DkIT hosts West Virginia students to explore the cultural landscapes of the region
The Department of Humanities at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) was delighted to recently welcome a group of students from West Virginia to the DkIT campus. The students from BridgeValley Community Technical College and Marshall University came to DkIT to take part in the Certificate in Cultural Landscapes: Newgrange and the Boyne Valley programme. This was an intensive two-week programme during which students were introduced to the history, archaeology, culture and politics of Ireland through a series of on-campus seminars delivered by the Department of Humanities staff. The seminars are supplemented by a series of field trips to sites and monuments in the Boyne Valley.
The Boyne Valley is renowned for the number and quality of its monuments, with sites representing every major stage in the development of our country from prehistoric times to the present day. As part of the programme, the group was brought to a range of sites like Newgrange and the Brú na Bóinne WHS, the Loughcrew Passage Tomb Cemetery, the Hill of Tara, Mellifont Abbey, Monasterboice, Trim Castle and the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge. Additionally, there were trips to Dublin to the National Museum of Ireland and the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum and Belfast to visit the Titanic Experience and the medieval town of Carlingford on the Cooley Peninsula.
The collaboration between DkIT, Marshall University and BridgeValley Community Technical College began in 2023 when Dr Brian Hoey of Marshall University first met with Dr Conor Brady of DkIT. Discussions led to the signing of an MOU between Marshall University and DkIT in July 2024 after which the institutions collaborated to design and pilot a sustainable study-abroad experience based on the Certificate in Cultural Landscapes programme. The hope is that this collaboration could be scaled across West Virginia. This year’s visit was supported by a U.S. Department of State IDEAS Grant and had a focus on STEM and first-generation. Seventeen students travelled to Ireland to take part. The students earn credit for successful completion of the programme which will be transferred and applied to their own qualifications in their home institutions.
The visiting group was led by Dr Brian Hoey of Marshall University and Dr Jason Spencer of BridgeValley Community Technical College and delivery of the programme was coordinated by Dr Conor Brady with logistical support from Dr Annaleigh Margey. Seminars were delivered by members of the BA (hons) in Arts programme team in the Department of Humanities, during which students learned about Prehistoric Ireland, Medieval Ireland and Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as the Great Famine, the revolutionary period, Irish literature and drama and the Northern Ireland Peace Process.
Speaking after the visit, Dr Conor Brady said:
“We were delighted to welcome this group from Marshall University and BridgeValley Community Technical College in West Virginia. The students got a great introduction to Irish history, archaeology and culture throughout the programme and the engagement of the entire group with the material both in seminars and during the on-site visits was very impressive and was praised by all of the Department of Humanities lecturers involved in delivering material to the group. It was fantastic to work closely with our colleagues in West Virginia, especially the group leaders Dr Brian Hoey of Marshall University (who has ancestors from County Louth) and Dr Jason Spencer of BridgeValley CTC. Dr Zelideth Rivas, Assistant Provost for Global Education, Academic Affairs at Marshall University was also a key part of organising and setting up the visit. We feel that this visit has set a very firm foundation for the establishment of a continuing study-abroad arrangement with Marshall University and Bridge Valley CTC with potential for the programme to be offered out to other US institutions and we look forward to welcoming more groups of US students to DkIT and in the years to come."
The team at DkIT is greatly looking forward to building on the success of this visit and hope to welcome more groups from West Virginia to Ireland and DkIT in the coming years.
