Festival of Ideas: Living in an Age of Permacrisis

Featuring writers Burhan Sönmez, Sarah Moss, Emilie Pine, Patrick Deeley, Eva Bourke, Suad Aldarra, and Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, alongside artists Peeter Laurits, Bassam Issa Al-Sabah, and Helen Doherty, plus the Academy in Exile.

Read about all the Festival contributors here.

View the full, detailed programme here.

The Festival is the culmination of the UCD Humanities Institute’s collaboration with art practitioners as part of the wider research project ‘From Modern Crisis to Permacrisis and Polycrisis’ (PI: Prof Anne Fuchs), funded by the UCD Strategic and Major Initiative Scheme. For more information see: https://www.ucd.ie/humanities/research/frommoderncrisistopermacrisisandpolycrisis/

Banner Image Credit: Judy Carroll Deeley. Abstract 2025 collage and oil on paper, 25 x 25 cm

Info: Curated by Prof Vanessa Agnew (Technische Universität Dortmund), 'What We Brought With Us' is a photographic exhibition exploring the significance and emotional resonance of objects brought by refugees when fleeing their homelands.
Location: Aula Maxima

Info: Chaired by Prof Mary Cosgrove (TCD);

Location: Old Physics Theatre, MOLI;

Speakers:
Egemen Özbek and Renate Poccia from The Academy in Exile (Technische Universität Dortmund) on the work of AiE and the exhibition What We Brought with Us

Nidhi Zakaria Eipe (Skein Press), ‘(En)countering the Narrative’ on publishing in Irish and in translation

Roundtable: ‘The longing to belong: language/s as home?’ with Burhan Sönmez, Renate Poccia, Egemen Özbek, Svitlana Kononchuk, Tim Groenland and Nidhi Zakaria Eipe

Info: Chaired by Prof Michael Brophy (UCD);

Location: Old Physics Theatre;

Readings and performances by:
Eva Bourke, reading poems from Spring in Henry Street (1996), Seeing Yellow (2018) and Tattoos (2024), plus new poems;

Patrick Deeley, reading poems from Keepsake (2024) and The End of the World (2019), plus new work ;

Cormac Mac Gearailt, performing ‘Caoineadh na gCrann’ (‘The Lament of the Trees’);

Adam Mohamed, performing ‘The Daily’ and ‘Better’;

Students from Fighting Words, performing group poem;

QnA session: ‘Performing poetry in times of permacrisis’ with Eva Bourke, Patrick Deeley, Cormac Mac Gerailt, Adam Mohamed, and students from Fighting Words

Info: Chaired by Dr Graham Finlay (UCD);

Location: Rose Room;

Speakers:
Maeve Cooke (UCD), on her forthcoming book Transformations in Critical Theory: Decentrings, Openings, Futures (2026);

Svitlana Kononchuk (Technische Universität Dortmund);

Rhona Jamieson (UCD), ‘Accelerationism in the Time of Generative AI’;

Info: Location: Saloon; Reception with speeches by Professor Kate Robson Brown (Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, UCD) and Professor Regina Uí Chollatáin (College Principal, College of Arts and Humanities, UCD)

Info: Spoken Word pieces written and performed by students collaborating with the creative writing NGO Fighting Words, coordinated by Nóra Nic Con Ultaigh, with co-facilitators Cormac Mac Gearailt and Adam Mohamed
Location: Rose Room

Info: Chaired by Prof Sarah Comyn (UCD);
Location: Old Physics Theatre;
Film screenings and talks by artists:
Peeter Laurits, screening video and VR installation piece ‘Werefolks’

Helen Doherty, presenting sculpture and expanded practice piece The Encyclopaedia of
Contested Words

Bassam Issa Al-Sabah, film screening and talk on Fenced within the silent cold walls (2018)

Roundtable: ‘Practices of activism, resistance and resilience’ with Peeter Laurits, Helen Doherty, and Bassam Issa Al-Sabah

Info: Chaired by Alex Clark (Times Literary Supplement; The Guardian);
Location: River Run;
Readings by authors:
Sarah Moss (UCD), reading from Ripeness (2025)
Emilie Pine (UCD), reading new work from her forthcoming On Being Seen
Suad Aldarra, reading from her memoir I Don't Want to Talk About Home (2022)
Burhan Sönmez, reading from Lovers of Franz K. (2025)

Roundtable: ‘Counternarratives in an age of permacrisis’ with Sarah Moss, Burhan Sönmez, Emilie Pine, Eva Bourke, and Suad Aldarra

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