Few experiences are as central to Irish history and cultural memory as migration, especially from the 19th century to the present. This module explores the visual representation of migration and Irish social history in painting, engraving, photography, sculpture, contemporary art, and museum/heritage settings. Students will be challenged to consider how Irish emigration, and the experiences of the rural/urban poor and working classes, have been visualized and materialized within Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia – from fine art, to commemoration, to museums and the heritage industry. We will consider a broad range of representations from art history and visual culture, beginning with the Victorian period and finishing with post-Celtic Tiger narratives and representations of migration, placing the production and consumption of migration images in their historical context. We will also compare and contrast the history of Irish migration and its visual culture with imagings of the contemporary migration crisis in Europe. 
The module will include numerous site visits, including (for example) visits to view the important paintings in the UCD Folklore Collection and their holdings on emigration; Epic Ireland, the new emigration museum located in CHQ; the Tenement Museum, a new heritage site currently under development at no. 14 Henrietta Street (Dublin).