University of Ulster academic Máiréad Nic Craith, Professor of European Culture and Society at the Magee campus has taken up a guest professorship at the University of Göttingen in Germany where she will be based in the Department of Cultural Anthropology.

Last year the University of Göttingen was ranked one of the top universities in Germany. It was also among the top 30 universities in Europe and in the world’s top 100 universities. 

Professor Nic Craith’s research focuses primarily on the conceptual understanding of contemporary political-linguistic debates in Ireland and across Europe. The guest professorship is funded by the DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service through a programme designed to strengthen the internationalisation of the educational experience for host institutions in Germany.

Professor Nic Craith has been invited to give a DAAD public lecture on April 14 on her research in the field of migration, language and intercultural memoirs. This study is supported by a Leverhulme research fellowship.   

Commenting on her appointment, Professor Nic Craith said: “I am very pleased to have an opportunity to work in a university which has attracted scholars and students such as Wilhelm von Humboldt, Arthur Schopenhauer and the brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. While I look forward to collaborating with members of the research committee on biography and society of the International Sociological Association at University of Göttingen, I will also be delighted to come back to Magee at the end of July.”  

This latest appointment is an acknowledgement of both the academic and practical relevance of Professor Nic Craith’s research and her international reputation as a leading authority on culture and identity politics. Last year she was admitted as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). Membership of the RIA is the highest academic honour available to a scholar working in Ireland. She is also a Leverhulme Research Fellow and Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter.

Professor Nic Craith has undertaken many consultancies on language-based issues for organisations, such as the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages and Mercator (Legislation), and has served on the European Studies sub-panel in the recent UK research assessment exercise.