Dr. Nicole Volmering

Dr Volmering is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Principle Investigator of the SFI-IRC Pathway Programme project "Early Irish Hands: The Development of Writing in Early Ireland". She currently teaches on the M.Phil. in Medieval Studies and is Trinity Centre for the Book Strand Leader for the History of Writing. In addition, she occasionally teaches in the School of Education and is a member of the CAVE research centre.

She previously worked as Assistant Professor in the School of Education and held funded fellowships in both Ireland and Germany, including an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Irish and Celtic Languages, Trinity College Dublin, an O'Donovan Scholarship at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and an IKGF fellowship at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität in Erlangen. She obtained her PhD in Early and Medieval Irish from University College Cork as De Finibus Fellow. In her dissertation, which won the Johann-Kaspar-Zeuß-Preis, she analyzed medieval narrative accounts of journeys to the afterlife as didactic writing, with a focus on structural and eschatological development. Before coming to Cork, she completed an MPhil at Trinity College Dublin and two theses at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, where she specialized in Anglo-Saxon England.

Her research interests centre on the manuscript culture and religious literature of the insular world, particularly medieval Irish martyrologies, eschatology, transmission of books and texts, and palaeography. She has taught a range of medieval history, literature, and language modules at Trinity as well as the universities of Cork and Maynooth, and is currently teaching palaeography and manuscript studies. In addition, she has an interest in Higher Education (history and pedagogy) and regularly teaches T&L practices.

  Continental philosophy   Early Christian Ireland   Early Christianity   Early Irish texts and literature   Early Medieval History   Education in ireland   Educational Values   Ethics   Foreign Languages Education   hagiography   Higher Education   higher education   Higher Education Policy   History Education   History of education   history of ideas   History of Ireland   History of Philosophy   History of the book   History of thought   history of time   History/Philosophy of Education   intangible cultural heritage   Ireland, Scotland and wales in the Middle ages   Irish cultural identity   Irish History   Irish in Europe   Irish language, literature and nationalism   IRISH LANGUAGE/LITERATURE   Irish Literature   Irish Manuscripts   Language and/or Literature, Medieval   Manuscript edition   manuscript studies   MEDIEVAL ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE   Medieval Europe   Medieval Ireland   Medieval Irish   Medieval Irish & British History   medieval literature   Medieval manuscripts   Medieval philosophy   Middle Irish   Old Irish language   Papacy, history of ideas in Central Middle Ages   Philosophy of logic and language   Philosophy of religion   Radiosources, Infrared, X-ray, Gamma Ray   Teacher Education   The literary sources   Values/Moral Education

My research interests span more than one discipline (as below), but key themes in my research are the history of thought and ideas, the study of writing, and didactic approaches (historical and modern).

1. Research concerning the manuscript culture, language, religious history and literature of medieval Ireland, with a particular focus on manuscript studies (palaeography and codicology), and on the transmission of texts and religious ideas. Ongoing work in this area concerns:

the study of early Irish script, writing techniques, and the materiality of manuscripts (as part of my SFI-IRC project);

the history and manuscript transmission of martyrologies

the transmission of eschatological ideas

genre development and literary adaptation

My work draws on Old Irish and Latin material, but also occasionally touches on Old English and medieval Dutch literature.

2. Research interests in the broader field of Higher education and philosophy of education, specifically:

the historical philosophy of education

education in 20th century Ireland

humanistic approaches and transformative learning