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Institute for Field Research (Outgoing Program)

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  • Locations: Cochasquí, Ecuador; Oaxaca, Mexico; Spike Island, Ireland
  • Program Terms: Summer
  • Homepage: Click to visit
  • Restrictions: Trinity applicants only
  • This program is currently not accepting applications.
Dates / Deadlines:

There are currently no active application cycles for this program.
Fact Sheet:
Fact Sheet:
Language of Instruction: English Areas of Study: Archaeology
Program Type: Field Study
Program Description:
Institute for Field Research: Spike Island
http://ifrglobal.org/program/ireland-spike-island/

This field school is part of a larger research project that examines the development of modern prison systems through the study of the archaeology of the 19th century prison on Spike Island, Ireland’s Alcatraz.  Strategically located at the mouth of Cork Harbour, the island was a military and naval base for over 200 years and is the site of the largest fortress in Ireland.  For 36 years from 1847, the fort was used as a convict prison, initially as a crisis response to Ireland’s Great Famine (1845-1852).  Dealing with criminals by means of long-term incarceration is a relatively recent development.  In Ireland and Britain, long-term confinement only became the dominant means of punishment and social control in the mid-19th century.  Globally, that century was a critical period for the development of the modern prison with considerable innovation and experimentation in punishment regimes.  At the first International Penitentiary Congresses in the 1870s, the ‘Irish System’, was seen as a role model for other world areas and Spike Island had played a critical role in the development of this approach.  The island was also a major point of embarkation transportation to Australia where convicts became part of an extraordinarily effect project in social engineering, providing the labour and population of new colonies.


This program is currently not accepting applications.