Projects per year
Personal profile
Interests
- Historical geographies of ideas
- History of geographical knowledge
Research Statement
My research interests include the cultural history and geography of the life and earth sciences, with a particular emphasis on religious responses to scientific developments in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My earliest work examined the reception of glacial theory in Victorian Edinburgh, investigated the historical geographies of Scottish natural history societies in the period 1831-1900 and, with Charles Withers and Rebekah Higgitt, explored the role of geography in the work of the British Association for the Advancement of Science from 1831 – c.1933. My book on natural history societies in Victorian Scotland was published by Pickering & Chatto in 2009 and was awarded the Frank Watson Book Prize for Scottish History in 2011. In 2014, I completed a two-year AHRC-funded project on science in nineteenth-century Belfast. I have also written about the metaphysical works of the geologist James Croll and the reception of ideas about human evolution in the context of religious debates about the creation of Eve. More recent work has centred on public speech as a situated mode of interaction between science and culture in the nineteenth century. A monograph on this subject examining the lecture tours of five British celebrity scientists in Gilded Age America is nearing completion. With Professor David N. Livingstone, I have just embarked on a 27 month project investigating debates about evolution and theology in the early twentieth century. This is part of a larger John Templeton Foundation-funded project on conjunctive explanations in science and religion (CESAR).
Teaching
GGY1011 Human Geographies of the Modern World
GGY1012 Spaces of Development
GGY2055 Research Design and Professional Development
GGY2056 Contemporary Approaches to Geographical Enquiry
GGY3066 Geography, Science and Society
GGY3081 Dissertation
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Network
Projects
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R8869NBE: Conjunctive Explanations: How Science and Religion Can work Together
Finnegan, D. & Livingstone, D. N.
05/02/2019 → …
Project: Research
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R1040GGY: Scientific Metroplis: Belfast in an age of science, c. 1820-1914
01/08/2011 → 21/09/2014
Project: Research
Research Output
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Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science by Terence Keel
Finnegan, D. A., 14 Jul 2020, In : The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 71, 3, p. 665-668 4 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
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Signs in the Dust: A Theory of Natural Culture and Cultural Nature by Nathan Lyons
Finnegan, D., 10 Feb 2020, In : Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review
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Scale, territory and complexity: historical geographies of science and religion
Finnegan, D., 01 Oct 2019, Rethinking History, Science and Religion: An Exploration of Conflict and the Complexity Principle. Lightman, B. (ed.). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, p. 206-220 15 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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The Correspondence of John Tyndall, Volume 7
Finnegan, D. (ed.), Jackson, R. (ed.) & Kaaland, N. (ed.), 25 Nov 2019, University of Pittsburgh Press. 400 p. (The Correspondence of John Tyndall)Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Crozier’s penguin: an object history of maritime and museum science
Finnegan, D., 21 Apr 2018, In : Endeavour . 42, 1, p. 42-47 6 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile
Activities
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AHRC Peer Review College (External organisation)
Diarmid Finnegan (Advisor)
2020 → …Activity: Membership types › Membership of peer review panel or committee
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Darwin, AI and the Tacit Curriculum
Diarmid Finnegan (Organiser)
18 Jan 2020Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Scotland's Historians of Science Virtual Conference
Diarmid Finnegan (Participant)
09 Jun 2020Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Academic Symposium on Conjunctive Explanations in Science and Religion
Diarmid Finnegan (Organiser)
02 Sep 2020 → 03 Sep 2020Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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History of European Ideas (Journal)
Diarmid Finnegan (Peer reviewer)
24 Nov 2020Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review
Press / Media
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‘Men of Rock: the Big Freeze’, BBC 2
14/12/2010
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Impact
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Citizen Science: 150 Years of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club
Diarmid Finnegan (Participant)
Impact: Cultural Impact