TCD School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences

See you for coffee on June 25th!

☕️🎟️ Invitation to our community coffee morning at Trinity College Dublin! Thursday 25 June from 11am to 12.30pm.

Meet our fantastic Living Observatory researchers, have a free cuppa and some treats, and enjoy one of the most beautiful rooms in Trinity, located over our main Front Arch.

ISL interpreting provided.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/lifelangs-living-observatory-summer-coffee-morning-tickets-1990317453080?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios

SSATH 2026 Opening Lecture:
Why Does Anthropology Need Linguistics in the 21st Century?

Our Summer School for Ancient Trans-Himalayan Languages (SSATH 2026) opens with a special lecture by Professor Nicholas Harkness, Modern Korean Economy and Society Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.

The lecture revisits Franz Boas's landmark 1889 essay On Alternating Sounds, a foundational text in linguistic anthropology that challenged prevailing assumptions about Indigenous North American languages and transformed how scholars think about language, culture, and knowledge.

Drawing on this intellectual tradition, Professor Harkness will explore the enduring relationship between linguistics and anthropology, arguing that linguistic analysis remains essential for understanding sociocultural processes and refining ethnographic inquiry.

Harkness's research examines the role of language, communication, and semiotic processes in the formation and transformation of social groups. His influential work on Christianity, language, and social life in South Korea has helped shape contemporary linguistic and semiotic anthropology.

The lecture will begin with welcome remarks from Professor Nathan Hill.

📍 Room 4074, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin

📅 Sunday, 14 June 2026 | 4.30pm (Dublin time)

This event will be of particular interest to scholars and students of anthropology, linguistics, Asian studies, sociolinguistics, semiotics, and ethnography.

For those attending SSATH 2026, the lecture offers an opportunity to reflect on the broader intellectual foundations connecting language study with the analysis of culture and society.

More summer school info at
https://www.tcd.ie/Asian/courses/historical-linguistics-summer-school/index.php





Language Exchange Ireland
Trinity College Dublin Global
Post-Primary Languages Ireland
TCD School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences

Our TCAS Book Talk Series continues with:
"Denial, Deterrence, and Disenchantment: Why Many Do Not Immigrate"

📍 LTEE2 Lecture Theatre (Science 1st Call), B/04 (A), Hamilton East End, Trinity College Dublin

📅 Friday, 12 June | 3.30 pm – 4.30 pm

We invite colleagues and students to a timely book talk by Jacob Thomas, Assistant Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest and Research Fellow at Princeton University’s Centre for Migration and Development.

Drawing on survey and interview data from more than 2,500 potential immigrants from mainland China, this talk examines an important but underexplored question:

Why do many people who consider migration ultimately decide not to move?

The book explores three key mechanisms shaping immobility:

• governments denying visas
• policies and social forces deterring applications
• growing disenchantment with migration itself

Thomas develops a new push-retain-pull-repel model to explain how migration decisions are shaped not only by opportunity, but also by structural and social constraints.

The talk also examines how migratory possibilities are stratified across socioeconomic groups and how factors that facilitate migration can simultaneously inhibit it.

🎟 Book tickets:

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/denial-deterrence-and-disenchantment-why-many-do-not-immigrate-tickets-1987325425846?aff=oddtdtcreator

This event will be of interest to those working in migration studies, sociology, political science, China studies, and global mobility research.

Colleagues from the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences were delighted to welcome students from Loreto Secondary School Balbriggan for a short campus visit focused on languages, linguistics, and language-learning opportunities at Trinity College Dublin!

The visit was organised by teacher Sarah Kearney, whose fifth-year Higher Level French students were visiting Dublin as part of their language-learning activities, including a visit to the Alliance Française de Dublin.

The students were keen to learn more about university programmes involving languages and linguistics.

During the visit, Dr Hongfei Wang, Programme Coordinator of the Language and Culture modules in Trinity Electives, introduced students to the wide range of language-learning opportunities available at Trinity, including possibilities for continuing both existing and new languages at university level.

She also introduced the undergraduate programmes offered within the School.

The students also heard from Prof. Teresa Lynch from Deaf Studies, who delivered an engaging talk on Irish Sign Language (ISL) and linguistics.

Interpretation support was kindly provided by Cormac Leonard, helping to make the session interactive and accessible for all attendees.

The visit offered students a valuable opportunity to explore the diverse linguistic and cultural learning environment at Trinity and to gain insight into future study opportunities in languages, linguistics, and communication studies.