆道, “我被它的优雅打动了.”
Having been here now for almost two months, he said, “I am full of admiration for BC. The Burns Scholar position has great status 和 prestige in academia, 和 I welcome this opportunity to be among those fortunate to have held it.”
An active member of various historical societies 和 bodies, Kelly has served as president of the Irish Historical 社会, 十八世纪爱尔兰协会, 和, 最近, 爱尔兰经济和社会历史学会会长.
肖恩·史密斯|大学传播| 2022年3月