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 mix of metaphysics and science in the writings of the geologist James Croll and the reception of ideas about human evolution in the context of religious debates about the creation of Eve (rather than Adam). 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 published by the University of Pittsburgh Press has recently appeared. With Professor David N. Livingstone, I have now completed 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). I am currently at the early stages of writing a biography of Scottish evolutionist and evangelist, Henry Drummond.
Teaching
GGY1011 Human Geography: Society, Power and Culture
GGY1012 Human Geography: Society, Economy and Population
GGY2055 Geographical Research Skills
GGY2056 Contemporary Approaches to Geographical Enquiry
GGY3066 Geography, Science and Society
GGY3081 Dissertation
GGY7001 Critical Geopolitics
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 2 Finished
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R8869NBE: Conjunctive Explanations: How Science and Religion Can work Together
Finnegan, D. & Livingstone, D. N.
05/02/2019 → 31/03/2021
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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Review of William J. Ashworth. The Trinity Circle: anxiety, intelligence, and knowledge creation in nineteenth-century England
Finnegan, D. A., 01 Sep 2022, In: American Historical Review. 127, 3, p. 1449-1450 2 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
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The Character of Scientific Speech: John Tyndall’s American Lecture Tour
Finnegan, D. A., 21 May 2022, HSTM Magazine.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
Open Access -
Of Snails and Salvation: The Theological Construction of John Thomas Gulick’s Theory of Evolution
Finnegan, D., 03 Dec 2021, In: Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences . 51, 5, p. 567-604 37 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile98 Downloads (Pure) -
Science, metaphysics and Calvinism: The God of James Croll
Finnegan, D., 10 May 2021, (Early online date) In: Earth and Environmental Sciences Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile100 Downloads (Pure) -
The Voice of Science: British Scientists on the Lecture Circuit in Gilded Age America
Finnegan, D. A., 12 Oct 2021, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 352 p. (Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century)Research output: Book/Report › Book
Activities
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Invited Talk for Symposium on Commemorating Darwin in Context, University of Queensland
Diarmid Finnegan (Invited speaker)
28 Jun 2023Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Irish Network for Nineteenth Century Studies
Diarmid Finnegan (Speaker)
16 Jun 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Imagine! Festival of Ideas & Politics
Diarmid Finnegan (Participant)
24 Mar 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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History of Science (Journal)
Diarmid Finnegan (Peer reviewer)
07 Mar 2023Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review
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Emotions: History, Culture, Society (Journal)
Diarmid Finnegan (Peer reviewer)
05 Dec 2022Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review
Press/Media
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History of Science Walking Tour of Belfast
24/07/2022
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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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