In an unprecedented rise, Prof Chris Morash, who only joined Trinity in 2014 and was appointed Head of the School of English in 2015, has been appointed Trinityâs next Vice-Provost, and will take up the position on July 4th.
The appointment was approved by the College Board today.
The Vice-Provost serves as the Chief Academic Officer of the College and is focused on academic oversight of Trinity, chairing a number of important committees including the Planning Group and the Heads of Schools Committee.
In a press release, Morash emphasised the âchallenging timeâ that Irish higher education is experiencing at the minute, but added that âchallenging times can be opportunities both for change, and for deciding what is important to defendâ.
âIâve been waking up every morning with a sense of the challenges and the possibilities of this post. And, at a personal level, as a Canadian-born Vice-Provost, there is a sense of making history in a small way â and thatâs exciting as wellâ, he said.
This appointment as Vice-Provost is the latest achievement in Morashâs rapid rise through Trinity. Only a year after being hired as Trinityâs Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing in 2014, Morash was promoted to Head of the School of English.
Morash, who is from Nova Scotia, Canada, came to Trinity as a student in 1985, and joined as a staff member from Maynooth University in 2014, where he helped found the Centre for Media Studies. Morash, who also sits on the board of the Smock Alley Theatre, has published histories of the Irish theatre and of Irish media, two of his main areas of academic interest.
Provost Patrick Prendergast, who nominated him for the role, congratulated Morash on his appointment. In a press release, Prendergast said: âI know that Chris will bring a great deal to the new role. His appointment comes at a very exciting time for Trinity in terms of teaching, learning, research and innovation. It is also a time of tremendous challenge for the university in terms of funding that will be a priority for us in the coming months.â
He also thanked the current Vice-Provost, Prof Linda Hogan, whom he praised for showing âsuch commitment and energy in the role over the last five years, leading with reform and innovation for the benefit of the university.â
Hogan led a significant number of College reforms over during her five years as Vice-Provost, including the implementation of a tenure-track employment model for entry-level academics, and as the driving force behind the Trinity Education Project.
Writing in The University Times in March, Hogan said that the aim of tenure-track is ânot to fix a broken system, but rather to enhance an already strong one by providing a more streamlined, consistent, robust and supportive frameworkâ.
Speaking to Trinity College Dublin Studentsâ Union (TCDSU) Council about the Trinity Education Project in February, Hogan emphasised that the aim of the project is to âstreamline a lot of our systemsâ and âconstantly improveâ. Led by Hogan, the project, which is still in its planning stages, has been trying to develop what an âundergraduate program should look like in the futureâ.
Morash will take over from Hogan as Project Sponsor of the Trinity Education Project.
In his time in Trinity, Morash has already shown a willingness to challenge entrenched forms of assessment. Over the past year, Morash has moved the School of English away from an exam-based approach. Speaking to The University Times last year about the shift, he described the schoolâs previous assessment method as âsome kind of random ratio of 50 per cent exams, 50 per cent essaysâ, and he has instead encouraged lecturers to assess materials the way they felt was most appropriate.
Morash currently serves as the Chair of the Royal Irish Academyâs Culture and Heritage Policy Sub-committee. He was also the first chair of the Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) when it made a controversial decision about the discussion of marriage equality on news and current affairs shows.
Correction: 18:42, June 15th, 2016
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Morash was the current chair of the Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. In fact, he finished his term at the beginning of 2015.