Professor Jane Ohlmeyer. Courtesy Paul Sharp/SHARPPIX
Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, a longtime contributor to the development of DARIAH, CENDARI, EHRI and the ESFRI Humanities and Social Sciences working group, has recently been named to not one, but two Directorships. Over the summer, she took over leadership of the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin’s landmark research institute for the humanities and home to both Trinity’s Centre for Digital Humanities and the PARTHENOS project team. With this appointment, she takes on both the operational responsibility for a busy research hub and the vibrant international community existing within the Hub building’s walls and beyond, but also a position with significant visibility and advocacy potential on behalf of all of the arts and humanities in Trinity, Ireland and internationally.
In September, it was announced that Jane had been named by the Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation to another high-profile position of great importance to the humanities community in Ireland, namely as Chair of the Irish Research Council. Welcoming her appointment, Professor Ohlmeyer said ‘I am honoured to be appointed Chair of the Irish Research Council. I relish the opportunity to promote research excellence in Ireland, to advocate for innovation and creativity in research, along with its relevance to Irish society, and to serve as an ambassador for all disciplines, from archaeology to zoology’.
Jane holds the academic position of Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History, and was also the founding Vice-Provost for Global Relations (2011-14). She is an expert on the New British and Atlantic Histories and has published widely on a number of themes in early modern Irish and British history. In spite of her significant service commitments, she has always remained an active scholar, with her most recent book, ‘Making Ireland English: the Irish Aristocracy in the seventeenth century,’ being published by Yale University Press in 2012.
In spite of her many professional commitments, Jane remains a firm proponent of digital humanities and digital research infrastructure projects. “I am a great believer in the fundamental importance of investment in creative and innovative approaches to research infrastructure. This is true in particular for us all in the arts and humanities, where greater distribution requires different approaches to be taken to support the best quality research. Projects like PARTHENOS can make a great difference in this space, and I look forward to seeing it develop.”
We wish her the very best of luck with her new challenges!