Luke Dodd And Erika Hanna In Conversation

Luke Dodd, curator of The Easter Rising 1916, discusses the exhibition with social and cultural historian Erika Hanna.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the Whitney Independent Study Programme, New York, Luke Dodd was responsible for the establishment of the Famine Museum, Strokestown, County Roscommon. He curated ‘The Literature of Ireland’ at the 1996 Frankfurt Bookfair and was responsible for the interpretative elements in the Irish Pavilion at EXPO 2000, Hanover. Since 2000, he has worked with Guardian News and Media, London on a variety of projects including the establishment of an archive relating to the histories of the Guardian and Observer newspapers. In October 2015, he edited a book of Jane Bown’s photojournalism entitled Jane Bown: a Lifetime of Looking (Faber/Guardian).

Erika Hanna is a social and cultural historian of twentieth century Ireland. She is particularly interested in the creation of ‘modern’ Ireland since partition, and in exploring this through the use of visual and material sources. To date, her research has focused on the history of cities, photography, and bicycles. Her current research project is entitled ‘Popular Photography and Camera Culture in Ireland, 1900-2000’. This project explores how photography informed experiences of daily life and conflict in twentieth century Ireland (and beyond): playing a role in governing citizens, the formation of an active civil society, and shaping identities. In September 2015 Hanna took up her current post as Lecturer in History at the University of Bristol. Prior to this she was Chancellor's Fellow in History at the University of Edinburgh.