GCAS November 2026 Update

Today: Silvia Federici’s Political Economy begins

Silvia Federici, one of the foremost feminist theorists of our time, begins her GCAS course Political Economy today.

Everyone in the GCAS community is free to join. If you’re sitting in, please give priority in discussion to the student-researchers taking the course for credit, and follow Professor Federici’s lead. You’ll find the Zoom link on the Academic Calendar in your student dashboard.

First open meeting of the AI Community Discussion

The first open Zoom discussion on GCAS’s AI policy, with further meetings on 15 February and 15 June 2027. More on the discussion under Announcements.

Florence 2027: reserve your seat

Seminar seats for the Florence week (11–16 May 2027) are limited to 40 per seminar. Enrolled MA Student-Researchers have priority until 1 December, after which all degree students may reserve. PhD researchers also have priority for the Sunday student presentation slots until 1 December.

You’ll find everything in the GCAS Florence 2027 section of your dashboard. Attendance at in-person events is at your own risk, as set out in the Handbook.

April 2027: Being and Time at 100

To mark the centenary of Heidegger’s Being and Time, Professor François Raffoul will give three guest lectures on Jacques Derrida’s reading of the text, on Zoom, each followed by a Q&A.

GCAS students and faculty need no registration; the link will be on your Academic Calendar. Friends outside GCAS can register at gcas.ie/raffoul-being-and-time.

The lectures open a year of Heidegger courses in the MA Philosophy, including John D. Caputo’s course on Being and Time in fall 2027.

Would you present your research on Zoom?

We’re gauging interest in a monthly Research Presentation Day, where MA and PhD researchers sign up to present work in progress. If you’d take part, tell us in the community forum.

All support requests go through the support portal

Every request for support or help must be made through the support portal. Please do not use email to ask for support or help.

This applies to everything: records and Canvas, fees and payments, supervision, extensions, technical problems and general questions. The portal sends your request straight to the right team, keeps a record of it, and lets you follow its progress. Emails sent to individual staff members can be missed, especially when people are away, and will not be treated as support requests.

Open the portal at gcas.ie/student-support or from the Student Support card on your dashboard.

Register on gcas.ie and join the community

Every student-researcher must have a GCAS account. If you haven’t registered yet, do so now at gcas.ie/student-register. Your account is your front door to GCAS: the dashboard, the Academic Calendar and its Zoom links, the support portal, and our community.

Our community chat now lives at gcas.ie/community, inside your account, with no second login. The old Discourse forum closes tomorrow, 1 November, so please make the move today.

There you’ll also find the new Reader Exchange. That space grew out of a need you told us about: a place to find readers for each other’s work. It offers a more community-based way of doing research, one that reduces reliance on AI.

The AI Community Discussion is underway

GCAS’s year-long, community-wide review of how AI should and shouldn’t be used in our research and writing has already begun, and there are great debates afoot. Add your voice here: join the AI Community Discussion.

You can also:

• Read about the process at gcas.ie/ai-community-discussion
• Share your views anonymously through the form, open until the third meeting

A GCAS PhD Researcher will sit on the Academic Council as a voting member, and the new policy will be announced on 1 August 2027. While the review runs, the stricter regulations we announced for November are suspended. The AI Policy published in the Student Handbook in July 2026 remains in full force.

MA assignments: the 30-day rule

For MA courses, all assignments are due 30 days after the course’s final session. If you need more time, request an extension through the MA Course Extensions portal on your dashboard before the 30 days run out. Your grader will see your request and can reply to you there.

Continuation fees after the grace period

Each degree programme has a set length, followed by a short grace period to finish your work:

• MA (full-time): 12 months plus a 3-month grace period
• MA (part-time): 24 months plus a 3-month grace period
• BA and PhD: 36 months plus a 2-month grace period

After the grace period ends, a continuation fee of €250 per month applies for each month you remain enrolled. This covers the minimal costs GCAS continues to carry for every enrolled researcher, including what we pay Woolf for your enrolment. Any months you spend on a declared pause of study are added to your grace period.

If you’re nearing the end of your programme, now is a good time to plan your finish with your supervisor.

PhD researchers: remember the IRB

If your research involves human participants, through interviews, surveys, observation or any other direct engagement, you must receive IRB clearance before you begin collecting data. Apply through the IRB card on your student dashboard; the guidance is at gcas.ie/irb.

You can now submit more than one application if your project has distinct stages or studies. Data collected without clearance can’t be used in your dissertation, so please apply early.

Planning to graduate in 2027?

• Submitting your thesis or dissertation: use the Defense Portal on your dashboard. MA submissions close 60 days before your defense session, and PhD submissions close 90 days before.
• Graduation check-in: complete your check-in at gcas.ie/graduation. The Registrar must approve it by 28 April 2027 for you to graduate in May.

Holiday support hours

As we approach the festive season and the end of the year, here is our Success Team’s availability over Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and the New Year.

Reduced support hours

• Diwali: Friday 6 November to Tuesday 10 November 2026

No support available

• Monday 21 December 2026 to Wednesday 6 January 2027. Operations pause over Christmas, Kwanzaa (26 December to 1 January) and the New Year.

We’ll be back to full capacity on Thursday 7 January 2027.

As always, all support requests must go through the support portal. Please do not use email to ask for support or help, during the holidays or at any other time. Requests made during the closure will be answered in order when we return.

To all our researchers celebrating Diwali, and those marking Hanukkah from 4 to 12 December, we wish you and your families a joyful season of light.

Gabriella Hiatt: “Language is woven through our bodies, not seamlessly and without complication”

Psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist Gabriella Hiatt, who teaches Devocalizing the Logos in the MA Psychoanalysis this December, explores the intricate relationships between language, the body, and human experience within contemporary psychoanalytic theory.

Five years ago: Commencement in Mexico City

GCAS Commencement in Mexico City, during Día de Muertos.

Five years ago, GCAS celebrated Commencement in Mexico City with a dance party during Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead. As the city honoured those who came before, we celebrated our graduates and the community that carried them there.