Welcome to the IASIL Conferences and Summer Schools Page

This page lists conferences/summer schools that deal with Irish Literature, Theatre, and Film. Conferences with broader themes that pay substantial attention to Irish writing will also be listed from time to time.

2009 Conferences

All information should be confirmed with conference organisers

2008 Conferences are listed here

This page lists conferences on Irish literature, Irish drama and theatre studies, and Irish film. If you wish to include a listing, email webmaster@iasil.org

These pages are provided for information only - you should confirm dates, deadlines, and so on with conference organisers.

Ibsen and Chekhov on the Irish Stage
National University of Ireland, Galway
6-8 November 2009

This is advance notice of a conference to be held at the National University of Ireland, Galway from 6-8 November 2009 on the reception in Ireland of the plays of Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov from 1890 to the present day.  The immediate context for this conference is the work of leading contemporary Irish dramatists in adapting works by Ibsen and Chekhov for the Irish stage.  These contemporary adaptations pose questions on the cultural relevance of the plays of Ibsen and Chekhov, their historical impact on the Irish dramatic tradition, and their influence on the development of Irish theatre.  This conference aims to explore these questions by bringing together major playwrights and leading theatre scholars.  The conference in investigating the cross currents between native tradition and international influence, and between literary influence and public reception, will it is hoped, shed new light on the history of Irish dramatic writing.

Further information and details of the provisional programme may be obtained from the organisers Dr. Ros Dixon and Dr. Irina Ruppo Malone at ruppodixon@gmail.com or by calling +353 91 493974.

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Alternative spiritualities, the New Age and New Religious Movements in Ireland: an interdisciplinary conference

National University of Ireland, Maynooth
October 30th 31st 2009

www.nrmireland.blogspot.com

In recent decades, the religious landscape of the island of Ireland has transformed dramatically. New religious movements and what is sometimes called the "New Age" have flourished, along with the arrival of religions long-established elsewhere. Ways of being which classify themselves as non-religious or as consciously resisting religion (new spiritualities, humanism, skepticism, anti-cult organisations etc.) have also become far more significant. (The "newness" of any movement or group, and the "New Age" classification, are of course both often strongly contested, but are used here for practical purposes.)

This is the first conference to bring together academic research on these topics in Ireland. We are interested in work on religious groups and movements, as well as more diffuse expressions of spirituality and religious organisation which have arrived, (re-)emerged or flourished in Ireland after 1945.

These developments raise big questions for the study of religion, but also have important implications in fields as wide-ranging as gender relations, roads protests, the politics of church and state, immigration, tourism, funeral practices, education, youth cultures, health and regulation, globalization, and our relationship to the past, physical or imagined. They shed light on the transformation of religion in contemporary Ireland as well as providing us with insights into the nature of the society we live in.

With this in mind, we welcome theoretical and empirical papers in a range of disciplines on all aspects of these new movements in Ireland, including but not limited to "New Age" groups, pagan / Celtic movements, other new religious movements, world religions in Ireland, alternative medicine and bodywork, "cults" and schisms within established Irish churches, non- and anti-religious groups, and new religious movements abroad which have strong Irish roots or influences.

While the conference is dedicated to academic research, it will be open to the public and we expect interest from the media as well as from mainstream churches, alternative practitioners and other interested parties.

We welcome papers by established researchers and graduate students in all academic disciplines (including but not limited to anthropology, archaeology, cultural studies, economics, English, health research, history, neuroscience, philosophy, politics, psychology, sociology, religious studies, tourism studies, women's studies ) as well as cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary papers and work by researchers outside of academia.

Papers may be theoretical or empirical in their approach, and include historical, qualitative and quantitative studies, documentary and case study approaches, and other methodologies and approaches. The only limitation is that this is a research conference rather than a place to debate the truth or religious value of particular religious beliefs or practices, and we are looking for papers which advance understanding rather than simply describing, celebrating or condemning.

Some suggested themes for papers include:

• The New Age and understanding religion: concepts and theories, understanding "experiences" and techniques, biography and religion etc
• New religious movements and social change in Ireland: secularisation, class, Celtic Tiger and prosperity consciousness, modernity and post-modernity etc
• Alternative spiritualities and identity: ethnicity, feminism, bodies, ecology, landscapes, globalisation, "Celticity", counter-culture etc
• The organisation of the New Age: new religious structures, the Internet and new religions, credentialism, seminar spirituality etc
• Contesting religion: media coverage, mainstream religious responses, moral panics, anti-cult movements, secular movements etc
• Institutional implications of new religious movements: education, health, policing, funerals, marriages, conflicts over regulation etc
• The economics of new spirituality: commodification, publishing, spiritual tourism, alternative health etc
• Historicising new religious movements: reading the pre-Christian past, Orientalism in Ireland, literary aspects etc

We also welcome proposals on other topics related to the conference focus.

The deadline for proposals is May 1st, 2009. Please submit proposals by email to Olivia Cosgrove (olivia.cosgrove@ul.ie), including an abstract of no more than 500 words in .rtf, .doc or .pdf format and your academic or institutional affiliation. We will notify acceptance of proposals by May 31st at the latest.

Papers accepted for the conference will be distributed to participants on the day, and may be reworked for later publication elsewhere. The deadline for registration, and for submission of completed papers, is October 1st, 2009. Papers should be in .doc format and be no longer than 9,000 words including footnotes, bibliography etc. Speakers will have 20 minutes for each paper.

The conference will run during the day on Friday and Saturday, with plenary lectures in the evening. An excursion to local pre-Christian sites (which include Tara and the Boyne Valley tombs) will be organised on the Sunday if there is sufficient interest.

As this will be a multi-disciplinary conference, as well as being open to an informed and interested public, we encourage presenters to deliver papers which are clear and accessible, without talking down to their audience or devoting the whole of their paper to simple description. We intend to publish a volume based on selected papers from the conference, suitably rewritten, as a definitive collection on the subject.

Maynooth is 15 miles outside Dublin, close to the airport and easily accessible by rail and bus as well as car. More details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynooth and www.nuim.ie . In May-June we will organise affordable accommodation for those who need it and make details and a booking form available. We will also work to deal with specific food requirements at that point.

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Queering Ireland: An international inter-disciplinary conference

Saint Mary’s University, Halifax , Canada
18-20 September 2009

Writing in 1931, Daniel Corkery declared that “the normal and the national are synonymous in literary criticism.” Yet this potent collocation of the normal and the national in Irish life need not be confined to the realm of Irish letters. An enduring preoccupation with normalcy and nationality has long been evident in all spheres of Irish life, and continues to resonate today. Queer studies is uniquely placed to interrogate how these concerns have been imbricated in Irish culture since, as Michael Warner has remarked, queer theory is predicated on “a thoroughgoing resistance to regimes of the normal.” Recent cultural production in Ireland has already shown a persistent and compelling interest in queerness, but what are the implications of this resistance to the normal for an understanding of how bodies, sexualities and desires have been imagined, constructed, and represented in Irish culture? What potential does queering Ireland had in charting new directions in queer theory and queer approaches to culture in general? What is specific about queerness in the queer Ireland project? Papers are invited addressing Ireland’s regimes of the normal and the national in all disciplines including law, medicine, economics, literature, art history, film and media studies, sociology, history, political science and religious studies. Proposals should not be confined to the modern period only, and we are especially interested in papers that address the contemporary and historical Irish-speaking world. Queering Ireland is meant to address the queer Irish experiences across periods and cultural genres and fields as well as queering what is presented as the “normal” Irish experience.

Possible topics might include:

The queer body politic/The queer political body
Global Irish capitalism and gay identity
Historicizing Irish queerness
Gay, lesbian, bi- and trans-sexual Irish culture
Queer(ing) Irish literature
Filming Irish Queerness/Queering Irish film
The queer Irish body in medical, religious and legal discourse
Mother Ireland and Queer Culture
Normalcy and nation
Queering the Straight

Proposals not exceeding 500-words (or one single-spaced page) should be sent electronically, with name, complete mailing address, e-mail, phone and fax numbers, to Sean.Kennedy@smu.ca and Goran.Stanivukovic@smu.ca by 16 January 2009.

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Ireland and the Fin De Siécle
Royal Irish Academy, 3-4 September 2009.

Proposals are invited for 15 minute papers on “ Ireland and the Fin De Siécle”. Many key Irish writers and artists were involved in the 1890s avant garde (including Oscar Wilde, Harry Clarke, George Moore and Sarah Grand) but the neglect of the Irish dimension of this literature has persisted. By foregrounding the Irish aspect of fin de siècle literary and cultural experimentation, this conference proposes to redress that imbalance and consider the following questions. Who were the key Irish writers and artists of the fin de siècle? What was the impact on mainstream Irish culture of these fin de siècle experiments in literature and culture? How did the Irish aspect of this work influence fin de siècle literature in Britain and Europe more generally? What were the contemporary connections between literature, theatre design and the visual arts ? This will be a two-day event, with panels drawn from the following areas: The New Woman in Irish Writing: Wilde and Irish Decadence, George Moore and the Irish Fin De Siécle; Visual culture and Irish Decadence; genre fiction; Irish/European connections.

Please send abstracts of not more than 500 words to Dr Eibhear Walshe e.walshe@ucc.ie Dr Derek Hand. derek.hand@spd.dcu.ie by March 1 st 2009

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AN ECHO TO THE SENSE: THE PROCESS OF POETRY, THE PRACTICE OF CRITICISM
Lancaster University
8th-10th July 2009

Speakers include: Professor Terry Eagleton, Professor Sean O'Brien, Professor Paul Farley, Don Paterson

Pope's dictum might strike some poets as counter-intuitive, prioritising as it does the making of sense from what the sound has to illustrate; it seems contrary to Frost's mission statement "to make music from the sound of sense."  Is the criticism of poetry as attentive to 'sound' and 'texture' as it should be, in its pursuit of
'meaning' and 'sense.'  Following the success of the inaugural British and Irish Contemporary Poetry Conference at St Anne's, Oxford, in 2006, ("The Line of Contemporary Poetry") this second conference will
be hosted by the Department of English & Creative Writing at Lancaster University. It is hoped that international scholars and poets/writers from diverse fields will participate.

Topics which may be covered include, but are not restricted to:
The trade between academy and contemporary poetry
Composition, reflection and criticism
The 'voicing' of contemporary poetry
Accents and meaning
Contemporary poetry in performance
The poem in the age of mechanical reproduction, broadcast poetry, etc


Papers should be 20 minutes long. Please send an abstract (text only, no attachments, 300 words max), together with a brief biographical note, to John Stammers at convenor@poetryconference.co.uk by 15th
January 2009.

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Twenty-Third Conference Of Irish Medievalists
27–30 June 2009
Mary Immaculate College, Limerick

CALL FOR PAPERS: Papers are invited on medieval archaeology, art, history, language and literature (Latin and the vernaculars). Length of papers: 45minutes (15 minutes discussion) or 20 minutes (10 minutes discussion).

Send details of proposed papers by e-mail - at the latest by 31st March 2009 to Dr Catherine Swift, Irish Studies, Mary Immaculate College E-mail: Catherine.Swift@mic.ul.ie

There is now a Conference of Irish Medievalists website designed for us by concept.ie of Waterford. Address: www.irishmedievalists.com < http://www.irishmedievalists.com/ > . Programme, details of fees, accommodations & transport links  will be posted on that so that, hopefully, organizing attendance will become a little easier for all.

Details of fees for registration, meals and accommodation will be circulated, together with the Conference programme, in April 2009. Details of transport links, by air, rail and road will also be provided. Those needing information in advance in order to apply to their institutions for funding should contact the Organising Secretary, Dr Catherine Swift, for a provisional estimate of costs.

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Conference on Catholicism and Public Cultures in Ireland, France, United Kingdom, and North America   
June 17-19, 2009
IADT —Dun Laoghaire, Dublin

The conference is co-sponsored by the Centre for Public Culture Studies at IADT —Dun Laoghaire, Dublin; the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies at ITT, Tallaght, Dublin; and The Kucera Center for Catholic Thought at Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa, USA.

This interdisciplinary conference will be held at IADT, (the Institute for Art, Design, and Technology) at Dun Laoghaire and will investigate the Catholic Church as institution and as text in the context of Ireland, France, United Kingdom, and North America. It will focus on the impact of Catholicism, both actual and potential, upon other cultural fields, rather than on the confessional or doctrinal dimensions of Catholicism.  In that regard, the conference will explore the ways in which the framework of beliefs and practices associated with Catholicism have impacted the public sphere and public cultures in such areas as the relationship between individuals and the state,  cultural identities and practices, public space, visual cultures (cinema, art, television, new media), popular cultures, and literary representation.  Given the breadth of the theme and the diversity of the host institutions, the conference will be open to participants from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds and will be cross-cultural in nature, with a special emphasis upon Ireland, North America, United Kingdom, and France.  Conference papers should be 20 minutes in length. Proposals for papers or panels should be sent by Friday March 21, 2009 as an email attachment to the following email address: catholicism.publiccultures@iadt.ie

Plenary addresses will be delivered by Mary Reichardt, Professor of Catholic Studies and Literature, University of St. Thomas, USA; James Donnelly, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Wisconsin, USA; Martin MacLoone, Professor of Media Studies, University of Ulster; Daryl Jones, Professor of English, Trinity University, Dublin; Patsy McGarry, columnist and Religious Affairs Correspondent, The Irish Times.

The conference organisers anticipate publishing a selection of conference papers as a volume in the Reimagining Ireland series for Peter Lang. 

Inquiries should be directed to the conference sponsors at the following email addresses: Andrew.Auge@loras.edu;  Paula.Gilligan@iadt.ie;  Eamon.Maher@ittdublin.ie .

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"Eire on the Erie," the North American James Joyce Conference
Buffalo, NY,
13-17 June 2009,

http://english.buffalo.edu/jamesjoyce/

Every odd numbered year, the International James Joyce Society sponsors an American conference on and around Bloomsday, June 16, known as the North American James Joyce Conference. Usually it takes place in a city, and at a university, that has special reasons for hosting James Joyce scholars. In 1999 it was in Charleston, S.C.; in 2001 it was at the University of California, Berkeley; in 2003 it was at the University of Tulsa, home of the James Joyce Quarterly; in 2005 it was at Cornell University, whose library contains one of the significant James Joyce manuscript collections; in 2007 the host university was the University of Texas at Austin, where The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center also possesses significant Joyce holdings. In 2009 it will be hosted by the University at Buffalo, whose holdings of manuscripts and papers are the largest in the world.

Eire on the Erie will combine scholarly presentations and civic events centered in the City of Buffalo. Gown and town will intersect at crucial moments, including Bloomsday itself, Tuesday, June 16. By and large, the conference venue will be downtown Buffalo, with its abundant civic space and urban hospitality – restaurants, bars, cafes theaters. However, since a portion of the conference will be given over to a display and discussion of the Joyce holdings at the Special Collections Library, some portion of the conference will be held at the University's Anderson Gallery.

On Friday, June 12th, we will have, free and open to the public and the community, an evening with Colum McCann, novelist and film maker: "Everything in this Country Must."  It will feature readings and at least one film.  The venue will be Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery.  See these URL for McCann: http://www.colummccann.com/. 

Saturday's activities will begin with the second reading by McCann: this time from a forthcoming novel "Let the Great World Spin."  A special feature of the conference will be an opening reception and exhibition by the UB Special Collections Library at the Anderson Gallery on Saturday evening, June 13.  It will feature some of Joyce’s personal possessions as well as the rich array of manuscripts and letters from the Joyce archive. After the conference the UB Library will send the exhibition on a national tour, to develop awareness of the University at Buffalo as a research destination for all persons engaged in the study of James Joyce.

In 2009, Bloomsday, June 16, will be on a Tuesday, and Bloomsday festivities will take place that evening. Our Bloomsday banquet will be held at the Pearl Street Grill and Brewery in downtown Buffalo. 

Registration, if not done ahead of time by web, and sign in will begin on Friday and Saturday, June 12th and 13th, at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Buffalo, where most of the conference will be housed.  Later sign in will be available for those who arrive later. The presentation of scholarly papers will begin on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the 14-16th, with morning sessions on Wednesday the 17th.  On Monday the 15, the conference will move to the newly-constructed Burchfield-Penney Art Center.  Late that afternoon we'll have a cocktail reception at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.   We return back downtown to the Hyatt for Bloomsday, and in the evening, after the Bloomsday banquet, will join Buffalo's own magnificent Bloomsday celebration which has grown in recent years to become a Bloomsweek.  The Buffalo conference will be a 4-day conference and should attract about several hundred attendees from the scholarly community. Public activities outside the conference organized around the traditional Bloomsday, should attract another 500-700 members of the Buffalo community.

For program information, address your questions to jj2009@buffalo.edu, addressed to Conference Staff.   To submit panel and paper proposals, consult the Call for Papers. Deadline has been extended to March 1, 2009.  All other questions, about travel, lodging, tours, etc, should be addressed to dedalus449@netscape.net. 

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New Irish, Old Ireland: 'The same people living in the same place'
2009 ACIS Conference In conjunction with the Second Galway Conference of Irish Studies: 'Into the Heartland of the Ordinary'
Centre for Irish Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway
10-13 June, 2009

Through the process of inward migration, Ireland has in recent years witnessed unparalleled mobility of people moving into Irish space. 'New Irish, Old Ireland', will explore the dynamics of immigration and settlement and their implications for the construction of Irish identities.

Thematically, papers might address issues such as: who are the 'new Irish'; how are concepts of nationality and belonging redefined within new and established communities; how are concepts of 'people', 'place', and 'home' constructed, imagined and remembered. Papers might also address issues such as migration and the Irish Travelling Community; language and translation; exile, asylum and economic migration; the local and the global; contact zones, spaces and frontiers; diaspora communication networks; ethnicity and multiculturalism. We invite conceptual, comparative, or locally focused contributions to a wide-ranging discussion of the migrant experience in Ireland/Irish society, past and present. We welcome papers by scholars working across the full range of disciplines related to Irish Studies, and papers from emerging research areas are especially welcome. Abstract Submission: Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes. Please send an abstract, of not more than 200 words, to: irishstudies@nuigalway.ie before 1 December 2008.

http://www.nuigalway.ie/research/centre_irish_studies/acis_09.html

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“Staging Interculturality” CDE Conference 2009
Vienna, Austria
4-7 June 2009

The German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English is pleased to announce its 18th Annual Conference (4-7June 2009). It will be organised by the Department of English (Prof. Rubik, Prof. Huber) at the University of Vienna and held as a rooming-in conference at the Don-Bosco-Haus, Vienna (13th district)

In the age of globalisation, contacts between different cultural groups have become a common aspect of everyday life. Intercultural competence is now a set requirement for corporate staff, and training courses suggest that intercultural encounters are deserving of the highest attention. However, the resulting challenges to national, ethnic, class and gender identities point to the considerable com­plexity of encounters between different cultural groups. While intercultural encounters have been conceptualised rather positively as 'multi-culturalism' emphasising the benefits for all participants, theories of the 'clash of civilisations' paint a much darker picture. The number of buzzwords created in recent years in order to articulate aspects of migration and cultural exchange, such as hybridity, cultural diversity, cross- and trans-culturalism, gender performance, and sociological change all testify to an increased awareness of, and interest in, these phenomena among politicians and academics alike.

The 2009 CDE conference aims to examine how contemporary drama and theatre engage in the discourse of interculturality. Starting from a broad concept of culture, topics for papers may include (but are not restricted to)clash of cultures, hybridity, métissage cross-cultural exchange, cultural transfer representations of migration/emigration/immigration and diasporas exoticism in dramatic form and/or content minority theatre ( subcultures, youth cultures) transgressions (race, class, gender, colonialism/post-colonialism) world theatre vs. national traditions of playwriting plays centering on globalisation/localisation/glocalisation.

N.B.: In accordance with CDE’s constitutional policy, papers should deal exclusively with CONTEMPORARY (i.e. post-Beckettian, post-1989) THEATRE AND DRAMA IN ENGLISH.

Abstracts: Abstracts (250 words) of suggested papers (20 minutes’ delivery max.) should include a short biographical note plus full address and institutional affiliation.

Deadlines: Enquiries and submissions should reach the organisers no later than 15 January 2009.

Contact: cde2009.anglistik@univie.ac.at

NB: Only paid-up members are eligible to read papers at CDE conferences. Membership subscriptions may be taken out or renewed during the conference. For details, please contact the Treasurer: Prof. Dr. Eckart Voigts-Virchow (University of Siegen): <voigts-virchow@anglistik.uni-siegen.de>

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Playfulness, Light(ness) and Air in Irish Literature and Culture
Łódź, Poland
4-5 June 2009

An interdisciplinary Irish Studies conference aims to explore the theme of playfulness, light(ness) and openness in Irish literature, art, film, music, psychology, history and philosophy. The research areas could examine, among other topics:

·        epiphanies and affirmations in Irish literature and culture

·        the passion of Irish elements (in Irigaray’s idiom)

·        openness and air in Irish tradition, history and philosophy

·        jouissance and Molly Bloom’s YES

·        playfulness, craic and the “joyful affirmative passion” (in Braidotti’s words)

·        Irish cinema and Irish film directors

·        playfulness in Irish art, music and design

·        “joying in the truth of self-division” (Jean Graybeal)

·        lightness that Italo Calvino cherishes in his Six Memos For the Next Millennium, even in the form of  “unbearable lightness of being”

The language of the conference is English. It will take place at the University of Łódź Centre. The conference fee is 180 PLN (c. 38 – 40 euro). If you are interested in that topic, please send your abstract (up to 300 words) by 15 th of April 2009 to this address: poloczek@uni.lodz.pl . The reviewed collection of essays will follow in a book form. The conference is organised by Katarzyna Poloczek (ph.d.), Marta Goszczyńska (ph.d.) and Agata Budzińska (M.A).

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“Into The West” – CAIS 2009: Call for Papers
Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta
3-6 June 2009

The 2009 Canadian Association for Irish Studies is holding its annual conference and AGM from June 3-6, 2009 at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta. Conference organizers are calling for 20-minute contributions on any aspect connected with or suggested by the title of the conference.

Keynote speakers: Ann Saddlemyer; and others TBA.

Topics may include but are not limited to: frontiers, boundaries, edges, peripheries of geographic and psychological landscapes; westward migrations; urban vs. rural dynamics; globalization and dominance of the west; wild characters and rough social structures; Celtic cowboys and cowgirls; westerns; geography and history of food cultures; the idealization of the west; tourism and commodification of the west; east and west tensions and possibilities; out of the East; into which west?

Please send a 200-250 word abstract no later than December 30, 2008 to simonjolivet@yahoo.com

Please paste the abstract into the body of the e-mail and please be sure to include your full name, contact information, and academic affiliation (if any). Abstracts will be assessed by a conference committee.

For more information: www.irishstudies.ca

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"From Local Ireland to Global Ireland: the Reality Beyond"
Viii International Conference Of The Spanish Association For Irish Studies
University of Alcalá , 28-30 May 2009

The Spanish Association for Irish Studies (AEDEI) is pleased to announce the organization of its VIII International Conference, which will be convened by the English Department at the University of Alcalá.

 The traditional and often uncontested image of an Ireland governed by local interests has, in the last decades, been replaced by its recognition as a global country inimical to the romanticised rurality of its past. The economic boom that led the nation to an unprecedented –though unequally shared– prosperity has also brought new concerns and uncertainties, mostly related to questions of identity. However, more than ever, the concepts of locality and globality, being ample, diverse and stretching, have turned into complementary expansions of each other. For, while the local is said to be framed within the global, this one re-inscribes the peculiarities of the former. Ireland thus can be read as an "in-between" space where the articulation of a "glocal" site appears as an apt expression to describe the sudden social, demographic, economic, political, and cultural changes affecting the country. Bearing these premises in mind, we welcome papers that will tackle questions related to notions of identity, nationality, fluidity or the intersection between the local and the global, among other aspects such as:

- What do we include within the confines of Irish literature?

- Is there (dis)continuity from the local to the universal in Irish culture?

- How true is Declan Kiberd assertion that "the cult of the local is probably a panic reaction to the forces of globalisation"?

- How has Ireland accommodated change and diversity?

- Has multiculturalism been implanted in the different realms of Irish society?

We invite papers for a twenty-minute delivery, in English or Spanish, which might approach the main theme of the conference from an array of theoretical frameworks and fields of knowledge: linguistic, literary, historical, sociological, gendered, cultural, musical or visual.

Confirmed plenary speakers:

- Ruth Barton ( Trinity College Dublin)

- Margaret Kelleher (NUI Maynooth)

Confirmed keynote writers:

- Deirdre Madden

- Mary O’Donnell

Organisers:

- Marisol Morales Ladrón ( marisol.morales@uah.es)

- Juan F. Elices Agudo ( juan.elices@uah.es)

Submission of proposals:

Abstracts of around 250 words should be e-mailed to Juan F. Elices or, alternatively, to Marisol Morales by Friday 6 March, 2009. For reasons of homogeneity, please complete the filling form that that has been designed for the purpose and send it as an attached document.

Please, do not hesitate to contact any of the organisers for whatever query you may have.

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France , Ireland and Rebellion: 5 th Annual Conference of AFIS (Association for Franco-Irish Studies)
22-23 May, 2009
University College Cork

Down the centuries, France and Ireland have both experienced rebellion in many guises, be it political, historical, literary or religious. The organisers of the 5 th annual conference of AFIS invite abstracts (not exceeding 200 words) that would examine some relevant aspect of rebellion as it pertains to the two countries. Papers of 20-25 minutes’ duration can be delivered in French or English and abstracts should be submitted by Saturday 31 January 2009 to: Dr Eamon Maher Or Professor Grace Neville,

A selection of the papers will be published in the Studies in Franco-Irish Relations annual book series with Peter Lang. For details on membership of AFIS, you can consult the following website:www.it-tallaght.ie/ncfis

Some suggested panels:

• Links between Republicanism and rebellion in France and Ireland
• Modernity, literary innovation and revolt
• Contestation of institutional religion in France and Ireland
• Popular culture and rebellion
• Joyce, Beckett and the French connection

Confirmed keynote speakers: Professor Anne Fogarty (University College Dublin), Professor Grace Neville (University College Cork) and Dr Alison O’Malley-Younger ( University of Sunderland).

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Yeats’s Anniversary Conference: “Voice and Mask: Performing Identities”
Georgia State University, in association with Université Charles de Gaulle –Lille III and Emory University
15–16 May 2009

This conference seeks to address the whole corpus of Yeats’s poetic and dramatic works, as well as his prose writings. Yeats’s impressive array of personae or masks combines with the conscious manipulation of voice, ranging from the remote and dignified to the trivial and lowly. Variations on voice and mask are decisive modalities of Yeats’s effort to recreate an oral tradition and thus contribute to the elaboration of Ireland’s cultural identity. On the other hand, they also relate to his histrionic propensity for “remaking himself” simultaneously with his own creation. Whether collective or individual, “identity” is thus envisaged as plural and dynamic, as performance rather than essence. Thus, this paradoxical ontology of “voice and mask” in turn calls attention to the element of theatricality at the heart of Yeatsian aesthetics, in dramatic and nondramatic forms alike. It also invites analyses of the ways in which literature overlaps with, and sometimes seeks to absorb, other art forms, in particular music and the visual arts; central to Yeats’s oeuvre, for instance, is the tension and constant alternation between stasis and kinetic energy.

Confirmed keynote speakers include James Pethica ( Williams College), Warwick Gould ( University of London), and Elizabeth Muller (Université de Nantes).

We invite contributions on the conference theme or on other Yeats-related areas.

Proposals for 20-minute papers should be sent to Margaret Mills Harper (mharper@gsu.edu) by 1 February 2009.

Organizing committee: Professor Margaret Mills Harper, Georgia State University Professor Geraldine Higgins, Emory University Dr. Elizabeth Muller, Université de Nantes Professor Alexandra Poulain, Université Charles de Gaulle  

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'Players and Painted Stage'
Irish Society for Theatre Research/Cumann Taighde Amharclannaíochta na hÉireann Symposium 2009'
Institute of Technology Sligo, 8-9 May, 2009

Confirmed keynote speakers Professor Richard Cave, Royal Holloway, University of London Professor Baz Kershaw, University of Warwick Niall Henry, Artistic Director, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company

Submission of Abstracts: 9th January 2009

Panel Paper Submissions: The conference theme 'Players and Painted Stage' could reflect critical as well as practical approaches to theatre in and of Ireland in terms of performance, space and place. The theme aims to include elements of performance such as dramaturgy, artistic direction, design, alongside writing and acting.

We invite submissions of 200 words that respond to the conference theme. Please forward all Panel Paper Submissions and any general enquires to: trench.rhona@itsligo.ie Suggested topics include

* Performance Contexts

* Postmodernism & Postdramatic Theatre

* Local and Global in Irish Theatre

* Intercultural and Devising

* Site Specific Performance

* Yeats in Performance

* Scenographic Tradition

* Performances of Irish Plays Internationally

* The Early Performance Tradition

* Amateur Theatre Movement

* Emerging Dramaturgies

* Intertextuality and Theatre

Please include the following information with your proposal:

* a description of your paper;

* the full title of your paper;

* your name, postal address and e-mail address;

* your institutional affiliation and position;

* any AV requirements you might have;

* your ISTR membership status (i.e. present member, membership to be renewed, membership application submitted/to be submitted) to eamonn.jordan@ucd.ie

* Individual CFPs for respective working groups will be issued in due course

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Irish Feminisms and the Future
University College Cork
9th May 2009

Call for papers

What is the future for feminism and the women's movement in Ireland? How can we build on what has been achieved since the 1970s while facing the challenges of the current economic situation? Join the discussion at a one day Women’s Studies Conference in University College Cork on Saturday 9th May 2009.

Proposals for interdisciplinary papers on social and economic issues, reproductive rights, women and politics, women's health, sexuality, motherhood, etc. should be submitted to Dr Sandra McAvoy, Women’s Studies, c/o the History Department, University College Cork or at sandra.mcavoy@ucc.ie

Closing date for receipt of proposals is Friday 17th April 2009.

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Irish Theatrical Diaspora Conference: Irish Theatre - the Local and the Global
17-18 April 2009
National University of Ireland, Galway

The sixth annual Irish Theatrical Diaspora Conference will take place at NUI Galway from 17-19 April. Confirmed speakers include Elizabeth Kuti, Werner Huber, Jose Lanters, Sinead Mooney, Annal McMullan, David Grant, Brenda Winter, James Moran, Chris Morash, Christopher Murray, Mark Phelan, Ursula Rani Sarma, Rhona Trench.

Further information will be posted online in January 2009.

CALL FOR POSTERS

The conference organisers wish to invite scholars carrying out research on any aspect of Irish theatre to submit proposals for posters, which will be displayed and discussed during the conference.

The poster should include the title of your project and a brief abstract, together with any other illustrations, key points, or concerns that you want to bring to the attention of delegates. Posters should be printed on A3 or A2 paper and will be displayed on notice boards for the duration of the conference. You will be able to introduce and discuss your poster in a designated poster session and, for that reason, it should be noted that posters cannot be presented in absentia. All abstracts for posters will be included in the conference booklet.

Please send a brief abstract (100-200 words), including your name, affiliation and the title of your research project to patrick.lonergan@nuigalway.ie on or before 1 February 2009.

Please note that this is not a general call for papers. Conference organising committee: Lisa Coen, Nicholas Grene, Patrick Lonergan, Shelley Troupe. This conference is funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Cross-currents: 9th Irish and Scottish Studies Postgraduate Conference
Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen
3-5 April 2009

Papers and Panels for the 9th annual Cross-currents conference are welcome on a broad range of topics, including: Identities; Migrations; Memory and Commemoration; Filmic Constructions of the Nation; Re-telling Stories; Space, Place and Power; The Literatures of Ireland and Scotland; Irish and Scottish Empires; The Union; Ireland and Scotland in Theory.

The disciplines covered by this conference are Literature, History, Visual Culture, and Celtic Studies. Papers do not have to be comparative (they can be on Irish and/or Scottish Studies).

The conference is open to all postgraduates and post-doctoral fellows. Accommodation will be provided free of charge for all delegates. The selected proceedings will be published in September 2009.

There is no conference fee.

200 word proposals for 25-minute papers should be sent to Dr Shane Alcobia- Murphy, School of Language & Literature, University of Aberdeen, AB24 2UB (email: sam@abdn.ac.uk). The deadline is 30th January 2009.

Publications from this conference series include:
The Enclave of My Nation: Cross-currents in Irish and Scottish Literature ( Aberdeen: AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, 2008). ISBN 978190610 8038

A Further Shore: Essays in Irish and Scottish Studies ( Aberdeen: AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, 2008). ISBN: 9781906108021

Beyond the Anchoring Grounds: Cross-currents in Irish and Scottish Studies
( Belfast: ClF3 Ollscoil na BanrEDona, 2005) ISBN 0853898855

To the Other Shore: Cross-currents in Irish and Scottish Literature ( Belfast: ClF3 Ollscoil na BanrEDona, 2004). ISBN 0853898634

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Life on the fringe? Ireland and Europe between 1800 and 1922
Queen’s University Belfast
3-4 April 2009

Up until the early 1990s Ireland remained on the fringe of Europe in psychological as well as geographical terms, often perceived as little more than ‘the other island’ in the Atlantic Archipelago. Since then, however, EU initiatives like the Erasmus and Socrates exchange programmes and the elimination of work barriers have caused a spectacular increase in intra-European mobility and have brought European countries closer than ever. ‘The other island’ has finally come into its own as one of Europe’s most popular destinations for workers and tourists alike. The world of Irish historiography is no exception to this trend. Many European scholars have begun to engage with Irish history, bringing in their own social, intellectual and cultural backgrounds to provide fresh and illuminating insights. Unfortunately, intra-European networks are difficult to establish in the world of academic research; language barriers, physical difficulties of access to foreign archives, and high levels of specialisation, tend to enclose national histories within their own self-contained cocoons. Still, even such emblematic themes in Irish historical discourse as religious conflict, nationalism, republicanism, revolution, emigration and exile, diasporas and the reinvention of national culture, are by no means exclusive to the Irish context. By the mid-nineteenth century, long before the foundation of the European Union, a rich network of social, economic and cultural links had already been established among European countries, and phenomena like Daniel O’Connell’s liberal Catholicism, the Young Ireland insurrection of 1848, the successive emigration waves and the cultural revival of the late nineteenth century cannot be understood without the influence of contemporary European events.

In order to help bring Irish studies out of their national-history shell, and at the same time strengthen the links between European postgraduate students and scholars, the proposed conference aims at re-evaluating nineteenth-century Irish history by placing it in its European context, while bringing all participants together into an online research network.

We welcome papers from a wide range of disciplines, from social to political, economic and cultural history. Possible paper topics include: social and economic patterns, ethnic and/or religious conflict, nationalism and other ideologies, emigration and exile, and the history of science and technology. However, this list is by no means exhaustive, and all papers covering aspects of Irish history within a European framework will be considered.

Papers should not exceed 1,500-2,000 words in length (20 minutes’ delivery). A 250-word abstract, along with a short author profile, should be submitted by 22 December 2008 to europeconference@nuim.ie

The working language of the conference will be English. For comments and further enquiries, please contact the organisers at the above address. Pierre Ranger (Queen’s University Belfast) Brian Heffernan (NUI Maynooth) Zsuzsanna Zarka (NUI Maynooth) Marta Ramón, PhD (NUI Maynooth)

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Irishness And Intertextuality; Re-Reading The Visual In Irish Culture
Manchester Metropolitan University
2-4 April 2009

Proposals for 30 minute papers are invited for this session on Irish visual culture organized as part of INTERSECTIONS: Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2 – 4 April 2009

In recent years there has been an increased critical focus on visual constructions of Irishness. This welcome interrogation of the visual is one that benefits as much from the radical possibilities of new art histories as from critical approaches within the field of Irish studies, although these more usually converge around the literary as the dominant mode of Irish culture. The most productive of these readings within Irish studies actively interrogate the tensions between the national and the postcolonial as a means of positing questions about history, identity and the formation of Irish culture. This session seeks to continue this line of inquiry through inviting papers that apply similar approaches to the construction of the visual. Proposals that seek to position artistic practice in relation to other forms of representation, whether visual or otherwise, are particularly welcome as a means of expanding the critically informed dialogue that has so recently begun.

Further details of the conference can be found at http://www.aah.org.uk/conference/index.php Please submit all paper proposals to the session organizers using the attached proposal form (either Word or pdf) Fionna Barber, Department of History of Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University f.barber@mmu.ac.uk or Aidan Arrowsmith, Department of English, Manchester Metropolitan University a.arrowsmith@mmu.ac.uk

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 10 NOVEMBER 2008

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American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies/Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society Joint Meeting
Richmond , Virginia
26-29 March 2009.
Paper Proposals Due: 15 Sept. 2008

The 2009 joint meeting of ASECS and ECIS will feature four panels affiliated with ECIS or the Irish Caucus of ASECS and three non-affiliated panels on Irish themes. In addition, there will be a lecture by Professor Andrew Carpenter, Vice-President of ISECS, on the topic of eighteenth-century Irish studies in relation to international eighteenth-century studies and a roundtable on the state of the study of eighteenth-century Ireland.

Panels in brief (email organisers for more information)
"Edgeworth, Owenson, and Ireland" (Irish Studies Caucus) Sean Moore, U. New Hampshire; E-mail: sean@unh.edu

"The Celtic Periphery in the Eighteenth Century" (Irish Studies Caucus) Juliet Shields, SUNY Binghamton; E-mail: jshields@binghamton.edu

"Irish Enlightenments/Ireland and Enlightenment" (Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society) Conrad Brunström, National U. of Ireland Maynooth; E-mail: conrad.brunstrom@nuim.ie

"Jonathan Swift and Ireland" (Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society) Eoin Magennis, Editor - Eighteenth-Century Ireland; E-mail: eoin.magennis@intertradeireland.com

"Roundtable on the State of Eighteenth-Century Irish Studies" (Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society/Irish Studies Caucus) Michael Brown, Lecturer U. Aberdeen; E-mail: m.brown@abdn.ac.uk

"Eighteenth-Century Ireland" (Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, U. Notre Dame) Christopher Fox, Professor and Director; E-mail: fox.1@nd.edu

"Jonathan Swift and His Circle VI" Donald C. Mell, Dept. of English, U. of Delaware; Tel: (302) 831-3660; Fax: (302) 831-1586; E-mail: dmell@english.udel

"Poverty and the Poor in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland" Joanne E. Myers, Gettysburg College, Breidenbaugh Hall, 300 N. Washington St. , Gettysburg PA 17325 ; Tel: (219) 464-5282; E-mail: joanne.myers@valpo.edu

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THE SECOND JJIF JAMES JOYCE GRADUATE CONFERENCE: James Joyce: Metamorphosis and Rewriting
Rome , Italy
February 2-3, 2009

The James Joyce Italian Foundation is pleased to announce the 2009 James Joyce Graduate Conference. The Foundation welcomes graduate students and young scholars interested in Joyce, the man, the writer and his European literary and cultural context. The conference will be held at the Università Roma Tre, Italy, on February 2-3, 2009, Joyce’s one hundred twentyseventh birthday and is being organised in collaboration with the James Joyce Reserach Centre, University College Dublin and the School of English, Trinity College Dublin.

It will be the occasion to present unpublished papers and works in progress on Joyce to an international audience. Emerging Joyce scholars are invited to send proposals for a 20-minute contribution to be discussed at the one-day and a half conference on current trends in Joyce and modernist scholarship. The general theme of the conference is “James Joyce: Metamorphosis and Rewriting”. Related topics include but are not limited to:

- Metamorphosis as a word, as a process and as rewriting
- Metamorphosis from Ovid to Joyce
- Metamorphosis as metaphor
- Textual Metamorphoses – genetic approaches to Joyce’s texts
- Multigeneric rewritings: cinematic/theatrical/musical Joyce
- New /Traditional approaches to Joyce’s works
- Irish/International Joyce
- Joyce in translation
- Joyce and Literary Connections
- Language in Joyce

Anne Fogarty ( University College Dublin), Richard Brown (University of Leeds ) and Sam Slote (Trinity College Dublin) will be among the special guest speakers.

Selected papers will be recommended for publication in JSI - Joyce Studies in Italy. The 2008 James Joyce Graduate Conference proceedings are currently being published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Paper proposals (up to 300 words along with a short bio) should be emailed to: joyce.foundation@uniroma3.it Deadline for proposals: September 30, 2008. Successful applicants will be notified by November 1, 2008. A Joycean birthday party will be held on February 1, 2009.

Recent issues of the Italian James Joyce series (Piccola Biblioteca Joyciana, Joyciana, Joyce Studies in Italy) as well as international publications on Joyce will be launched during the conference.

On arrival, participants will be asked to sign up for membership of The James Joyce Italian Foundation (Students: 25 Euro – Faculty: 35 Euro). The conference fee is 30.00 Euro. Good value accomodation will be available to all participants, and free accomodation will be offered to the selected speakers.

JJIF Committee: Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli, Carla Marengo, John McCourt (Treasurer), Paola Pugliatti, Franca Ruggieri (President), Romana Zacchi. Honorary members: Umberto Eco, Giorgio Melchiori, Luigi Schenoni.

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