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Dr Samantha Vanderslott (Oxford Vaccine Group) and Dr Claas Kirchhelle (University College Dublin) have had their three-year project ‘Typhoid, Cockles, and Terrorism’ about the history of typhoid in Dublin successfully funded.

Three female cockle-pickers with baskets, at the coast © Reproduction rights owned by National Library of Ireland

Eleven new research projects have been announced today by the Irish Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), that will see the UK and Ireland bring together world-leading expertise in the Digital Humanities.  

Dr Samantha Vanderslott, University of Oxford; Dr Claas Kirchhelle; University College Dublin - Typhoid, Cockles, and Terrorism: The turbulent history of Anglo-Irish typhoid control in revolutionary Dublin  

The project aims to explore the intimate connection between imperial and revolutionary public health politics in 20th century Dublin. The researchers will conduct innovative research on the (post)colonial politics of Anglo-Irish public health and typhoid control in Dublin. They will design a major blended physical/digital exhibition (hosted at Dublin City Library and Archive and the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland), educational resources and create an open access database of spatially coded historical disease, environmental, and infrastructural data. The project will use a mix of historical and digital humanities methods to analyse and digitise historical disease data, medical correspondence, cultural ephemera, infrastructural records, and meteorological data to understand why British bacteriological and sanitary interventions proved impractical in Dublin and how they were perceived by local populations. It hopes to make significant contributions to research and engage audiences from all age groups on the importance of equitable access to effective sanitary infrastructure and vaccines.