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Dr. Nicole Volmering

Research Assistant Professor (History)
      
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Dr. Nicole Volmering

Research Assistant Professor (History)

 volmern@tcd.ie

 


Dr Volmering is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Principal Investigator of the SFI-IRC Pathway Programme project "Early Irish Hands: The Development of Writing in Early Ireland". She currently teaches on the M.Phil. in Medieval Studies and is Trinity Centre for the Book Strand Coordinator for the History of Writing. In addition, she occasionally teaches in the School of Education and is a member of the CAVE research centre.

Her research interests centre on the manuscript culture and religious literature of the insular world, particularly medieval Irish martyrologies, eschatology, transmission of books and texts, genre studies, and palaeography. She has taught a range of medieval history, literature, and language modules at Trinity as well as the universities of Cork and Maynooth, and is currently teaching palaeography and manuscript studies. In addition, she has an interest in Higher Education (history and pedagogy) and regularly teaches T&L practices.

She previously worked as Assistant Professor in the School of Education and held funded fellowships in both Ireland and Germany, including an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Irish and Celtic Languages, Trinity College Dublin, an O'Donovan Scholarship at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and an IKGF fellowship at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität in Erlangen. She obtained her PhD in Early and Medieval Irish from University College Cork as De Finibus Fellow. In her dissertation, which won the Johann-Kaspar-Zeuß-Preis, she analyzed medieval narrative accounts of journeys to the afterlife as didactic writing, with a focus on structural and eschatological development. Before coming to Cork, she completed an MPhil at Trinity College Dublin and two theses at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, where she specialized in Anglo-Saxon England.
  Continental philosophy   Early Christian Ireland   Early Christianity   Early Irish texts and literature   Early Medieval History   Education in ireland   Educational Values   Ethics   Foreign Languages Education   hagiography   higher education   Higher Education   Higher Education Policy   History Education   History of education   history of ideas   History of Ireland   History of Philosophy   History of the book   History of thought   history of time   History/Philosophy of Education   intangible cultural heritage   Ireland, Scotland and wales in the Middle ages   Irish cultural identity   Irish History   Irish in Europe   Irish language, literature and nationalism   IRISH LANGUAGE/LITERATURE   Irish Literature   Irish Manuscripts   Language and/or Literature, Medieval   Manuscript edition   manuscript studies   MEDIEVAL ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE   Medieval Europe   Medieval Ireland   Medieval Irish   Medieval Irish & British History   medieval literature   Medieval manuscripts   Medieval philosophy   Middle Irish   Old Irish language   Papacy, history of ideas in Central Middle Ages   Philosophy of logic and language   Philosophy of religion   Radiosources, Infrared, X-ray, Gamma Ray   Teacher Education   The literary sources   Values/Moral Education
Project Title
 CLÓSCAPE
From
2023
To
2025
Summary
CLÓSCAPE aims to reconstruct the historic placement of cló gaelach signs across Ireland, aid in preserving signage, and investigate the cultural value of cló gaelach signage within the community past and present.
Funding Agency
Trinity Long Room Hub
Programme
Research Incentive Scheme
Project Title
 Early Irish Hands: The Development of Writing in Early Ireland
From
01-03-2022
To
Summary
The project studies early Irish palaeography and writing techniques based on manuscripts from the earliest stratum of Irish writing (550-900). It aims at contributing to a better understanding of the writing techniques used in early Irish scriptoria and to enable more accurate dating of early manuscripts through an improved understanding of variations in Irish script. In addition, it lays the groundwork for research into Irish-Continental script. This is important because palaeography is one of very few methods available that can help identify where and how a manuscript was made or read. The project takes an inclusive approach to the analysis of writing techniques and underpins traditional graph analysis with research on the material aspects of the manuscript. With this approach the project seeks to place palaeographical analysis on a surer footing and to contribute to the understanding of regional manuscript-making techniques in their insular and European context.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council & Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
SFI-IRC Pathway Programme
Project Type
PI-based research project
Person Months
48
Project Title
 Wandering Books
From
01/09/2024
To
31/08/2028
Summary
Project Abstract

For over a millennium, before paper became widely available and printing was introduced to Europe in the fifteenth Century, knowledge circulated and was preserved primarily on animal skin, handwritten, in manuscripts like the Book of Kells. Today, manuscripts are the key sources for cultural, social, intellectual, literary and linguistic history of the Middle Ages, a formative period of human history. As well as being repositories of language and text, manuscripts are simultaneously material objects that preserve ancient DNA which offers information about the biological past that may be key to contemporary issues of agricultural sustainability.

Central to utilising the various kinds of evidence manuscripts offer are a better understanding of how existing disciplinary techniques interact to determine where particular manuscripts were made and the innovation of new methodologies. No single discipline can adequately address this challenge. Wandering Books therefore brings together a geneticist (Bradley), a manuscript specialist (Volmering), an intellectual historian (Warntjes) and a historical linguist (Faulkner) to supervise between them four PhDs taking distinct methodological approaches to the same corpus of manuscripts deriving from early medieval Britain and Ireland: one hunting the animals whose skins made the manuscripts, one tracing the techniques used to assemble the skins into a book and write it, another tracking the texts it contains as they diffused across Europe, and a fourth listening for the languages the manuscript contains.

Wandering Books will articulate a new understanding of the relationship between existing methods for dating medieval manuscripts and introduce innovative new approaches, which, through the new localisations they propose, will revolutionise our understanding of the medieval textual record, and key questions of intellectual, cultural, social, linguistic and biological history. These findings will be shared through a rich set of public engagement activities, delivered through the new Long-Room-Hub-based Trinity Centre for the Book. Wandering Books has received funding from the Trinity Research Doctorate Awards: Group-based Research Projects 2024-5.

Funding Agency
Trinity College Dublin
Programme
Trinity Research Doctorate Awards
Person Months
48
Project Title
 ANTIDOTE
From
To
Summary
ANTIDOTE is a European network of six universities and one library funded by Erasmus+ (KA220-HED-D3AFF6E). The aim of ANTIDOTE is to offer training in the digitization of older texts, primarily medieval texts, to advanced students and staff wanting to upskill. The training includes a wide range of digital skills and competences that can be applied to medieval texts and manuscripts and transferred to other fields, too. This includes the ability to create, process, link and manage text and image data, as well as to use and design data sets, databases and digital scholarly editions.
Funding Agency
EU
Programme
Erasmus+
Project Type
Cooperation partnership
Person Months
36
Project Title
 Foundation Libraries
From
10/04/2018
To
09/01/2019
Summary
Scoping project for funding application on tracing intellectual networks through material and philological analysis.
Funding Agency
Enterprise Ireland

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Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
Dutch Fluent Fluent Fluent
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Medium Basic Basic
German Medium Medium Medium
Irish Medium Medium Medium
Latin Medium Basic Basic
Dating Félire Óengusso: A Review of the Historical Evidence in, editor(s)Gisbert Hemprich , Colloquium in memoriam Rudolf Thurneysen, 29-31. August 2024, Bonn, Hagen, Curach Bhán, 2025, pp213 - 246, [Nicole Volmering], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
Volmering, Nicole; Dunne, Claire M.; Walsh, John; Ó Murchadha, Noel, Irish in Outlook: A Hundred Years of Irish Education, Lausanne, Peter Lang, 2024, 334pp, Book, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Gaelicisation, Education and the Gaelic Script in, editor(s)Nicole Volmering Claire Dunne John Walsh Noel Ó Murchadha , Irish in Outlook: A Hundred Years of Irish Education, Lausanne, Peter Lang, 2024, pp273 - 301, [Nicole Volmering], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI  URL
N. Volmering, The Adaptation of the Visio Sancti Pauli in the West: The Evidence of Redaction VI', Peritia, 31, 2020, p125 - 154, Notes: [DOI: 10.1484/J.PERIT.5.124477], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
The Rhetoric of Catastrophe in Eleventh Century Ireland: The Case of The Second Vision of Adomnán in, editor(s)R. Bjork , Catastrophes and the Apocalyptic in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Turnhout, Brepols, 2019, pp1 - 13, [Nicole Volmering], Notes: [Proceedings of the 20th Annual Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference, Scottsdale ZA 10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.5.117176], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
The Second Vision of Adomnán in, J. Carey, et al. , The End and Beyond: Medieval Irish Eschatology, Aberystwyth, Celtic Studies Publications, 2014, pp647 - 681, [Nicole Volmering], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
The Old English Account of the Seven Heavens in, editor(s)J. Carey, et al. , The End and Beyond: Medieval Irish Eschatology, Aberystwyth, Celtic Studies Publications, 2014, pp285 - 306, [Nicole Volmering], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Bibliography of Medieval Irish Eschatology and Related Sources in, J. Carey, et al. , The End and Beyond: Medieval Irish Eschatology, Aberystwyth, Celtic Studies Publications, 2014, pp855 - 912, [Nicole Volmering], Notes: [https://www.ucc.ie/en/definibus/bibliography/], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Aigne, Cork, UCC: CACSSS, [eds.], 2012-2014, Notes: [Vols 2, 3, 5, 6 As co-editor and web-editor on the Editorial Board.], Editorial Board, PUBLISHED  URL
  

Nicole Volmering, Immo Warntjes, Peter Fraundorfer, Mat Clear, Karlsruhe Bede Conference, 6-7 February, 2025, Trinity College Dublin, Meetings /Conferences Organised, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering, The Palimpsests of the Reichenau Group, Karlsruhe Bede conference, Trinity College Dublin, 6-7 February, 2025, Oral Presentation, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering, Workshop: The possibilities and limitations of using FromthePage for transcription lessons, basic editing, collaboration, and crowdsourcing, Medieval DH Storming, Prague, Prague, 24/5-02-2023, 2023, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
FAHSS, Research Forum on the Research and Innovation Bill & the Research Landscape, TCD, May 8, 2023, FAHSS, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering, Workshop on the Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts, 29/05/2023, 2023, TCD, Notes: [http://earlyirishhands.ie/events/materiality/], Meetings /Conferences Organised, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering , The Future of the Irish Research Landscape & Why it Matters, 17 April, 2023, TCD, Notes: [https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/events/event/the-future-of-the-irish-research-landscape--why-it-matters.php], Meetings /Conferences Organised, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering, Fragments from an Irish Sammelband, Workshop on the Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts, TCD, May 29, 2023, Oral Presentation, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering, Database Development for Manuscript Projects, Medieval DH Storming, Prague, Prague, 24/5-02-2023, 2023, Oral Presentation, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering, Irish Saints Between Past and Future: The Language of Memory and Identity in Félire Óengusso, Third European Symposium in Celtic Studies, Pavia, 09-09-2022, 2022, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
Nicole Volmering, Engaging with Manuscripts in the Digital Space: Accessible Palaeography Training for Students and the General Public, CSANA cnference, Fairleigh Dickinson University (virtual), March 31-April 3, 2022, Conference Paper, PRESENTED

  


Page 1 of 2
Award Date
TRDA Group-Based Scheme 'Wandering Books' 2024-2028
TLRH Research Incentive Scheme 2023-25
SFI-IRC Pathway Programme grant 2021
IKGH Visiting Fellowship 2018-19
Enterprise Ireland Development Grant 2018-19
Teaching commendation from the Students Union 2016
Trinity Long Room Hub Research Incentive Scheme 2016-17
IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2015
Johann-Kaspar-Zeuß-Prize for the Best Dissertation in Celtic Studies 2015
O'Donovan Scholarship 2012-2015
Travel Grant from the Irish Biblical Association (SPT) 2012
De Finibus Fellowship 2009-2012
VSB Fonds Scholarship 2007-2009
Harting Scholarship

My research interests span more than one discipline (as below), but key themes in my research are manuscript studies, the transmission of texts and ideas, the study of writing, and didactic approaches (historical and modern).

My research concerns the manuscript culture, language, religious history and literature of medieval Ireland, with a particular focus on manuscript studies (palaeography and codicology), and on the transmission of texts and religious ideas. Ongoing work in this area concerns:

  • the study of early Irish script, writing techniques, and the materiality of manuscripts (as part of my SFI-IRC project);
  • the history and manuscript transmission of martyrologies
  • text editing and textual criticism
  • digital humanities for manuscript studies
  • Irish cultural heritage
  • the transmission of eschatological ideas
  • genre development and literary adaptation
  • the ongoing relevance of medievalism in the present
    • My work draws on Old Irish and Latin material, but also occasionally touches on Old English and medieval Dutch literature.