GCAS Monthly Update
GCAS is growing. New researchers are joining us across every programme this autumn, and the infrastructure around them is growing with them. Over the past months we’ve rebuilt the student dashboard, brought JSTOR to our researchers’ desks, opened a support desk, and begun conversations with an accredited Italian university about a partnership that could open real teaching opportunities for our PhD researchers. Here’s where things stand.
Action Required: Register Your GCAS Account by 1 September
Every GCAS account is now the front door to everything — and it’s here because our researchers asked for it. Back in June, they told us they wanted their academic life in one place, and these accounts are our response to that feedback.
A gcas.ie account brings together courses, research resources, the support desk, the community forum, and direct access to JSTOR, all behind a single login.
By 1 September, every GCAS student-researcher must register. If that’s you, please take a minute to choose your programme so we can connect you to the right people and resources. This is how we’ll be communicating from now on, so registering makes sure you don’t miss course updates, announcements, and everything we’re building.
Register your accountJSTOR Is Now Available to GCAS Researchers
We’ve invested in JSTOR, and it’s live. Every registered GCAS researcher now has access to one of the largest scholarly archives in the humanities and social sciences — journals, primary sources, and monographs they’d otherwise be paying for article by article.
It’s reached through a gcas.ie account, so this is one more reason to register. More databases will follow.
Our thanks to our new Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Katia Belousova (PhD, Rice University), who made the case for JSTOR and kept making it. Good institutions are built by people who insist on what their colleagues need.
A New Dashboard, and Degree Trackers Coming
The student dashboard has been rebuilt around what researchers actually need: their courses, their resources, the support desk, and their researcher profile, organised by programme rather than by department.
Degree trackers are next. Within the next week or so, MA and PhD researchers will find an updated tracker showing where they are in their programme, what’s coming, and what’s outstanding — so progress is visible without having to ask.
Welcome Dr. Lucy Quezada Yáñez — and Next Year’s Courses
Congratulations to Dr. Lucy Quezada Yáñez, who has just completed her PhD in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. Lucy joins us to teach Art and Politics in Anarchism in the MA Politics programme.
Her course is one of many now confirmed for the year ahead. You can see the full slate — every seminar, every month, across all four MA streams — at gcas.ie/course-schedule.
In a few weeks, an interactive version of the academic calendar will appear on the student dashboard, with the Zoom link for each session built in.
Partnership Conversations in Italy
We recently met with an accredited university in Italy about a possible partnership with GCAS. These are early conversations, and nothing is settled — but the interest is real on both sides, and the possibilities we discussed include teaching opportunities for GCAS PhD researchers.
We’ll share more as it develops. It’s part of a wider effort to make a GCAS degree open doors, not just close a chapter.
Claim Your Place in Our Community of Researchers
Every student-researcher at GCAS can create their own page on gcas.ie — a public profile with a photo, degree programme, research interests, and links to their work.
It takes just a few minutes at gcas.ie/my-profile, and once approved it joins our growing directory of researchers, where prospective students, collaborators, and fellow scholars can find you and see the range of work happening across GCAS.
GCAS Conversations: What Should We Do With Knowledge?
You may know Dr. Filippo Scafi as a PhD supervisor, lecturer, and GCAS Review journal co-editor. But Filippo’s journey with GCAS began as a student.
In the inaugural interview of the “GCAS Conversations” series, we discuss Filippo’s new publication, his experience at GCAS, and his approach to the complex task of doing philosophy today.
Orientation Meeting and Fall Commencement — Sunday 6 September
This meeting serves as the required orientation for new GCAS researchers. It also stands in for September’s PhD meeting, so all PhD researchers and candidates must attend.
Azfar Hussain, our Honorary Vice-President, will give the keynote address.
Registered researchers will find the link at the top of their Student Dashboard.
The Community Forum Moves Behind Your Account — 1 October
We’re bringing the community forum (Discourse) directly into the student dashboard. From 1 October, researchers will reach it through their gcas.ie account rather than a separate login — one more reason to register before the 1 September deadline.
Shareholders’ Meeting — Monday 19 October
Yours sincerely,
The GCAS Team
gcas.ie/team