Remarks at the launch of the ‘Identities in Transformation’ research theme
Trinity College, Dublin, 24th April 2013
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It gives me great pleasure to be here in the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin’s Arts and Humanities Research Institute, to launch the Institute’s and the College’s new cross-disciplinary research theme on Identities in Transformation. I thank Professors Linda Hogan, Jurgen Barkhoff and James Wickham and all of you for your very gracious welcome.
Gan éirí gafa le sainmhínithe, tá an chultúr bunaithe ar an méid a roinnimíd eadrainn. Próiséis é an chultúr atá i mbun athmhúnlaithe go leanúnach. Síneann an spás cultúrtha siar uainn san am atá caite agus is féidir é a úsáid chun léarú a fháil na hathruithe atá tagtha inár sochaí. Cabhraíonn sé linn tuiscint a fháil ar na hathruithe sin.
[Culture, beyond all the definitional difficulties, while a process, is based on what we share and is a process that is continually being reworked and is a potential source of what is universal and carries a stamp of our common humanity. This is achieved in a transnational setting. The cultural space stretches back in time and plays a central role in reflecting changes in our society and helping us to understand those changes].
There have been two major publications at U.N. level – ‘In From the Margins’ and ‘Our Creative Diversity’
Culture is fundamental to any considerations of identity. While the term ‘Identity’ might be perceived by some to be an abstract theoretical concept that is difficult to define, there is nothing abstract about the concept of a shared cultural space that carries the open categories of memory and imagination. Rather, it is the space within which various forms of human activity are made possible and becomes, not only a location for artistic endeavour, but also a source of vision for what constitutes a flourishing society, and for Utopian possibilities.
I am pleased, therefore, to see that this important research into Identities in Transformation is being undertaken in a multidisciplinary setting. This best allows for an exploration of historic and artistic roots, as well as a fuller discussion on the component elements of identities – including historical myth making, ethics of memory and the way in which identity discourses are often used, or indeed abused, in pursuit of specific political agendas.
I have spoken in the past, and more recently when addressing UNESCO of the importance of the cultural space; of not allowing it to be marginalised and dominated by any narrow model of economics. In recent years we have come to sadly understand and experience the consequences of fragmentation in the social sciences, and we have encountered the results of embracing narrow models at the expense of a more rounded view of what is required to sustain a healthy and flourishing society.
We must now create I suggest an agenda for living which recognises the cultural space as a much wider space than any economic space of contestation between the strong and the weak.
We must acknowledge the yearning by our citizens for the language of community solidarity and social cohesion and for a distinct identity, both at the level of the individual and the collective that contributes to a strong sense of personal self-worth and to active and participative citizenship.
A multi-facetted exploration of the narratives and memories that contribute to our identity within Ireland and within Europe is indispensible for the necessary discussion about what we want Irish society to be and how we wish to shape our destiny.
What is now required is a self-critical examination of identities and their historical and cultural roots; one that is open to discovery, amplification, revision and adaptation; and one that embraces the fundamental insight that identities are never monolithic, one-dimensional or static. On the contrary, they are changing, complex and even contradictory. It is critical that we develop such a self-aware and sophisticated sense of identity because it fosters and enables an enriching openness towards other people and other cultures, their differing perspectives and experiences.
This requires a scholarship that has an integrating normative and emancipatory potential, a scholarship that has been unfashionable for some recent decades.
This kind of reflective and generously-minded scholarship that contributes to a generous version of identity is also the one that will best help us navigate through crises. It will assist us in using the flexibility to engage positively and constructively with the rapid transformations that we are currently experiencing – such as globalisation, the experience of migration, the digital age, the challenges being faced as members of the European Union in terms of its founding values and institutional capacity and, most acutely, the prevailing economic crisis which is also a crisis of democracy and of intellectual plurality.
The realization of a European Union identity which encourages us to embrace unity in diversity, allowing for the richness of all of Europe’s varying cultures to flourish while we pursue the great European dream of peace, solidarity and cohesion, remains a significant challenge.
Myth and memory play a significant part in shaping communal and national identities. For example, as we engage in a decade of commemoration here in Ireland, we will be required to draw on the possibility and practice of ethics and politics of memory so as not only to be sensitive to differing and incomplete versions of our narrative, but also to remain open to the making of reconciliation or, if required, to the acceptance of different versions or aspects of memory.
Historians and cultural historians have an important role to play in contributing to the debate on what constitutes an ethical memory. Historians cannot, of course, seek to sanitise the past in the interest of making a better future. However, by the rigour and integrity of their work, they can at least challenge the distortions or simplifications of the past which, on occasion, have been used to perpetuate hatred and division.
But we need to do more than this. We need to restore the contribution of philosophical discourse drawing on the debates at home and in Europe and further afield. Professor Richard Kearney’s work or the European scholarship including that of Gadamer and Habermas is a useful example.
In these examinations of memory and cultural narratives, the close connection between the national and the European and wider global dimensions deserves our particular attention, as does the interplay between personal and family history and collective experiences and the dense interaction between the political, social and cultural spheres.
The study of literatures in their national and international contexts, for example, enables us to see how our identities fit the shape of our historical and political circumstances, and also how the imagination and creative genius can re-cast those shapes within culture.
Our writers and artists have had, and will continue to play, a significant role in ensuring a rich context of empathy and explication as we view the events and stories which form the chapters of our national narrative.
For instance, I would suggest that the poetry of Séamus Heaney and Michael Longley provide us with an opportunity for reflection on a perspective that allows us to better understand the old divisions that spawned the conflict in Northern Ireland and to better appreciate the prize of peace that we have enjoyed in recent years.
In considering and reviewing our various national narratives, it is important that we do so in a manner that respects the voices of all of our citizens in all their imaginings; that it is a multi-faceted narrative that does not place one version higher than another or grant one voice more respect and more credence than another. If we truly believe in a democratic citizenship, we must ensure that all citizens are allowed a sense of belonging; a sense of culture that is truly inclusive; and a sense of identity that is rooted in an honest and comprehensive interpretation of all we share.
The obligation of critical reflection by those who live in the embers of European Empires is no less of course and it is time too that we took account of our diverse migrant narratives.
Rapid change is a defining factor of our times; one which presents us with a challenge as to how we choose to react to it. Do we do so defensively, by entrenching ourselves in all too familiar, narrow self-images; by solely resorting to the conventional but often untested wisdom of the moment. Or do we embrace it by becoming open to new ways of seeing and defining ourselves; by drawing on the plurality of inter-disciplinary scholarship for the solutions that are best designed to respond to current challenges in all their complexity?
It is important that Universities support, and bring into being, fertile spaces for academic working, and that they encourage the critical and enriching contributions that the Arts and Humanities make to a healthy and flourishing society.
Our universities should lead the debate on the values and attitudes that underpin both our sense of belonging and our vision for our future. They are surely called upon to play a key role in challenging the neo-utilitarianism and intellectual narrowness that has been one of the problematic legacies of our boom years.
Is féidir leis na hollscoileanna cabhrú linn troid in aghaidh an díomá agus in aghaidh an gearrtéarmacht atá fairsing i measc na ndaoine trí iniúchadha a dhéanamh ar thobar saibhir na samhlaíochta agus na comhchuimhní. Is féidir leo cur i gcuimhne dúinn go bhfuil go leor leor seoda luachmhara againn anseo in Éirinn; ár gceól, ár litríocht, ár dtraidisiúin spóirt, ár n’aigne phobail, agus gur cheart dúinn bheith bródúil astu.
[In exploring the rich and complex reservoir of imagination and shared memories, the universities can also help us combat widespread disillusionment and anti-intellectualism in discourse. They can remind us of what has real lasting value in society and of the many things in Irish life – such as our music, our literature, our sporting tradition, our community values - of which we can be justifiably proud].
In making these contributions, your new research theme offers ample opportunities and a promise of great potential. I congratulate the Director of the Institute, his team and all those involved in the new research programme for pioneering this important theme and I wish you all exciting and fruitful discussions and discoveries in the years to come.
Your Institute is an ideal place to bring together for exploration the subject specialists, students and young researchers, as well as the wider public. I am looking forward to meeting some of the doctoral students who have the privilege of working here and I will be following the unfolding narrative of your Institute with great interest.