Graduate Destinations
Orla Fitzpatrick
Librarian, National Museum of Ireland
"The course content offered by the MA in Design History and Material Culture has definitely enhanced my day-to-day work as the Librarian for the National Museum of Ireland. I particularly enjoyed the material culture approach to the analysis of objects and my thesis on a Victorian photographic album benefited greatly from this methodology. Since completion of the course I have written several journal articles and contributed to Routledge’s Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography. I have also started a blog on vernacular Irish photography, www.jacolette.com. The manner in which I explore photographic material is very much informed by the approaches I encountered on the MA course. I would recommend the course to anyone considering a career in the heritage or cultural sectors."
Julia Cummins
Collections Manager, Farmleigh House, Office of Public Works
"I work in the National Historic Properties section of the Office of Public Works and am based at Farmleigh. I trained as a Librarian and when my role expanded from looking after rare books to managing the historic house collection as a whole I looked for a course that would give me a greater insight into textiles, furniture, ceramics, glass and silver. The MA in Design History and the Applied Arts was essential for my career development as it gave me the knowledge and confidence to do my job more effectively. The course was also extremely beneficial on a personal level as it stimulated in me a greater interest in and appreciation of material culture."
Muireann Charleton
Education Assistant, Collins Barracks, National Museum of Ireland
"Having obtained an MA from the History of Design and the Applied Arts postgraduate course at the National Collage of Art and Design, my understanding of the role which designed objects play in our lives, enabled me to focus my career towards working in the cultural sector. Working currently in the Education Department at the National Museum of Ireland’s Decorative Arts Museum, Collins Barracks, this MA prepared me for working closely with decorative arts collections specifically, and due to this qualification, I have co-ordinated NMI conferences such as 'Shaping Modern Ireland: the life and work of Sam Stephenson', October 17th 2009, and 'A Celebration of Contemporary Irish Silver', October 25th 2008. Following the MA, I have lectured the history of Design at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology and I currently hold a part-time lecturing position at the National College of Art & Design. Seminar papers previously delivered include 'Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism: a cocktail for consumer craving in a rural Irish department store, 1878-1930’, at the Irish Association of Art Historians annual Study day in 2009. I was recently the winner of the inaugural critical writing in Irish Craft award 2010 from the Crafts Council of Ireland and my research has been published in the journal The Irish Arts Review. I am currently planning to undertake PhD research on the material culture of 19th century Irish Department stores and patterns of consumption in Irish socio-political contexts."
Valerie Moffat
Part-Time Lecturer at the NCAD and Freelance Educator at the National Gallery of Ireland
"My background is in Art and Design Education and the History of Art, and having spent twenty rewarding years in full-time second level teaching I decided to return to college to pursue a Masters degree. The key motivating factors in my choice of this course were that it goes beyond the limitations of traditional art historical methods, encourages a multi-disciplinary approach and prioritises the importance of research and enquiry into the cultural significance of things. Through a case study using the personal account books of Mrs. Meliora Adlercron of Dawson Street, together with other contemporary manuscripts, my MA thesis examined issues surrounding the material culture of motherhood, widowhood and household management in late eighteenth-century Dublin. I became interested in the everyday interactions with objects which are now lost to history, and how seemingly mundane sources like domestic account books can provide an amazingly rich insight into how people used objects to express a range of different identities. Since completing my MA I have presented on various aspects of my research at a range of conferences including the 'Disasters and Change Conference', (Economic and Social History Society) at Mary Immaculate College (7-8 November 2008), the 'Thinking About Things Conference', UCD (5-7 May 2009), the 'Gender and Loss Conference' at Bath Spa University (27-28 August 2009) and I recently gave a public lecture at the National Museum of Ireland entitled An Eighteenth-century Gentlewoman’s Guide to Marriage. Alongside working freelance for the Education Department at the National Gallery of Ireland and teaching Design History part-time at NCAD, I am currently preparing articles for publication and a research proposal for a PhD in Design History and Material Culture at NCAD."