About The Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies
The Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies was established in 2003 to pursue research on utopian thought and practice. The Centre’s research and service agenda is based on the premise that social values, policies, and practices are often shaped by hopeful, utopian visions; for as Fredric Jameson argues, the "political unconscious" of a society is utopian insofar as it expresses collective desires for better values and practices.
The research carried out by the faculty and postgraduate members of the Centre identifies and studies utopian visions articulated through texts (literary, legal, political, theological, filmic, visual, musical, architectural, and others) and social experiences (such as religious and secular intentional communities, political movements, and cultural practices). While the Centre encourages research in all aspects of utopianism, its has a particular commitment to the study of utopianism in Irish culture.
The activities of the Centre include individual and collaborative research by faculty and postgraduate students, postgraduate degree study at the MA and PhD levels, the Ralahine Utopian Studies book series, the Ralahine Research Workshops, and other conference and seminar programming.
Research Strands
Current and developing research strands include:
Irish Utopian Imagination:
Sub-projects:
- Eighteenth Century Utopian Imagination
- Utopia and Irish Modernity
- Irish Science Fiction
Ecology and Utopia:
Sub-projects:
- Cloghjordan Ecovillage Community
- Revisioning Limerick Project
- Ecocritcism
Utopian Theory and Method:
Sub-projects:
- Comparative Utopian Studies
- Utopia and Music
- Utopia and Poetry
- Utopia and Political Agency
- Utopia and Spirituality
Ralahine Utopian Studies
Ralahine Utopian Studies is the publishing project of the Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies, University of Limerick, and the Department of Intercultural Studies in Translation, Languages and Culture, University of Bologna at Forlì. The series editors aim to publish scholarship that addresses the theory and practice of utopianism (including Anglophone, continental European, and indigenous and postcolonial traditions, and contemporary and historical periods). Publications (in English and other European languages) will include original monographs and essay collections (including theoretical, textual, and ethnographic/institutional research), English language translations of utopian scholarship in other national languages, reprints of classic scholarly works that are out of print, and annotated editions of original utopian literary and other texts (including translations). While the editors seek work that engages with the current scholarship and debates in the field of utopian studies, they will not privilege any particular critical or theoretical orientation. They welcome submissions by established or emerging scholars working within or outside the academy. Given the multi-lingual and inter-disciplinary remit of the University of Limerick and the University of Bologna at Forlì, they especially welcome comparative studies in any disciplinary or trans-disciplinary framework.
Research Links
The Centre maintains research links with the Department of Intercultural Studies in Translation, Languages and Culture, University of Bologna at Forlì, the Centro Interdipartimentale Di Ricera Sull’Utopia at the Università di Bologna, the New Lanark Conservation Trust in Scotland, the “Literatura e Utopia" Research Group at the Universidade Federal de Alagoas, and with utopian studies programmes at the University of Porto, the University of Cyprus, the University of Alaska, Bristol University, Oxfords-Brookes University, Queens University Belfast, and National University of Ireland, Galway. The Centre also works closely with the Society for Utopian Studies in North America and the Utopian Studies Society in Europe.
The Ralahine Centre has received support from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences for its seminar series on "Utopia-Method-Vision" and for its Irish utopianism research projects.