Earlier this month Samuel Mutter and Danielle Hynes attended the Conference of Irish Geographers 2025, held at Queens University over three exceptionally sunny days. Danielle and Sam presented in two sessions: ‘Creative Methodologies’ and ‘Critical Geographies of Housing’.
[Image: The Elmwood Building, QUB, where the conference was held.]In Creative Methodologies, Danielle and Sam discussed two aspects of their current work, focusing on their ongoing collaboration with artist Mel Galley on the theme of ‘data narratives’ and nascent work around photographing planning site notices around Ireland. In a presentation titled ‘Telling Data Otherwise: Creating Housing Data Stories through Researcher-Artist Collaboration in Dublin, Ireland’, they reflected on the collaborative process with Mel, tracing the work of artist and researchers to find ways of unsettling, countering or responding to mainstream data narratives of housing and planning through practices such as grid-based story writing. Meanwhile, reflections on site notice photography raised the potential for such approaches to foreground the emplaced and material qualities of data in the built environment.
[Image: Danielle and Sam presenting their work.]Two other excellent presentations were delivered in this session. The first was from Gerry Kearns, Isabella Oberlander, Fearghus Ó Conchúir and Karen Till who discussed dance as a form of knowledge and the possibilities of tearmann aiteach / queer sanctuary. The second came from Ruodi Yang, who is exploring public space under neoliberalism through the lens of street performance.
In the Critical Geographies of Housing session Sam presented findings from CATU’s Eviction Nation report, in place of Fiadh Tubridy who was unable to attend. Danielle presented on work undertaken during her PhD, examining the shift from government managed public housing to NGO-owned and managed community housing. This presentation was in conversation with Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn’s work, who also presented in this session, examining the similar shift from social housing delivered by Local Authorities in Ireland to the increasing growth of the AHB sector.
[Image: Sam presents Eviction Nation.]On the final day, attendees were invited on one of two field trips. Danielle attended a bus tour of Belfast, led by geologist and geophysicist Alastair Ruffell. Attendees visited various sites around Belfast and heard a little about the history of the city. Visiting the peace wall, two graveyards, and the new Grand Central Station (to drop off everyone heading home), Alastair told us some of the history of the city and his part in it as a forensic geologist.
We’d like to thank the organisers for such a wonderful and well run conference, and to all those who attended sessions where we presented and asked such engaged questions.
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