Fellow In Focus: Prof Ronan McDonald

Recorded February 13th, 2025. Pay Attention!: Literary Studies,
Neurohumanities and the ‘Distraction Economy’ Trinity Long Room Hub
Visiting Research Fellow Prof Ronan McDonald (University of
Melbourne, Australia) in conversation with Prof Christopher Morash
(School of English, TCD) and Prof Shane O'Mara (TCIN, TCD).
‘Attention studies’ is burgeoning in academic and popular fora, not
least because there is a common perception that we live in an era
of digital distraction. Drawing on insights from neuroscience, this
project considers the relationship between reading and attention in
literary studies. It considers how reading orientates our mind,
between various affective states that compel or distract: between
willed concentration, raptured enchantment or receptive,
wide-minded noticing. Opening up a cross-disciplinary conversation
between literary studies, psychology and neuroscience,  it
seeks to provide new purpose and direction for literary studies.
​​​​​​​ About Ronan McDonald: Ronan McDonald holds the Gerry
Higgins Chair in Irish Studies at the University of Melbourne. He
is widely published in Irish literary studies, with a particular
interest in Irish modernism and Irish-Australian literature. He
also has a research interest in the history of criticism and the
value of the humanities. His books include Tragedy and Irish
Literature (2002), The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel
Beckett (2007) and The Death of the Critic (2008).
Recent edited collections include The Values of Literary
Studies: Critical Institutions, Scholarly Agendas (Cambridge
University Press, 2015) and Flann O’Brien and
Modernism (2014). He is series editor of Cambridge Themes
in Irish Literature and Culture. Current projects
include an ARC Discovery Project with Prof Katherine Bode and
Maggie Nolan, ‘Close Relations: Irishness in Australian
Literature’. and a ARC Discovery Project, with Professor Simon
During, on 'English: The History of a Discipline, 1920-70'. He is
currently working on a book on ‘attention’ in literary studies.
Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub