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In October 2018, Maynooth University, in conjunction with the Arts and Humanities Institute, held its third New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium on the Humanities (NPPSH) conference. This conference strove to highlight scholarship conducted by postgraduates in the Arts & Humanities in Ireland and Europe. The conference sought to highlight the importance of Arts & Humanities research into traditionally ‘unseen’ or unheard voices and perspectives. Many of the papers were collabora-tive efforts which reflected new and often interdisciplinary approaches to research. 2018 was a year of marked by commemorations of past achievements in equality and inclusivity and a renewed awareness of our socio-political responsibilities as Irish and international citizens. This important year marked the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day and 100 years since Countess Markievicz was elected to the Houses of Parliament and Irish women gained the right to vote. In the wake of Repeal the 8th, #IBelieveHer and #MeToo campaigns, 2018 was a watershed in terms of emerging voices. The conference ‘Unseen voices: Representations, interpretations and recon-structions’ hoped to foster an inquiry into the debates surrounding hidden and untold stories in various disciplines and time periods, as well as stoke investigation into our roles and responsibilities as researchers in making the invisible visible and the silenced heard.NPPSH 2018 sought to highlight some of the important research being done on broadly ‘unseen’ or unheard voices comprised of over fifty speakers in twelve diverse and fascinating parallel panels over two days culminating with renowned activist (and academic) Ailbhe Smyth giving a keynote lecture at the end of the conference. From explorations of how music can be used to construct and reconstruct a sense of community, to the examination of the landscapes of the cillíní burial grounds, to contri-butions on Spanish history and the effect of the Spanish Civil War, to the potential behind the archiving of hacking incidents and related content, the papers in this volume showcase a breadth of scholarship and a diversity of approaches which highlights the multifaceted nature of an Arts & Humanities education. Within these pages, you will find a fascinating selection of papers, which cover a wide variety of themes.

Amino acids comprise up to 50% of organic matter in cellular material and are a major fraction of oceanic organic carbon. Amino acids are also considered highly labile during organic matter recycling, making them useful proxies for organic carbon cycling. Nevertheless, analysis of individual amino acids has been burdened by lengthy derivatization and complex analysis since the 1950s. In this thesis, I describe the modification of advanced analytical techniques, developed in the biomedical field, for analysis of marine matrices which allow the determination of at least 40 amino acids without the need for lengthy sample preparation and derivatization, twice the number of most common biosynthetic amino acids. Combining ion pairing separation and mass selection software with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) allows detection of amino acids that were previously difficult to measure due to coelution and incomplete derivatization. The method was validated by examining a suite of marine matrices of increasing complexity including free amino acids (FAA) in seagrasses, total hydrolyzable amino acids (THAA) in mixed diatom-bacteria cultures, and sediment THAA. This method was then combined with additional measures and applied to examine the carbon cycling and conditions of the Arctic Ocean Mackenzie shelf system. Analysis of organic carbon in particles and sediments, fatty acid and sterol biomarkers, and the developed amino acids method, together with sediment grain size and meiofaunal community structure, allowed characterization of organic carbon in the Mackenzie River shelf system during the fall of 2016. Results show the coastal shelf system near the Mackenzie River delta experience significant inputs of both in-situ marine production and terrestrial organic matter to the sediments. Overall results suggest that mid-shelf waters receive relatively higher contributions of labile marine carbon than shallow or deep waters along the eastern Beaufort Sea shelf and over time these inputs are reflected by increased meiofaunal diversity and abundance. Despite the large flux of terrestrial organic material exiting the delta, higher meiofaunal abundance appears to be the result of localized input of marine primary production rather than terrestrial carbon carried through the Mackenzie outflow.