Triona Ni Shiochain

Tríona Ní Shíocháin is Head of the School of English, Media, and Creative Arts and Established Professor of Music and Performing Arts at the University of Galway. She formerly held the positions of Professor of Modern Irish and Performing Arts and Head of the School of Celtic Studies at Maynooth University, prior to which she was Head of the Department of Music at UCC, where she lectured in Irish Traditional Music. An interdisciplinary scholar of Music and Irish, and a whistle-player, sean-nós singer, and set-dancer, she specialises in oral theory, performance theory, Irish traditional music, song, and dance, and women oral composers from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Her current research focuses on Irish-language artistic research, creative practice, Irish-language feminist and gender studies, hidden histories of womens thought and subjugated knowledges in song and lament, and the symbiosis between embodiment, vocality, and style in Irish traditional music. She is author of Singing Ideas: Performance, Politics and Oral Poetry (Berghahn 2018, 2021) and Bláth s Craobh na nÚdar: Amhráin Mháire Bhuí (Coiscéim 2012), and co-edited Léachtaí Cholm Cille 53: Léann Feimineach agus Inscne na Gaeilge (Irish-language feminist and gender studies) (An Sagart 2023) with Prof. Máire Ní Annracháin. Tríona is a member of the steering committee of IMBAS an Irish Forum for Arts Practice Researchers and Artists.

Ceoltóir, amhránaí agus scoláire idirdhisciplíneach is ea an tOllamh Tríona Ní Shíocháin go bhfuil suim ar leithligh aici i dtaibhealaíona agus i dtraidisiúin bhéil na Gaelainne, sa cheol traidisiúnta, sa chleachtas cruthaitheach, i mbanfhilí na Gaelainne, agus i stair na smaointeoireachta mar a léirítear dúinn í san amhránaíocht agus sa bhfilíocht. Ceapadh í ina hOllamh Bunaithe le Ceol agus Taibhealaíona i Scoil an Bhéarla, na Meán, agus na nEalaíon Cruthaitheach in Ollscoil na Gaillimhe i 2024, áit ina bhfuil sí ina Ceann Scoile chomh maith. Roimis sin, do bhí sí ina hOllamh le Nua-Ghaeilge agus Taibhealaíona agus ina Ceann Scoile ar Scoil an Léinn Cheiltigh in Ollscoil Mhá Nuad, agus roimis sin arís do bhí sí ina Ceann Roinne agus ina Léachtóir le Ceol Gaelach i Roinn an Cheoil i gColáiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh.Tá suim ana-mhór aici sa Taighde Ealaíonta agus sa chleachtas cruthaitheachealaíonta, agus tá roinnt forbairtí nuatha curtha chun cinn sa réimse sin aici ag leibhéal MA agus PhD le roinnt blianta anuas. Tá mórán foilsithe aici ar ghnéithe éagsúla den amhránaíocht, den gceol, agus den litríocht, ina measc Singing Ideas: Performance, Politics and Oral Poetry (2021, 2018) agus Bláth s Craobh na nÚdar: Amhráin Mháire Bhuí (2012). Do bhí sí ina comheagarthóir ar Léachtaí Cholm Cille 53: Léann Feimineach agus Inscne na Gaeilge (2023) i gcomhpháirt leis an Ollamh Máire Ní Annracháin. Is ball í de choiste stiúrtha IMBAS.

Irish-language arts practice and artistic research; endangered/minoritised languages and arts practice/artistic research; 17th-19th-century Irish-speaking women song composers, lamenters, and singers; sean-nós singing; anonymous women's voices in song; oral composition, transmission, and performance; Irish traditional music and dance; the inter-relationship between melody and embodiment in dance, particularly in polkas and slides; the relationship of poetic metre to melodic structure in sean-nós song; song and thought formation; song and liminality; song and selfhood/identity; anti-colonial song; decolonising arts practice and artistic research; oral theory; performance theory; ethnomusicology; cultural musicology. Performance specialisms: sean-nós singing, set-dancing, whistle playing.