PhD Researcher, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway

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Telling Tales: Tracing Cartographies of Birthplace (working title)

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Does the place where we are born matter?

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I am currently working on my practice-with-research PhD in which I am exploring the entanglements between birthplace, the body, memory and matter. This work-in-progress project sits at the intersection of feminist soical practice, new materialism and environmental humanities. It is part of my longstanding interest in a place-based ethics of maternity care.

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As part of my research I have conducted multigenerational interviews with people living in Co. Clare. The local history and folklore group, Cuimhneamh an Chláir has been very helpful and generous in their support of my research and I am extremely thankful to them. 

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During our first lockdown (March-May 2020) I made a short film based on my response to one of the interviews I conducted as part of my research. The images here are stills from this work, Opaque Matter: Tracing Maternal Landscapes.  

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Opaque Matter:

"If there is no more “earth” to press down/repress, to work, to represent, but also and always to desire (for one’s own), no opaque matter which in theory does not know herself, then what pedestal remains for the ex-sistence of the “subject”?”                                                                                                  (Irigaray, 1985:133)[emphasis mine]

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