Caitlin White is an interdisciplinary scholar specialising in public history. She is currently a Research Fellow in the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin, where she is working on the EU Horizon ‘Critical ChangeLab’ project exploring how the ChangeLab methodology can promote democratic culture in young people through creative and narrative practices. The project aims to strengthen democracy in Europe by creating a flexible model of democratic pedagogy that empowers young people to ‘own’ everyday democracy and engage in direct action towards justice-oriented transformations.
She holds a PhD in History from Trinity College Dublin, where she was supervised by Dr Anne Dolan. Her PhD thesis, ‘Engaging With The Past: A history of public history on the island of Ireland in the state formation period, and an investigation into the effects of public historical engagement’ focused on the erection and destruction of monuments in four case study areas, and the creation, implementation, and evaluation of workshops with students on her research topic. She also holds an M.Phil. from Trinity College Dublin in Public History, and a BA (Hons.) in English, history and theatre from NUI Galway.
A committed public historian, she has been involved in a variety of public history projects over the past number of years. She featured in the 2022 documentary The Silent Civil War (Scratch Films in association with RTÉ) where she explored the stories behind contentious monuments on our landscape. In 2021 she as published in The Public in Public History (Wodjon and Wisniewska, eds.) and The Split: From Treaty to Civil War (Graham, Hanley et. al). She acted as researcher and curator for the temporary exhibition in 2022, ‘Clerys: The Archives’, which told the story of the iconic department store from its beginnings in 1853 to the present day. She is a member of the local history group, Tipperary in the Decade of Revolutions, and of the International Federation for Public History.
Her current research interests are local history, commemoration, class, monuments, intellectual history, Irish Studies, global citizenship, politics, and Irish social history.
[2018-2022] PhD in Public History, Trinity College Dublin.
● Area of research: Engaging the Past: Investigating the public history of the state formation period in the two Irish states, 1921-39, and the effects of public historical engagement.
● Supervisor: Dr Anne Dolan.
● Modules included: Planning and Managing your Research Career, Research Ethics, Research Skills I & II, Teaching and Learning in Histories and Humanities.
[2017-2018] M.Phil. in Public History and Cultural Heritage, Trinity College Dublin.
● First Class Honours awarded.
● Area of research: The representation of historical events in theatre, and how public history can influence the public’s perceptions and ideas of both the past and the present.
● Modules included: Consuming History: Media, Markets and the Past, Remembering, Reminding and Forgetting: Public History, Cultural Heritage, Society and Culture in Twentieth Century Ireland.
[2010-2014] Bachelor of Arts with Theatre and Performance, National University of Ireland, Galway.
Subjects: Theatre & Performance, English, History.
Employment
[April 2023 – present] Research Fellow Trinity College Dublin
[September 2022 – April 2023] Occasional Lecturer University College Dublin
[January – August 2018] Research Intern Glasnevin Trust Museum
[ 2016 Freelance] Author of Education Resource Packs The Abbey Theatre
[March 2020 – present] Tour Guide Glasnevin Cemetery
[June 2019-present] Freelance Tour Guide
[August 2018-September 2019] Tour Guide National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks
[March 2015- June 2019] Visitor Services, Backstage Tours and Abbey Experiences Coordinator The Abbey Theatre
[October 2014-March 2016] Shakespeare Schools Tutor Gaiety School of Acting
Management & Administrative experience
[April 2023 – present] Research Fellow/Project Manager – Critical ChangeLab project (EU) Trinity College Dublin
[March 2015- June 2019] Visitor Services, Backstage Tours and Abbey Experiences Coordinator The Abbey Theatre
Teaching
Occasional Lecturer
‘Introduction to Irish Studies’ (UCD, 2021)
‘The Forgotten Irish’ (2022, UCD)
‘The Irish Presence in America’ (2021, UCD)
‘People, Places, Identity’ (2022, UCD)
Teaching Assistant
‘History of Education’ (2019-21, Hibernia College)
‘Life in Modern Ireland’ (2018-21, Trinity College)
‘Doing History’ (2022, Trinity College)
Outreach activities
History Ireland Hedge School– panellist May 2023
[Podcast, History Ireland]
The Silent Civil War– researcher and contributor April 2023
[Documentary, RTÉ]
Committees & Associations
IHSA Annual Conference, February 2022
Head of Organising Committee
Tipperary in the Decade of Revolutions
Organising Committee/Member
International Federation for Public History
Member
Awards
Irish Association of Professional Historians Bursary, May 2020.
Universities Ireland Scholarship Award, September 2018.
Military Heritage of Ireland Trust Award, May 2014.
Other activities
Conference Papers
‘Civil War Remembrance in the Irish Free State’, National Civil War Conference, University College Cork, June 2022.
‘Whose Memory? The Difficulties of World War I Remembrance in Ireland, 1921−1939’, Public History International Summer School, University of Wroclaw, July 2021.
‘An Exploration of Identity Through Remembrance of the First World War in the Irish Free State, 1922-39’, Irish History Students’ Association Conference, NUI Maynooth, March 2021.
‘Expression Through Stone: A Microstudy of Identity in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, 1921-39’, Reimagining the Decade Symposium, National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks, February 2020.
‘Remembering and Forgetting the Empire in the Irish States’, Reframing Empire Conference, Queen’s University Belfast, December 2019.
‘Remembering the Past in Northern Ireland, 1921-39’, Identities in Transformation Seminar Series, Trinity Long Room Hub, December 2019.
‘A Heady Mixture of Big Business, the State, and the Local’, Public History International Summer School, University of Wroclaw, July 2019.
‘Irish Public History in Dublin and Nenagh after the Civil War’, Irish History Students’ Association Conference, Mary Immaculate College, March 2019.
‘Irish public history – the future of Irish history’, New Directions in Irish History Conference, Teeside University, February 2019.
‘We Are Not The Makers of History’, Identities in Transformation Seminar Series, Trinity Long Room Hub, February 2019.
‘Public reactions and the historiography of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1880-85) and Juvenile Prostitution Act (1931)’, Irish History Students’ Association Conference, Magee College, February 2018.
Publications
Book Chapters
‘Statue Wars: the curation of public space in the Irish Free State, 1921-39’, inJoanna Wodjon and Dorota Wiśniewska (eds.) History in Public Spaces (Philadelphia, 2023) [upcoming].
‘The Role of the Public in Shaping New Collective Memories: The Irish Public and their Representation of History During and After the Irish Civil War of 1922-23’ in Joanna Wodjon and Dorota Wiśniewska (eds.) Public in Public History (Philadelphia, 2021)
Other Journals
‘Do Chum Glóire Dé agus Onóra na hÉireann: Irish Civil War Memory in Stone’, in Tommy Graham (ed) The Split: From Treaty to Civil War (Dublin, 2021).
‘An Irishwoman Abroad? The Truth of Kit Cavenaugh’ in Nolan, Lt. Col. Neil (ed.), The Irish Defence Forces Review (Dublin, 2015).
