Team meeting in Prague

Woolf: licence renewed to 2029

Woolf, our accrediting partner, has announced that the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority has renewed its licence as a Higher Education Institution to December 2029, across all degree levels. Woolf is a single collegiate institution, and GCAS is one of its colleges.

GCAS degrees are EU-accredited through Woolf. Your degree is awarded by Woolf, and your diploma carries both the Woolf and GCAS names and logos. Nothing has changed for any GCAS student-researcher, except that Woolf’s accreditation review has concluded successfully. You can read more on our accreditation page.

October MA courses

All times are New York (ET). Each course carries 3 ECTS.

• Theatre / Theory / Politics. Arthur Bradley. Saturdays 3, 10, 17 and 24 October, 11:00 AM. Philosophy
• Introduction to Psychoanalysis. Rishab Nathan. Sundays 4, 11, 18 and 25 October, 12:00 PM. Psychoanalysis
• Theological Reasoning. Barry Taylor. Saturdays 3, 10, 17 and 24 October, 1:00 PM. Theology
• History of Anarchism. Francisco González Castro. Saturdays 3, 10, 17 and 24 October, 1:00 PM. Politics
• Political Economy. Silvia Federici. Saturday 31 October, 1:00 PM. Politics

Join links are on the Academic Calendar on your dashboard.

Your gcas.ie dashboard: one front door

Your student dashboard is now the single place for everything you need at GCAS:

• Student Researcher Guide. A new step-by-step guide to Woolf, Canvas, signing up for courses, submitting assignments, transcripts, tuition, and the PhD assignment requirements for each year.
• Academic Calendar 2026–27. An interactive calendar of every BA, MA and PhD session. It opens on the current month, and each session has a “Join the class here” button that takes you straight into the right Zoom room.
• Student Support. All questions now go through the support portal, where they reach the right person: the Registrar, the Bursar, Canvas support or academic supervision. Please don’t use email for support requests.
• Defense Portal. A single place to submit MA theses and PhD dissertations.
• Research access. JSTOR is live for every student-researcher, alongside our Open Commons library. Always enter JSTOR from the dashboard and never through a bookmark. If you see “This is a preview,” access hasn’t gone through: switch off any VPN or privacy extension and enter again from the dashboard.
• Onboarding. New researchers can follow the sequenced checklist at gcas.ie/onboarding.
• Academic accommodation (gcas.ie/academic-accommodation) and anonymous feedback (gcas.ie/feedback-2) now have their own forms.

Programme trackers

• BA in Interdisciplinary Studies. A new BA tracker covers all three tiers and the Philosophy, Literature and Social-Environmental Studies specialisations. Supervisors have a matching dashboard.
• MA programmes. All four MA trackers (Philosophy, Politics, Psychoanalysis, Theology) now open with a module-and-course table for 2026–27 and include the four MA Research Workshop meetings.
• PhD Year 1. The tracker now includes worked examples of a table of contents, a timeline to completion and an abstract, plus a guide to lodging assignments on Canvas.

Choosing a supervisor

• PhD Year 1. Choose your supervisor through the selection page. Your choice is confirmed when you submit the form. This year’s Year 1 supervisors are Dr. Jamie Davies, Dr. Filippo Scafi, Barry Taylor, Dr. Katia Belousova, Dr. Samuel Eshleman Latimer, Dr. Antonis Iliopoulos, Dr. Mark Stimson, Dr. María Miranda and Dr. Creston Davis, each with a booking link. PhD Natural Sciences researchers are supervised by Dr. Fernando Tohmé.
• MA thesis supervision. MA researchers who have completed, or nearly completed, their ten courses nominate their thesis supervisor through the new MA supervisor nomination portal. Supervision by GCAS Core Faculty carries no additional fee. A supervisor from outside the Core Faculty must be approved in advance and carries a fee: €600 for the first three months, then €200 a month.

Independent Study

Any GCAS researcher can now apply to study one-on-one with a GCAS professor. The study runs over four meetings plus email exchanges. It can be taken for credit (3 ECTS, counting toward the degree in MA Theology and MA Psychoanalysis) or without credit. Apply through the Independent Study portal on your dashboard.

The Student-Researchers’ Handbook

The Handbook has been revised and renamed to reflect that it covers BA, MA and PhD. The main changes:

• Pause of study. You can declare a 1–5 month pause through the support portal. No fee and no approval are needed. Tuition continues during the pause, and the months are added to your grace period.
• Programme transfer. You can move between programmes at the same level, for example from one MA to another. This is requested through the support portal.
• Generative AI. AI use is permitted in all programmes as long as it is declared on the submitted paper, stating which tool was used and for what. The Academic Council is reviewing a tighter AI policy, with a decision due by 31 October. We’ll report back in the November update.
• Classroom Policy. The Classroom Policy is now part of the Handbook itself.

Community: a new home

Our community has moved from the separate Discourse forum to gcas.ie/community. There is no second login: if you’re signed into gcas.ie, you’re in. The old forum closes on 1 November, so please make sure your gcas.ie account is active.

For faculty

Faculty now have their own portal, reached from the crimson “Faculty Portal” button on the dashboard. It holds the revised Faculty Handbook, the Year 1 PhD Supervisor Guide, Canvas, research access and faculty support. Directors can also reach their supervisees’ progress from there.

Around the website

We’ve rebuilt the Apply page, with a clear four-step admissions process that takes about two weeks. We’ve also redesigned the Films page and added a new Board of Trustees page.

New on the blog

Dates for your diary

• Saturday 3 October. Unpaid gcas.ie Proton mailboxes are deleted.
• Monday 12 October, 11:00 AM New York / 4:00 PM Dublin. Required PhD Research Gathering, for all PhD candidates and supervisors.
• Thursday 15 October, 11:00 AM New York / 4:00 PM Dublin. MA Research Workshop, Meeting 1 (Tier 2, Dissertation Research). Open to all MA researchers and faculty across the four MA programmes.
• Monday 19 October, 12:00 Dublin. Shareholders’ Meeting.
• 31 October. Academic Council decision on AI policy.
• 1 November. The old Discourse forum closes.
• 9–16 May 2027. GCAS Florence. Four seminars at Via Ricasoli 21, with Helen Rollins, Bruce Fink, Catherine Keller and Simon Critchley. Commencement is Sunday 16 May at Giannino in San Lorenzo. The seminar room holds 40, so seats are reserved in priority order: enrolled MA student-researchers first, until 1 December. The Florence 2027 section on your dashboard is now open for seat reservations, presentation sign-ups and Commencement registration.