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Typhoid in Dublin

By Chris HodgsonOctober 7, 2021September 18th, 2023No Comments

Cockle pickers on an Irish beach. © National Library of Ireland.

The Typhoidland team is embarking on an exciting new three-year project on typhoid in revolutionary Ireland. ‘Typhoid, Cockles, and Terrorism’ explores the turbulent history of typhoid in Dublin and is funded by the Irish Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Digital Humanities initiative.

We aim to explore the intimate connection between imperial and revolutionary public health politics in 20th century Dublin. We will conduct innovative research on the (post)colonial politics of Anglo-Irish public health and typhoid control in Dublin. We will design a major blended physical/digital exhibition (hosted at Dublin City Library and Archive and the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland), educational resources and create an open access database of spatially coded historical disease, environmental, and infrastructural data.

We will use a mix of historical and digital humanities methods to analyse and digitise historical disease data, medical correspondence, cultural ephemera, infrastructural records, and meteorological data to understand why British bacteriological and sanitary interventions proved impractical in Dublin and how they were perceived by local populations. We aim to make significant contributions to research and engage audiences from all age groups on the importance of equitable access to effective sanitary infrastructure and vaccines.

See the award announcement here: https://research.ie/2021/08/04/ireland-and-uk-expand-cooperation-with-joint-research-awards-in-digital-humanities/