About this Event
The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: A Symposium
Join us for a fascinating day dedicated to exploring the . This collaboration between the School of English and Trinity College Library will bring together a range of experts to discuss the history, significance, and impact of the Collection.
The Collection is one of the most important children's book collections in the world and contains over 12,000 books ranging from the 16thC to the early 20thC amassed over a twenty-year period by Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard, the former Keeper of Early Printed books at Trinity College Library.
Keynote: Prof Emer O’Sullivan
‘Pollard's Germans: exploring the Collection’s transnational dimensions’
Emer O’Sullivan graduated from University College Dublin and pursued further studies and academic work at Berlin and Frankfurt universities before being appointed Chair of English Literature at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Writing in both German and English, she specialises in comparative and children’s literature, with particular interests in translation and image studies. Her work has been translated into many languages. A pioneer in comparative children’s literature, she has received international recognition, most recently the IRSCL Honorary Fellowship and the 20th International Brothers Grimm Award in 2025.
Speakers include: Dr Jane Carroll, Prof Aileen Douglas, Dr Lydia Ferguson, Tony Flynn, Prof Kenneth Kidd, Dr Maggie Masterson, Dr Sinéad Moriarty, Laura Shanahan, and Dr Pádraic Whyte. Students from the MPhil programme in Children's Literature will also present some of their research findings.
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
Admission is free but registration is essential.
The symposium is kindly supported by the Faculty of AHSS Events Fund , the School of English, and Trinity College Library
Schedule
10.00: Welcome
Dr Pádraic Whyte and Dr Jane Carroll
10.15 – 11.15: Keynote
Prof. Emer O’Sullivan
Pollard's Germans: exploring the Collection’s transnational dimensions
11.15 – 11.30: Coffee break
11.30 – 12.45: Panel 1
Dr Pádraic Whyte
The History of Harry Spencer: Paul Pollard and the beginnings of Irish Children’s Literature
Dr Maggie Masterson
Paul Pollard's anti-canon of unknown and uninteresting books
Prof. Aileen Douglas
The ‘new literature of animals’ and the Pollard Collection
12.45 - 14.00: Break
14.00 – 15.15: Panel 2
Dr Jane Carroll
Convivial Patchworks: Collections within the Pollard Collection of Children's Books
Tony Flynn
Stories in Blank Spaces: Revealing biographies of childhood through inscriptions and marginalia found in the Pollard Collection of Children’s Books and Pollard Schoolbook Collection
Dr Sinéad Moriarty
"Weep on then, lost island": imagining Irish landscapes in the Irish history texts of the Pollard School-book collection 1860-1920.
15.15 – 15.30: Coffee Break
15.30 – 16.30: Adventures in the Pollard Collection
Presentations from Students on the M.Phil. programme in Children’s Literature:
Jovyn Anderson, Shumane Cleary, Judit Climent Torras, Alice Andrea Dall’Alba, Cleo Daly, Eryne Decluy-Mason, Isabelle Duffy, Bianca Embrén, Annelise Hoffman, Eva Hughes-Sutton, Susan Stewart, Paulina Tittertington, Jiaying Wu.
16.45 – 17.30: Roundtable Discussion and Closing Remarks
The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: Past, Present, and Future
Prof. Kenneth Kidd, Dr Lydia Ferguson, Laura Shanahan, Dr Jane Carroll, Dr Pádraic Whyte
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Trinity Long Room Hub, College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
EUR 0.00
