Tuesday 30th October 2012
News
Boy meets girl: Saphora Smith on the transgender experience Illustration: Sadhbh Byrne
News In Brief
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Dracula in digital Dublin
InDepth -p.7
Frat holds “secret beach party” Reuben Smyth Staff Writer The fraternity established last year by students of Trinity, Theta Omicron, hosted a secret “Frat Beach Party” at an undisclosed location on 25th October. It is the first significant event reported since the organisation provoked a backlash last year from the wider student body. Many fraternity “pledges” occupy prominent persons in College’s various societies, although some of those initially reported to be involved withdrew at an early stage citing concerns. The stigma surrounding college fraternities, particularly in North America, gave
Aonghus Ó Cochláin Staff Writer A project commissioned by the Science Gallery in Trinity’s Naughton Institute will have gamers and smartphone users playing Bram Stoker’s Vampires to celebrate Halloween this year. The game comes from Haunted Planet Studios Ltd, founded by Dr Mads Haahr, a lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Statistics, in collaboration with researchers from College and the National Digital Research Centre. The launch of the game
was a feature of the inaugural Bram Stoker festival on 26th October, being a celebration of the Dublin author’s legacy on the centenary of his death. With a theme based on Stoker’s classic novel Dracula, the game utilizes Global Positioning System functionality for an augmented-reality experience and sees players solve a vampire mystery in a range of locations around the city centre, including locations such as College and Dublin Castle. The location-based game involves pointing the camera at sites across the city to uncover ghosts, vampires and other visions from Stoker’s epic novel. Players will even
come face-to-face with Count Dracula and the three vampire sisters that Stoker’s protagonist, Jonathan Harker, encounters in Dracula’s Transylvanian castle. The game showcases the incorporation of “highly realistic visuals, engaging gameplay and a unique locationbased approach to audio”, according to Haahr, in what is a celebration of both the city’s literary history and technological innovation. Taking around an hour to complete, it was commissioned by the Science Gallery for the upcoming exhibition Game, which launches on 15th November.
Nobel laureates appointed to honorary professorships Aonghus Ó Cochláin Staff Writer The School of Biochemistry and Immunology, a constituent part at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI), has had three Nobel laureates appointed as honorary professors. Each having received the Nobel prize in medicine or physiology, the new professors are Jules Hoffman, Bruce Beutler and Peter Doherty. The three all have connec-
tions to Trinity. Doherty was involved in the strategic planning towards the opening of the TBSI, while Hoffman and Doherty spoke at a symposium on immunology in the Stanley Quek theatre last July. The title of honorary professor is reserved for those who have a particularly distinguished academic record. Doherty shared the Nobel prize in 1996 for his work with Rolf Zinkernagel on how the body’s immune cells protect against viruses. Hoffman and Beutler were co-recipients along with Ralph Steinman in
2011 for work they did in the area of innate immunity. Prof Luke O’Neill, academic director of the TBSI, welcomed the honorary professors on their appointment, remarking: “We are delighted to welcome Jules, Peter and Bruce to TBSI. They will visit to take part in seminars and also to interact with both graduate and undergraduate students. We are confident that they will be an inspiration to staff and students alike.”
rise to concerns over sexism and elitism. Members of College’s bodies, such as the Central Societies Committee and the Students’ Union, did not condone the organisation’s affiliation with College, meaning that it did not refer to its connection with Trinity explicity in its promotional material for the beach party. The buses for the event did, however, gather on Nassau Street beside College as advertised – and about 30 people were waiting for them at the 8pm scheduled time. The event offered “free drink, food and Jack Wills party pants” to revellers, as well as guaranteeing “sexy DJs” would be present in the rented country house in County Meath. The return
bus to town was scheduled for 4am and cost €10, although those attending were “welcome to stay”. Organisers listed on the Facebook event page included prominent fraternity members Jack O’Connor and Andrew Nagle, while Cian Mulville, Alannah Howie and George Tetley were among the 24 hosts. Theta Omicron is a chapter of the larger North American Zeta Psi fraternity. The organisation had its “chartering banquet” in February this year, after the plans for its establishment were put together the previous summer. It is unclear as of yet if the organisation has succeeded in its “primary aim” for this year – of gaining a property in Dublin for its activities.
Trinity report casts light on bullying of disabled people Reuben Smyth Staff Writer A report, published on 23rd October by the National Institute of Intellectual Disability (NIID) at Trinity, indicates that bullying is a serious problem for people with disabilities. According to the research, a majority of people with intellectual disabilities experience bullying regularly, most often verbally, and in various places. The report exposed a lack of preventative measures and raised questions about the credibility of those in charge of individual complainants. Also common are incidents of physical assault and indirect forms of bullying, such as ex-
ploitation and isolation. It says that bullying of disabled children is widespread in schools, but also extends to community-based locations for both children and adults, and describes bullying of adults with an intellectual disability in public places as a significant issue. Dr Fintan Sheerin, the acting director of the NIID, said that the study found people with intellectual disabilities are concerned that their complaints are falling on deaf ears with authorities. The NIID’s report was presented to the National Disability Authority, and warned that harassment has a devastating multiplier effect, with victims becoming socially ostracised. The report recommends that people with intellectual disabilities should be able to at-
tend training sessions to improve their confidence and self-esteem, and learn strategies to tackle bullies. “Even in this report, it is shown that people tend not to report; they tend to keep quiet and to shy away. Their way of dealing with bullying is to walk away,” according to Sheerin. "That fits into the perspective of people who have been disempowered; who just live with it and keep their head down so they won’t be noticed. But the bullying is coming from mainstream society, from people who don’t have an intellectual disability. It is experienced within the service and among people who have an intellectual disability as well."
UCD, like Trinity, loses medical school head Aonghus Ó Cochláin Staff Writer Prof Bill Powderly is leaving his position as the head of UCD’s school of medicine and medical science, making him the second head of an Irish medical school to leave their post this year. Trinity’s own Professor Dermot Kelleher departed from his role as head of the School of Medicine in June to go to Imperial College London. Powderly, a specialist in
HIV, is going to Washington University in St Louis, Missouri in the US, and has commented that his decision is based on a mixture of personal and professional reasons. Powderly returned to Ireland in 2004 after 22 years in the US to take up his position in UCD. The UCD professor remarked that the last 15 to 20 years was a “golden era” for the attractiveness of Irish universities to international talent. He further explained that cuts in salary for medical academics would become a considerable barrier for med-
ical schools to recruit strong candidates, and that less “competitive” salaries send a message that Ireland is losing interest in attracting international talent. Another worry is that there is a growing disconnect between the Department of Health and the Health Services Executive, together responsible for the provision of health services, and other government departments. This comes in light of rising concerns over the competitiveness of Irish universities, not only in medicine, but elsewhere as well.
Agamben to address science in the humanites Ian Curran News Editor
Prof Jules Hoffman
Prof Bruce Beutler
The political philosopher Giorgio Agamben will give a public lecture as part of an international conference and symposium entitled Biopolitics, Science and Performance. Co-hosted by the Arts Technology Research Lab and the Long Room Hub to coincide with Dublin City of Science 2012, panels and sessions will take place from Wednesday to Friday this week. Agamben’s keynote address will take place at 6pm on
Wednesday in the Tercentenary Hall of the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute on Pearse Street. His lecture will be entitled The Archaeology of the Work of Art. Agamben is an Italian-born academic who rose to prominence with the 1993 publication of his collection of short essays, entitled The Coming Community, and his critically lauded work, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Agamben has also been vocal on political events of the last decade, criticizing America’s response to 9/11 and discussing the protesters at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.
He explored American politics in his 2005 work The State of Exception, which described the situation of exception created by the event itself which led to the passing of the Patriot Act. He discusses this paradigm of exception as being the primary shift in politics that allows governments to turn the political body into a criminal body. Agamben is currently a professor of aesthetics at the University of Verona, Italy and is the Baruch Spinoza chair at the European Graduate School.
Historic public lecture on American politics Ian Curran News Editor College will play host to the American political scientist and historian Gary Gerstle this week as he addresses the issue of money in American politics. The Department of History’s annual public lecture in American history will take place at 7pm this evening, Tuesday 30th October, in the JM Synge theatre in the Arts Building. Prof Peter Doherty
The lecture is entitled Democracy and Money in America: A Historical Perspective on the Election of 2012. It is set to explore contemporary issues in campaign financing and the landmark 2010 supreme court decision in the Citizens United case. Gerstle is a professor of political science and American history at Vanderbilt University and is the Harmsworth professor of American history at the University of Oxford for this year. The lecture represents the second in a series of annual
lectures in American history funded by a grant from the University of Dublin Fund, which is a fund that receives its donations from Trinity alumni living in America. It is also sponsored by the School of Histories and Humanities at Trinity. The series is organized by Dr Daniel Geary, the Mark Pigott lecturer in US history. The first lecture in the series, Barack Obama and the American Democratic Tradition, was delivered by James Kloppenberg of Harvard University in March 2011.