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The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures

IASIL Irish Studies Conferences News

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. 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.

2005 Conferences

All details should be confirmed with conference organisers

June-December 2005

Gothenburg, Sweden
8-10 December 2005
University College Dublin
30 November - 1 December
Bath Spa
12 November
Sunderland, UK
11-13 November
New Jersey
11-12 November
Mater Dei, Dublin
5 November
Dun Laoghaire, Ireland
2 November
University of ULster, Magee Campus
28 October
Florence
26-28 October
Trinity College Dublin
21-22 October
Belfast
21-23 October
Loras, IA
20-22 October
Oregon
14-16 October
Galway
30 September - 1 October
University of Notre Dame
30 September
Hamden, CT
17 September
Leeds
16-17 September
Salford
16-18 September
Manchester
8-10 September
Lancaster
2-3 September
Trinity College Dublin
13-17 August 2005
Belfast
4-8 August 2005
Ontario
29-31 July 2005
Prague
july 2004
London
25 June 2005
Tallaght
23-24 June 2005
Maynooth
22-25 June 2005
Cork
22-24 June 2005
Limerick
17-19 June 2005
National Portrait Gallery, London
16-17 June 2005
Cornell
14-18 June 2005
Limerick
9-12 June 2005
Limerick
8-9 June 2005
Bremen, Germany
2-5 June 2005

January - May 2005 Conferences are listed here

2004 Conferences are listed HERE

Irish Studies Conference News Index

This page lists conferences on Irish literature, Irish drama and theatre studies, and Irish film. If you think a conference should be listed here, please tell us.

 Detailed Listings

 

Place and Memory in the New Ireland: The fifth conference of EFACIS (European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies)
8-10 December 2005
Deadline for Abstracts: 1 June 2005
Gothenburg University, Sweden

Irish Studies are to a large extent defined by the country’s geography and / or history. Place and memory are thus dimensions that have always been of specific importance in an Irish context. What role do these dimensions play in the new paradigm of Irish society in its direction towards a postnational state? Contributions on traditional areas of politics, social conditions, history, music, theatre, film, other media and literature as well as new perspectives on these are invited.

Abstracts of no more than 200 words for 20-minute papers should be submitted no later than 1 June 2005.

All correspondence should be addressed to:

Britta Olinder
English Department
Göteborg University
Box 200
SE-405 30 Göteborg
Sweden
e-mail

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Intellectuals and the Nation-State
30 November – 1 December 2005
University College Dublin
Contact:Inquiries may be directed to the conference organiser Professor Liam
Kennedy at Liam.Kennedy@ucd.ie
Deadline for Proposals: 31 August 2005 (with CV)


Plenary speakers include:
Declan Kiberd (University College Dublin)
Eric Lott (University of Virginia)
Slavoj Zizek (Institute for Sociology, Ljubljana/Birkbeck College, University of London).

What role and effect do intellectuals have in the making and contesting of national identities and state policies? This conference will consider historical and current implications of this question.

The critical voice of the intellectual has long been considered important to the evolution of modern Western cultures. How and why was this voice so often tied to the development of national identity? How have ideals of intellectual autonomy and dissent been formulated within
and across nation-states? What forms of intellectual production have states acknowledged and supported? What remains of the Enlightenment origins of the idea of the intellectual?

We will focus on current issues of intellectual identity and activity in the context of global challenges to the power and authority of the nation-state. Today, as new global networks of cultural interaction emerge and new public spheres take shape, what is happening to the intellectual’s affective relation to the nation-state? What is the role of critical thinking and the value of ideas in an increasingly global ‘knowledge society’? What is the role of intellectuals in the making of a new world order and in shaping responses to international crises? What is the role of think tanks and advocacy intellectuals in the formation of state policy? How have new media redefined intellectual activity and identity?

Please send one-page proposals with a brief CV by 31 August 2005 to:

Catherine Carey, Clinton Institute for American Studies, C211 John Henry Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 716
8303. Fax: +353 1 716 8643. E-mail: Catherine.Carey@ucd.ie

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First Annual Postgraduate Irish Studies Conference
Bath Spa University College
12 November 2005
For Students and Recent Graduates of British Colleges
Deadline for Proposals:30 June 2005 (200 words)
Contact: Dr Brian Griffin, Irish Studies Centre coordinator, Bath Spa University College, Newton Park campus, Bath BA2 9BN, England. Tel: 01225 875526. Fax: 01225 875605. e.mail: b.griffin@bathspa.ac.uk

Update October 2005: Download a Registration form and conference pack in Word Format

This year the Irish Studies Centre at Bath Spa University College is hosting the first of what is planned to be an annual conference, open to Irish Studies students and recent graduates from British colleges and universities. This year's conference will have an open theme: proposals for papers on any aspect of Irish Studies will be considered. The aim is to showcase the broad range of topics that are studied by Irish Studies postgraduates and recent graduates (those who have graduated within the last three years) in Britain. A selection of the proceedings will be published.

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University of Sunderland: Third Annual Irish Studies Conference (incorporating the inaugural North East of England Celtic Studies Symposium) Word, The Icon and The Ritual [ii] - Lands of Saints and Scholars
11-13 November 2005
Deadline for Abstracts: 1 June 2005
Proposals: not more than 500 words by 20th June 2005

Contacts: send abstracts to alison.younger@sunderland.ac.uk, john.storey@sunderland.ac.uk, r.allen@unn.ac.uk, stephen.regan@durham.ac.uk, and copied to the Conference Adminstrator
Susan Cottam – susan.cottam@sunderland.ac.uk

Following the success of its last two international conferences: Representing-Ireland: Past, Present and Future, [2003] and The Word, The Icon and The Ritual, [2004] the University of Sunderland is soliciting papers for an interdisciplinary conference, which will run from 11-13 November 2005. This year we are also delighted to welcome proposals from scholars working within the broad field of Celtic Studies.

The conference organisers hope to represent a wide range of approaches to Irish and Celtic culture from academics and non-academics alike. Performances, roundtables, collaborative projects, and other non-traditional presentations are encouraged in addition to conference papers. As with last year’s conference, we welcome submissions for panels and papers under the thematic headings of: The Word, The Icon, The Ritual in the following areas: Literature, Performing Arts, History, Politics, Folklore and Mythology, Ireland (other Celtic countries/regions) in Theory, Anthropology, Sociology, Art and Art History, Music, Dance, Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies, and Studies of the Diaspora. North American and other international scholars, practitioners in the arts, and postgraduate students are all encouraged to submit proposals to the conference organisers. We also welcome proposals for papers in absentia for delegates who wish to participate but may find it difficult to attend the event.

The last two conferences have resulted in the publication of a selection of essays, and we hope to continue this with essays from this year’s conference.

Readings
Bernard O’Donoghue
Catherine Byron

Plenary Speakers Include:

Professor Robert Welch – University of Ulster
Professor Michael O’Neill – University of Durham
Professor Werner Huber, University of Chemnitz, Germany
Dr Kevin Barry, UEI Galway


Organisers:
English/Literary Studies: Dr Alison O’Malley-Younger, (Sunderland),
Professor Stephen Regan, (Durham)
Media and Cultural Studies: Professor John Storey (Sunderland)
History/Diaspora/Celtic Studies: Dr Richard Allen,(Sunderland)

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IRELAND AND MEMORY - MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL AMERICAN CONFERENCE FOR IRISH STUDIES ANNUAL MEETING
11-12 November 2005
Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey
Deadline for Paper Proposals: 1 June 2005
Contact: Terry McCoy

Scholars have been writing about Ireland and memory from perspectives as diverse as those of Declan Kiberd and Roy Foster. The recent spate of commemorations and the battles over the preservation of Ireland's historical sites have heightened the attention paid to this most critical of issues. Clearly, the way in which Ireland and its culture are remembered both from within and without is contested space. This conference seeks to explore the many and varied "memories of Ireland" that constitute the current discourse about the past and future of Ireland. The conference committee is interested in a broad selection of submissions pertaining to all aspects of this question. The conference committee seeks submissions that will explore the diversity of memory and commemoration in Ireland past and present. The “memories” to be considered might encompass:

Immigrant memory
Emigrant memory
Commemoration
Literary memory
Role of tradition
Historical preservation and presentation
High, middle, and popular cultural memory
Memory and Politics

While traditional literary and historical approaches are welcome, the conference organisers hope as well to encourage papers and panels drawing on other academic disciplines, whether cultural studies, anthropology, art history, economics, sociology, political science, or linguistics. Interdisciplinary and comparative work is especially sought. Please submit proposals of up to 500 words along with a short (2 page) scholarly biography to the Conference Committee, care of Terrie McCoy. Proposals should be faxed, mailed or emailed by June 1, 2005. Email proposals should use only Microsoft Word attachments or include the abstract and CV in the main body of the email text.

Terrie McCoy, Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey 07940.
Email: tmccoy@drew.edu <mailto:tmccoy@drew.edu> Fax: (973) 408-3040

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Terence Brown's Ireland: A Social and Cultural History 1922-85 and Seamus Deane's Celtic Revivals
Date and Time: 11am, Saturday November 5, 2005
Venue: Mater Dei Institute of Education, Clonliffe Road, Dublin 3.
Cost: 20 Euros waged/10 Euros concession
Contact: Conor Mc Carthy, Department of English,Mater Dei Institute of Education, email: conor.mccarthy@materdei.dcu.ie

2005 is the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Terence Brown's Ireland: A Social and Cultural History 1922-85 and Seamus Deane's Celtic Revival. This conference will mark that anniversary, and seek both to contextualize these landmark books, and to re-examine the wider contours of Irish criticism then and since.

Speakers will include: Seamus Deane (Notre Dame University), Terence Brown (Trinity College Dublin), Christopher Morash (NUI Maynooth), Siobhan Kilfeather (Queen's University Belfast), Joe Cleary (NUI Maynooth), David Dwan (Queen's University Belfast), Emer Nolan (NUI Maynooth) and Lionel Pilkington (NUI Galway).

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Into the Light: Photography in 19th Century Ireland
2 November 2005
Dun Laoighaire Institure of Arts, Design and Technology.
Deadline for Proposals: 2 September 2004
Contact: Justin Carville
Website: http://www.iadt.ie

UPDATE October 2005
IADT is pleased to announce that it will be holding a one day conference on the history of photography in 19th century Ireland on Wednesday the 2nd of November 2005. The conference will bring together academics and professionals from across Ireland to look at the role of photography in 19th century Ireland. The speakers cover a range of disciplines from the history of photography, art history, sociology, modern Irish history and cultural geography. This is the first conference to take place in Ireland specifically to examine the history of Irish photography and will be of interest to professionals working in the field of museums, libraries and archives, as well as the history and visual culture of Ireland in the 19th Century.

The conference will feature two guest speakers; Professor Graham Smith, Professor of Art History, University of St. Andrews and editor of the History of Photography Journal and Dr. James R. Ryan, Lecturer in Cultural Geography at the University of Leicester and author of 'Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visualisation of the British Empire', Reaktion Books, 1997

Registration information for the conference together with travel and accommodation listings and a conference programme are available on the Events Bulletin of the IADT website www.iadt.ie . Places at the conference are limited and the organisers encourage all those interested in attending to register well before the closing date of 25th October 2005 to avoid and disappointment. For more information please contact the conference organiser: Justin Carville, justin.carville@iadt.ie

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History of the Irish Book - Event Day
University of Ulster Magee Campus
28 October 2005
Contact: Dr Andrew Keanie on aj.keanie@ulster.ac.uk
http://www.culture.ulster.ac.uk/eventprogrammes/AICH/event_day.doc

The University of Ulster will host an Event Day, inspired by the on-going production of A History of the Irish Book (OUP), at the Magee campus on Friday 28th October.

The day, under the auspices of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, will be presented by Professor Robert Welch (General Editor with Professor Brian Walker, of the five volume series) and will consist of specially organised research training sessions delivered by several UU staff members, including Dr Diarmiud O'Doibhlin, Mr Joseph McBrinn, Dr Frank Sewell and Dr Andrew Keanie.

The study of the Irish book, as an artefact, an object in society, brings an exciting, fresh focus, and it is a demanding discipline. Book history is a transferable research skill, and the aim of the Event Day is to encourage awareness of book history issues and approaches amongst MPhil and PhD students in all Arts and Arts-related disciplines, including Literature, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, History and Sociology. Therefore, the day will encourage stronger collaborative relationships between researchers in different specialist areas across the UK.

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The Irish Forum, Florence
26-28 October 2005
Attendance is by invitation only
http://www.irishforumflorence2005.com/

From October 26th through 28th, 2005, over 50 delegates will meet in Florence to discuss the future of Irish Studies in the Academy. The list of delegates will be comprised of heads of Irish Studies programmes worldwide, and other influential individuals in related fields such as publishing and Irish Studies organizations, arts councils and relevant government departments. The forum will consist of discussion sections, which will later result in the publication of policy papers on the future of Irish Studies. Attendance is by invitation.

For further information, see the forum website.
To view the list of delegates who have been invited to attend, follow this link

Organising Committee: Dr. Christina Hunt Mahony (Executive Director), Dr. Peter Kuch, Professor Michael Kenneally, Dr. Bruce Stewart, Dr. John Harrington, Dr. Colin Graham, Dr. Dominic Bryan, Ms. Catriona Crowe, National Archives of Ireland, Dr. Laura Izarra, Mr. Michael Sanfey.

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‘continuings’: a celebration of the life and work of Brian Coffey (1905-1995)
21 - 22 October 2005
University of Dublin, Trinity College
Deadline for Proposals: 29 April 2005
Contact: philip.coleman@tcd.ie and aengus_woods@yahoo.com.


Proposals are now being considered for papers on the life and work of Irish poet, philosopher, and teacher, Brian Coffey. This celebratory symposium will mark the centenary of an important Irish writer’s birth and the tenth anniversary of his death. Contributions are expected from individuals who knew the author personally, but papers examining the range of his achievement will also be delivered by scholars and enthusiasts of Coffey’s work. Readings of Coffey’s work by contemporary poets will also take place.

Panel discussions around the following topics are proposed:

Coffey and Europe
Coffey and philosophy
Coffey and the United States
Coffey and Irish (neo)modernism
Coffey and the contemporary Irish poetic avant-garde

Suggestions for additional panels and proposals for 20-minute presentations on these and other aspects of Coffey’s work should be sent to the organisers no later than Friday the 29th of April 2005. Proposals should include a provisional title, and they should be no more than 1 page in length. They should be sent by email to both of the following email addresses before the deadline: philip.coleman@tcd.ie and aengus_woods@yahoo.com.

Supported by the School of English, University of Dublin, Trinity College

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Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) Annual Conference 2005
21 - 23 October 2005
Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Enquiries: j.garry@qub.ac.uk
Web address: http://www.qub.ac.uk/pais/NewsEvents/SchoolEvents/

We encourage papers on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to, the politics of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Panels will include:
Elections and voting in Northern Ireland
Elections and voting in the Republic of Ireland
Psychological models of political behaviour
Right wing political parties
The impact of the EU on Irish politics Ireland and the international world
Developments in political theory
Multiculturalism and minority rights
Habermas, democracy and participation
Public policy and politics
Corruption and scandals in politics
Ireland and the international world
The influence of the media on political life

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The “Spirit” of Ireland: The Midwest Regional of the American Conference for Irish Studies
Loras College, IA
20-22 October,2005.
Deadline for Proposals: 15 July 2005
Contact: Andrew Auge - acis@loras.edu
Website: http://depts.loras.edu/acis/

The conference theme is The ‘Spirit’ of Ireland. The conference organizers welcome papers and panels that explore any of the manifold ways—literary, historical, political, cultural—by which the Irish experience and/or the Irish diaspora have shaped our understanding of the human spirit.

The papers should be 20 minutes long. Send proposals (not more than 250 words) for papers or panels on the conference theme or any other aspect of Irish Studies by email attachment to acis@loras.edu or by mail to Andrew Auge, Dept. of English, Box 66, Loras College, 1450 Alta Vista St. Dubuque, IA 52001.

The conference organizers especially welcome panel proposals. All proposals should be submitted no later than July 15th, 2005.

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ACIS West - Women of Some Importance
14-16 October, 2005
Oregon State University
Deadline for Proposals: 15 June 2005
Contact: Charlotte Headrick

The 21st annual meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies/West will be held at Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon), October 14-16, 2005. The conference theme is “Women of Some Importance,” and featured events include a production of Elizabeth Kuti’s Treehouses. Proposals (250 words) for 15 minute presentations on any aspect of Irish Studies are invited. Proposals should be sent (by hard copy or email) to conference chair Charlotte Headrick, University Theatre, Withycombe Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR 97331 (cheadrick@oregonstate.edu).

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New perspectives on The Quiet Man
Huston School of Film & Digital Media National University of Ireland, Galway, Graduate Conference
30 September – 1 October 2005
Deadline for Proposals:12 May 2005
Contact: rod.stoneman@nuigalway.ie

The Quiet Man conference will explore this pivotal film in John Ford’s work and the history of cinema, and as a resonant icon in the imaginary of Ireland. We intend to examine the complexity of its relation to Ireland and to John Ford’s other films, to its perceived place with indigenous Irish cinema and the phenomenon of its circulation and reception as a cult film over the years.

We hope the event can involve both the analysis of aspects The Quiet Man as myth, commodity and fetish and the celebration of a film that has sustained such enthusiastic attention and popular appreciation for 50 years.

The conference will consist of plenary sessions on broad themes concerning The Quiet Man plus a range of shorter papers (c30mins) on specific aspects of the topic. There will be screenings of The Quiet Man and related films and visits to the locations in Connemara where the film was made. We welcome offers of papers from all perspectives on the above topics and related areas in Film Studies and Irish Studies, including short ideas and interventions for workshop sessions, accompanied by curriculum vitae, sent by 12th May 2005 to rod.stoneman@nuigalway.ie

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WHY IRISH?
30 September, 2005
Hesburgh Centre, University of Notre Dame
Contact: boconch1@nd.edu

The Department of Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame will host WHY IRISH? on September 30, 2005. WHY IRISH? is a one-day international colloquium that explores the position of Irish language and literature in the North American academy. Five outstanding scholars who incorporate Irish into their research projects will map future trends and directions for scholarly research. The speakers will present on the contributions of Irish to their research and examine the role of Irish in various disciplines – comparative literature, medieval studies, linguistics, contemporary literature, cultural studies and Indo-European poetics. Minister Éamon Ó Cuív, Irish Government Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs will deliver a plenary address on recent legislation pertaining to the Irish language.

Speakers:
Minister Éamon Ó Cuív: “An Ghaeilge – Iarsma Staire nó Teanga Oibre? /
The Irish Language – A Historic Relic or a Working Language?”
Professor James McCloskey: “Irish as a World language”
Professor Philip T. O’Leary: “Teanga gan Teorainn – The Novels of Alan Titley”
Professor Clare Carroll: “Irish Literature, Irish History and Comparative Studies”
Professor Tomás Ó Cathasaigh: “Saga and Myth in Irish Language”
Professor Calvert Watkins: “What Makes the Study of Irish Worthwhile?”

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Ireland's Great Hunger: Representation and Preservation
Quinnipiac University
17 September 2005
Deadline for submissions is March 15, 2005.
Contact: David Valone, Director of Scholarly and Cultural Programs, The College of Liberal Arts, Mail Code CL-AC3, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT 06518. Phone 203-582-5269, fax 203--582-3471. Email: david.valone@quinnipiac.edu.

Quinnipiac University will host its second major academic conference on Ireland's Great Hunger on September 17, 2005. The conference will be held in conjunction with the opening of an exhibition of Quinnipiac's unparalleled holdings of famine commemorative art. This artwork is part of the An Gorta Mor collection of documents, printed materials, paintings, and sculpture relating to the famine and its impact on Ireland and the world. It is showcased in the Lender Family Special Collection Room in Quinnipiac's Arnold Bernhard Library.We invite submissions from scholars working on all dimensions of the Great Hunger. Particularly welcome are proposals that fit the themes of the conference. We are especially interested in:

*representations of the Great Hunger in art, language, literary and historical works;at commemorative sites; and in popular memory.

*papers on aspects of famine preservation, particularly the preservation of famine era records; issues of archival management, access, and funding; and other ways the famine has been preserved, culturally, intellectually, and biologically.

Established and younger scholars are encouraged to submit proposals.Proposals for individual papers and/or full sessions should include names of participants with a c.v. and 250-500 word summary of each paper. We anticipate publishing a selection of the papers in a volume that will be assembled subsequent to the conference. Funds will be available to reimburse some of the travel and lodging expenses of those delivering papers.

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Irish Protestant Identities
University of Salford
Friday 16 - Sunday 18 September 2005
Deadline for Proposals: 31 January 2005
Contact: Prof. Frank Neal, European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT contact by email
Prof. John Tonge, European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT contact by email
Mervyn Busteed, School of Geography, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL contact by email

This multi-disciplinary international conference will examine aspects of past and present Protestant identities in Ireland, north and south, and in the Irish diaspora.

Offers of contributions are invited from people with an interest in the topic working in any part of the humanities, literary disciplines, cultural studies, social sciences, and any other relevant discipline or from those involved in activities which have brought them into contact with this topic. Aspects of historical, contemporary and possible future developments within the Protestant population of Ireland and amongst Irish migrant populations, relations with Irish nationalism, the Catholic Church, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and Empire, the E.U. and North America may be covered. The religious, class, gender and political cleavages within Irish Protestantism may also be analysed. Offers of contributions which do not quite fit within any of these parameters will also be sympathetically considered.

Amongst the features of the conference it is intended there will be panel discussions on 'A Community under Siege' and 'What about the Workers?' It is intended to publish a selection of papers in a volume of conference proceedings.

Paper Abstracts (3 copies) not exceeding 300 words should be submitted to Prof. Frank Neal by January 31 2005 Individuals who have offered papers will receive a response by 1 March 2005

Further details including costs, accommodation, registration forms, guest speakers and programme will be posted regularly on the conference website.


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Paul Muldoon and Postmodern Poetry
University of Leeds
16-17 September 2005.
For information contact - Dr Kathy Mullin
Website - http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/activities/conferences/forthconf.htm

This conference brings together a range of distinguished scholars to explore the poetry of Paul Muldoon. Speakers include Fran Brearton, Richard Brown, Matt Campbell, Catriona Clutterbuck, Neil Corcoran, Alex Davies, John Goodby, Ed Larrisy, John Haffenden, Hugh Haughton, Shane Murphy, Tim Kendall, Tom Paulin, and Stephen Regan. Paul Muldoon will himself give a reading during the conference.

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TaPRA Theatre and Performance Research Association for Britain and Ireland: Inaugural Conference
University of Manchester
8-10 September 2005
Deadline for Proposals: 13 June 2005

T a P R A is a new British and Irish research association founded in order to foster and sustain research in all theatre, performance and related areas in British and Irish Universities and allied institutions. This initiative is, in part, a response to the competitive, and divisive, climate that has developed incrementally over the past decade within British theatre research as a result of the RAE and other government policies. T a P R A has also
been set up in recognition of the fact that in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, in not having a 'local' umbrella forum dedicated exclusively to research, we have not been able to reap the intellectual and other benefits that such association provides, nor been able to facilitate regular scholarly exchanges between the research communities. Above all this
initiative is based in a positive desire to meet with fellow 'local' scholars in the field and exchange research, challenges, questions and anxieties, and to explore synergies and diversities.

The conference willalso include a membership registration process and an election for the officers of the new organisation which has initially been set up by twenty British and Irish academics working in the field.

CALL FOR PAPERS: This is a call for papers for the inaugural conference of TaPRA, a new research association which aims to reflect and promote current research in theatre and performance in the context of UK and Irish Universities and other sister organisations. The inaugural conference willhave research workgroups in the following areas:

Theatre History and Historiography
(Convenors: Jacky Bratton/Jim Davis j.bratton@rhul.ac.uk, Jim.Davis@warwick.ac.uk)

Theatre Performance and Philosophy
(Convenors: Daniel Meyer Dinkgrafe, Anwen Jones dam@aber.ac.uk, aej@aber.ac.uk)

Performing Bodies
(Convenors: Colin Counsel, Joshua Sofaer c.counsell@Londonmet.ac.uk, j.sofaer@mdx.ac.uk)

Performance, Identity and Community (Convenors: Jen Harvie/Michael McKinnie
j.harvie@qmul.ac.uk, m.r.mckinnie@bham.ac.uk)

New Technologies for Theatre (Convenors: Jem Kelly, Andy Lavender, j.v.kelly@ucc.ac.uk, a.lavender@cssd.ac.uk)

Applied and Social Theatre
(Convenors: James Thompson/Helen Nicholson, james.thompson@manchester.ac.uk, h.nicholson@rhul.ac.uk)

Directors/ Collectives
(Convenors: David Bradby, Maria Delgado/Brian Singleton d.bradby@rhul.ac.uk, m.m.delgado@qmul.ac.uk, bsnglton@tcd.ie)

Scenography and Visual Performance
(Convenors: Chris Baugh/Helen Iball, C.L.Baugh@kent.ac.uk, h.iball@hull.ac.uk)

The Documentation of Performance
(Convenors: Viv Gardner/ Ann Featherstone, viv.gardner@manchester.ac.uk, vesta@rapidial.co.uk)

Performance as Research
(Convenors: Baz Kershaw/Paul Allai, baz.kershaw@bristol.ac.uk, p.a.allain@kent.ac.uk)


Submit your proposal for a paper or presentation (these should be no longer than 20 minutes) to the relevant Research Workgroup convenors by June 13th 2005. Please complete the proposal sheet and send it directly to the Research. Workgroup convenor and to viv.gardner@manchester.ac.uk or maggie.gale@manchester.ac.uk.

Paper/Presentation proposal

Research Workgroup:

Name:

Contact address:

Proposed title:

Summary (no more than 350 words)

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The Twenty-First Century Novel: Reading and Writing Contemporary Fiction
Lancaster University
2-3 September 2005
Deadline for Proposals: 30 April 2005
Contact: 21stcenturynovel@lancaster.ac.uk

This conference will explore developments in world fiction since 1990, and speculate on the possible futures of the novel. Papers are invited on the work of major authors who have established themselves in recent years, including Irish writers. Suggested writers include Monica Ali, Ronan Bennett, Jonathan Coe, Douglas Coupland, Mark Z. Danielewski, Patricia Duncker, Percival Everett, Michel Faber, Jonathan Frantzen, Michel Houellebecq, Siri Hustvedt, A.L. Kennedy, John Lanchester, Jon McGregor, Andrew Miller, David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, Andrew O'Hagan, Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Powers, Annie Proulx, Philip Pullman, Will Self, Zadie Smith, Ahdaf Souief, Donna Tartt, Sarah Waters, Irvine Welsh. What are the major preoccupations of present-day fiction? What kinds of future does the novel have? What styles/genres/voices are likely to dominate fiction in the twenty-first century? Is 'postmodern fiction' now a thing of the past? What are the potential configurations and merits of a contemporary literary canon? Which authors/texts might make up the 'canon of the contemporary', or the twenty-first century's canon-in-waiting? What ethical and intellectual questions are raised when we critique the work of living authors? What kinds of dialogue are possible between living authors and their critics?

Topics for papers/panels might include:

The novel and the future
The status of 'literary fiction': canonical, sub-canonical and pre- canonical novels Science and technology in fiction Globalization, geopolitics, terrorism Genre fiction: crime, sci-fi, fantasy, romance Gothic and the uncanny Food, consumption, consumerism The war novel The historical novel Feminisms, masculinities, queer writing/reading Transnational identities; colonialisms past and present The novel and the 'sacred turn'
Fiction after postmodernism
Children's fiction
Literary geographies/the novel and the city The limits of the novel: adaptation, graphic novels, audiobooks, e-fiction The twenty-first century reader

Please send enquiries, proposals for papers (no more than 200 words), and suggestions for panels (groups of three papers organized around a unifying theme) to 21stcenturynovel@lancaster.ac.uk. Please paste your proposal into the body of your message. Attachments will not be opened. Deadline: 30 April 2005.

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INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
17th biennial congress: Expectations and Experiences: Children, childhood and children's literature
Trinity College Dublin
13- 17 August 2005
Closing date for proposals 31 January 2005
www.irscl.ac.uk

Keynote Speakers
Anne Higonnet
Declan Kiberd
Paul Muldoon
Michael Rosen

CALL FOR PAPERS

Proposals are invited for papers and panels exploring the IRSCL 2005 conferences theme, 'Expectations and Experiences: Children, Childhood and Children's Literature'. Aspects of the theme which the conference will focus on include the topics of childhood and families, childhood and morality, childhood on display and childhood and theory.

Strand A. Childhood and families
1. Generations: definition of generations by age, experience, responsibility, interaction. Models and representation of parents, grandparents, extended families. Relations between the age groups as markers of social change.
2. Alternative families: adoption, fostering, same-sex parents, growing up
in care, children caring for children, children alone, substitute parents/families.
3 Nation as family: switching/regaining cultures, immigrants/emigrants, choosing between competing cultures. Competing notions of family among different cultures. 'Belonging' in terms of family and in terms of nation.
4. Families of writers: comparing the work of writers who are related to
each other.

Strand B. Childhood and morality: message and medium
1. Discovering responsibility: visual, oral, written & multimedia texts for children as a means of exploring issues of right and wrong
2. Protecting children: censorship. Changing notions and areas of censorship.
3. Innocence and experience: religion(s) in visual, oral, written & multimedia texts for children.
4. Celebrating adolescence: texts reflecting the specific concerns of adolescents.

Strand C: Childhood on display
1. The representation of childhood in picture books/illustrated books/comics for children.
2. The representation of childhood in film/TV for children.
3. The representation of childhood in stage productions for children.
4. The representation of childhood in non-fiction; history, science books, information leaflets for children. How does non-fiction construct images of childhood?

Strand D: Childhood and theory
1. Theories of childhood; development, gender, class, race, and how these relate to models in fiction.
2. Theories of literature and childhood as they relate to children's literature.
3. Theories of play and playfulness in relation to children's literature
4. Theories of oral culture: folklore and storytelling as they relate to visual, oral, written and multimedia texts for children .

Proposals should be approximately 300 word in length they should indicate the title of the proposal, the primary texts under consideration, a description of the paper content and the arguments to be developed.

Proposals for panels should include a list of all presenters, proposals for all the papers to be presented and an outline of the form which the panel will take.

Proposals must adhere to the theme of the congress and should indicate under which strand of the theme they should be considered. Work presented must be new which means it should not previously have been presented in public in any form.

Twenty minutes will be allocated for each paper, and up to two hours for each panel presentation. In the case of panels no presenter should speak for more than 20 minutes and time must be allocated for discussion.

For poster presentations of work in progress authors will have 10 minutes to present their topic based on a poster. Contributions for these sessions may be less fully developed pieces of research than the papers presented in the 20 minute formal papers and those who attend the poster presentastions will be invited to respond to them to help improve the work in progress by, for example, making bibliographical recommendations or offering ideas about methodology.

Proposals should indicate if the modes of presentation involve the use of DVD, video or other non-print media.

The closing date for proposals is January 31 2005

All proposals will be reviewed before acceptance and notification of acceptance or otherwise will be given by April 30 2005.

Criteria for acceptance includes:
* Adherence to congress theme
* Originality of research
* Clarity of description

Proposals should be submitted electronically in Word format. The name and contact details of the person submitting the proposal or the leader of the proposed panel should be indicated clearly at the top of the proposal.

Please send proposals to:
Valerie Coghlan,
The Church of Ireland College of Education,
96 Upper Rathmines Road,
Dublin 6,
Ireland.
Email

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Island Identities: Imagining history in Britain and Ireland, 1200 - 1700
4 - 8 August 2005
Deadline for Proposals: 30 April 2005
Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland

To celebrate the conclusion of the AHRB-funded "Imagining History" project at Queen's University Belfast (http://www.qub.ac.uk/imagining-history/) in September 2005, the conference organisers invite papers on the relationships linking histories and ethnicities in Britain and Ireland between 1200 and 1700.

Concerned with the cultural trajectories of the Middle English Prose Brut, the "Imagining History" project has aimed to redefine the parameters of the late medieval and early modern historical imagination. The Island Identities conference hopes to open the field of late medieval and early modern historiographies to wider consideration and is particularly interested in assessing the role of historically-sensitive literatures in the construction of local, regional, metropolitan and national identities in Britain and Ireland in this turbulent period. Contributors are invited to submit proposals responding to the following themes:

Histories and ethnicities: frontier cultures write back;
Remapping pre- and early modern identities;
The "British project", medieval and early modern;
Province and metropole;
Nations and narrations;
Trade and territories: medieval and early modern books in transit;
Gender histories;
Literatures of belonging;
The death of the Chronicle?
Brutus and Brennus: Europe in England and England in Europe;
Language politics and policies in multilingual settings;
The historiographical reader;
Place and periodization;

Send proposals for papers of 500 words by email by April 30th 2005. For further details contact Dr Stephen Kelly

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Shaw Symposium at the Shaw Festival
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario,
29-31 July, 2005.
Sponsored by the Academy of the Shaw Festival and the International Shaw Society.
DEADLINE FOR PAPERS & GRANTS: April 15, 2005

PROPOSALS for paper and panel topics (focused as much as possible on Major Barbara and You Never Can Tell) should be sent to Professor Leonard Conolly, preferably as an attachment to an email, to lconolly@trentu.ca, but otherwise by mail to Dr. Conolly, Department of English, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8. A 300-500 abstract should suffice.

SYMPOSIUM PRICE LIST: Registration is $190 (Canadian) per participant and includes a reception on Friday night, sessions both Saturday and Sunday, coffee during the sessions, a casual lunch on Saturday, and a A+ ticket for You Never Can Tell on Saturday night and for Major Barbara on Sunday afternoon. Additional tickets for these two shows can be purchased through Denis Johnston when you register. For all other shows, please contact the Shaw Festival Box Office at 1-800-511-7429 or order online at http://www.shawfest.com/index.php.

TO REGISTER for the Shaw Symposium, either as a presenter or not, please contact Dr. Denis Johnston at the Shaw Festival, djohnston@shawfest.com. Or please leave your order and credit card @ (including expiry date) on his voice-mail at 1-800-757-1106 ext. 206, and leave an email or street address where your order can be confirmed. For updating of the schedule and other details, visit the ISS website at http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/iss.htm. Participants are responsible for arranging their own travel and accommodation (unless you receive a Bryden Scholarship--see below).

RONALD BRYDEN SCHOLARSHIPS & ISS TRAVEL GRANTS:

The Shaw Festival and the International Shaw Society are offering scholarships/grants to young scholars to attend the Second Annual Shaw Symposium at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, from July 19 to July 31, 2005. The ISS will offer travel grants to cover receipted travel expenses (up to $500), while the Shaw Festival will offer two Ronald Bryden Scholarships to cover the costs of symposium registration, theatre tickets, accommodation, and meals. These scholarships commemorate the late Ronald Bryden (1927-2004), long-time Literary Adviser to The Shaw and a founding member of the ISS. ELIGIBILITY: Any student registered at a recognized degree-granting institution may apply. Also eligible are college graduates under the age of 40 who are either independent or underemployed scholars. Preference will be given to applicants who are also submitting a proposal for a paper to be given at the 2005 Shaw Symposium. Additional guidelines for proposals and information about the symposium may be found at http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/2005-ISS-Symposium.htm.

ISS Membership: You need not be a member of the International Shaw Society to attend or participate in the Shaw Symposium or to receive a grant or scholarship, but information about membership is available at http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/iss.htm. A meeting of the ISS will be held at the Symposium, and non-members are welcome to attend as prospective members.

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'Irishness Abroad' - The British Association for Irish Studies and the Institute of English Studies
25 June, 2005
Senate House, University of London

The British Association for Irish Studies, in association with the Institute of English Studies, is hosting a conference which will reflect upon the nature and implications of the Irish diaspora. Speakers include Breda Gray (UCC), Nicholas Grene (TCD), Mairtin Mac an Ghaill (University of Newcastle), Marie-Louise Coolahan (NUI Galway) and Michael Böss of EFACIS, the European association for Irish Studies. They will offer perspectives on how Irishness has been articulated through cultural acts, performances of identity, and religious and academic practices in Britain and in the wider European context. Delegates will be encouraged to think through topics including:· the public and private articulations of Irishness abroad; questions of gender, visibility, community and fragmentation; Irish theatre in Britain; the commodification and representation of Irishness in Britain and continental Europe; the discipline of Irish studies and constructions of Irishness in Europe

Cost: £25, £15 concessions (postgraduates should indicate their status on their application forms as they may be eligible for further concessions).

You can download a confer ence programme and an application form at http://www.bais.org.uk/pages/Conference/conf.htm You can also request paper copies of these documents, or further details, from Dr Siobhán Holland. Please email hollands@smuc.ac.uk

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Canadian Association of Irish Studies: Ireland and the Atlantic: Intercultural Contact and Conflict
NUI Maynooth
22-25 June 2005
Deadline for Abstracts: 15 April 2005

The Canadian Association for Irish Studies (CAIS) invites proposals for presentations of twenty minutes in length – as well as full panel discussions – for its annual conference, to be held this year at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, June 22-25, 2005. The theme of the CAIS conference this year is “Ireland and the Atlantic: Intercultural Contact and Conflict”. Possible topics, very broadly defined, include (but are not limited to):

– The Irish Atlantic: cultural, economic, literary, political, and/or social inter-relations and the formation of migratory routes between Ireland and any destination in the North, Central, or Southern Atlantic sphere.
– Irish Archipelagic Relations: cultural, economic, literary, political, and/or social inter-relations and the formation of migratory routes between Ireland and/or England, Scotland, and Wales.
– Ireland and Europe: Irish-European Atlantic migratory routes and conduits of cultural, economic, literary, political, and social exchange.
– Ireland and Canada: Irish-Canadian emigrant letters, historiography, literary history, print and popular culture, forms of nationalism, racialization of the Irish in Canada, research partnership, Ulster and Canada etc…
– Ireland and the Atlantic: Selected Topics:
– comparative historical or literary work on the Irish diaspora and/or other migrant groups in the Atlantic destinations to which they travelled
– Cultural hybridity and transfer in trans-Atlantic perspective
– Globalisation and immigration in comparative perspective
– Scots-Irish culture, history, and literature
– Trans-Atlantic Irish ethnicity and inter-cultural contact/conflict with other ethnic groups

The deadline for paper proposals is April 15, 2005. Paper proposals should be 250-500 words in length, and sent either electronically or by post to:

Dr. Jason King
English Department
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Maynooth, County Kildare
email

update May 2005 - The following graduate students will be designated as "Ireland Fund Scholars" in the conference program:

Shelly Hobbs (Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland): "The New Irish in St. Johns, Newfoundland, 1949-2003".
Mervyn Horgan (Graduate Programme in Sociology, York University, Toronto): "Displacing the City in the National Imaginary: Dublin and Toronto".
Brad Kent, (Ph.D. Candidate, Concordia University, Montreal): "The Thin Society Abroad: The Figure of Ireland in the Italian Travel Writings of Sean OFaolain".
Saara Liinamaa (Ph.D. Candidate, York University, Toronto): "Landscapes, Portraits and Peripheries: Art, innovation and the Nation"
Josh MacFadyen (PhD Program, History, University of Guelph): "125 Years of Scots-Irish Resettlement in Canada, 1766-1891"
Isabelle Matte (Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, Laval University, Quebec): Quebec's "Quiet Revolution" and Ireland's "Celtic Tiger": A Comparative Approach to the Study of Religious Change"

In addition to the Ireland Fund Scholars, two other Canadian graduate students have been designated CAIS- SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) assisted scholars, and have each been awarded a lesser bursary to present their research at Maynooth:

Leigh-Ann Coffey (Ph.D. candidate, University of Toronto): "The Luggacurran conflict in a transatlantic context".
Simon Jolivet: (Ph.D. Candidate, Concordia University): "Le Government of Ireland Act et la voie politique modirie, 1919-1920".

The conference organizing committee is also pleased to announce that the conference will feature plenary speakers from a cross-section of Irish Studies research centres in Canada, as well as a public interview with the Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, Ben Barnes, who will explore Irish and Canadian theatre links in a plenary session that will take place in the Abbey Theatre on the afternoon of June 23rd, 2005. At the invitation of Cambridge Scholars Press, a proposal for an edited collection of essays based on selected conference proceedings provisionally entitled The Irish Atlantic: Intercultural Contact and Conflict will be submitted for publication.

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Irish and Catholic? Towards an Understanding of Catholic and Irish Identities.
Priory Institute, Tallaght Village, Dublin 24
23-24 June 2005
Contact John Littleton or Eamon Maher
Deadline for Paper Proposals: 1 May 2005.

The role played by the Catholic faith in forging a certain view of Irishness has been evident to many commentators, historians and literary experts for some time. As we enter the third millennium, organised religion in general, and Catholicism in particular, are experiencing a marked fall-off in interest and practice. It is therefore appropriate that the strong links between Irish Catholicism and our notion of national identity be discussed in an open and rigorous manner. This is the reason why The Priory Institute and IT Tallaght are organising an interdisciplinary conference that will take place from the 23-24 June at The Priory Institute, Tallaght.

Plenary speakers include Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent with The Irish Times, John Littleton, President of the National Conference of Priests of Ireland, Eamon Maher, Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies, IT Tallaght. Abstracts of no more than 200 words are invited from a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, theology, literature, cultural studies, spirituality, sociology, history. They should be sent before May 1st 2005 to Rev. John Littleton, The Priory Institute, Tallaght Village, Dublin 24 or Dr. Eamon Maher, Lecturer in Humanities, IT Tallaght, Dublin 24 E-mail: eamon.maher@it-tallaght.ie Tel: +353 (0) 1 4042871 Papers should not exceed 25-30 minutes.

A selection of the papers will be published in book form. Acceptance of abstracts does not guarantee inclusion in the proceedings.

Panels could look at the following areas: • What is Catholic Identity? • Towards a historical overview of Irish Catholicism. • Representations of Irish Catholicism in the print media, on radio, television and in film. • Catholic practice in Ireland as depicted in literature. • Catholic Identity in Ireland in the wake of modernity. • Irish Identity post Vatican II. • Looking to the future.

Fee: The conference fee will be €75, including Thursday or Friday lunch and conference dinner on the Thursday evening, tea and coffee on both days. €25 for conference pack, tea and coffee only. Special student rate: €35. The registration form can be downloaded from The Priory Institute website.

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14th Irish-Australian Conference: Cultural Identities and Cultural Transmission
22-24 June 2005
University College Cork
Deadline for Proposals: 1 May 2005
Contact: Dr Larry Geary,History Department,University College Cork, Ireland. Email

This international Irish Studies conference invites papers relating to Ireland and to the Irish abroad, with particular emphasis on the Irish in Australia and New Zealand. Culture will be one of the key conference themes. Cork is the designated European Capital of Culture for 2005, a circumstance that provides both an opportunity and an environment to focus on this important area of human contact. Topics that might be addressed include - Material culture; folk culture; literature; music; dance; fine art; film; architecture; written and oral cultural transmission; cultural influences; intercommunal cultural transference; cultural assimilation and dissemination within host communities; cultural retention or dilution within these societies.

The cultural theme is apposite, given Cork’s 2005 European role, but the conference also welcomes papers on history, politics, religion, gender, migration, geog raphy and economics as they relate to Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and to the links between these countries.

The conference will be based at University College Cork. A website containing a programme and registration form, together with information on accommodation will be set up l ater this year.

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SSNCI 2005 Conference: 'Land and Landscape in Nineteenth-Century Ireland'
Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick
17-19 June 2005
Deadline for Proposals: 30 September 2004
Contact: glenn. hooper@mic.ul.ie/una.bromell@mic.ul.ie

'Issues relating to land and landscape were a constant throughout the nineteenth century. Concern about land ownership and rights, distribution and productivity, affected almost all levels of society. However, alongside the interest in how the land should be worked, there developed a growing awareness of the Irish landscape as a literal space, a spectacle, and an aesthetic category. This conference seeks to bring together scholars interested in exploring the material conditions of Irish land, and also those concerned with how the landscape was both framed and imaged. The 'Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland' welcomes abstracts from scholars working in the general fields of history, literature, heritage and folklore, leisure tourism, historical geography, and the history of art, especially where these disciplines intersect. Abstracts, by email, should be sent by 30 September, to both Glenn Hooper, Dept of English, and Una Ni Bhroimeil, Dept of History, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. glenn.hooper@mic.ul.ie/una.bromell@mic.ul.ie'

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Irish Theatrical Diaspora Conference - Irish Theatre in England
16-17 June 2005
National Portrait Gallery, London
Website: http://www.itd.tcd.ie
Contact: Richard Cave and Ben Levitas
Download a draft timetable and registration form

The Irish Theatrical Diaspora in conjunction with The Theatre History Group and The Institute of English Studies (University of London) will be hosting a conference on the theme Irish Theatre in England on 16 and 17 June 2005, co-directed by Richard Allen Cave (Royal Holloway) and Ben Levitas (Goldsmiths' College). The venue will be the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the dates have been designed to coincide with a major exhibition at the gallery, Conquering England, curated by Fintan Cullen and Roy Foster. The theme of the conference may be interpreted broadly to cover a number of fields:

* the work of specific Irish performers or companies in England;
* the staging of Irish drama in England;
* the reception of Irish performance by English audiences;
* the extent of the Irish Theatrical Diaspora throughout England.

It is intended that “theatre” be interpreted broadly to include opera, dance, circus, music hall, etc. Please note that, unlike the Victorian emphasis of the exhibition, no parameters regarding periods as a special focus of study are being imposed on contributions to the conference.

The structure of the conference will involve plenary lectures by invited speakers and panels in which twenty-minute papers are given on related topics, leading to discussion by the panel members and audience.

Carysfort Press is publishing Irish Theatre On Tour as the first volume in the Irish Theatrical Diaspora series; the proceedings from the Irish Theatre in England conference will be issued as the second volume in this series.

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"Return to Ithaca" -- The 2005 North American James Joyce Conference
Cornell University Library,
14-18 June, 2005
Deadline for Submissions 15 February 2005
Website: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/joyce/

The 2005 North American James Joyce Conference will be hosted by the Cornell Unversity Library, with help from Cornell's English Department and Society for the Humanities, as well as the Pennsylvania State University Libraries and the Ithaca College Department of English. In addition to the usual suite of academic panel sessions, presentations, and reading groups, the event will include both musical and theatrical performances, as well as a major exhibition of material from Cornell's outstanding collection of Joyceana.

Although proposals for papers, panels, and presentations on any and all aspects of Joyce studies will be considered, we encourage work that addresses, however remotely, the conference theme. For instance:
· Notions of home, nostalgia, and remembering
· Returning to Joyce's early works, manuscripts, notebooks, etc.
· The "Ithaca" chapter of Ulysses
· Homeric parallels in Joyce
· Explorations of connections with Ithaca, NY (e.g. Nabokov and Joyce, Pynchon and Joyce)
· Journeying in general, including places in Joyce's works
· Returning as a re-evaluation of Joyce's text and Joycean criticism
(e.g. in the 2nd century following Bloomsday)
· Readings of passages involving returning and/or moving backwards (e.g. "wurming along gradually for our savings backtowards motherwaters so many miles from bank and Dublin stone")

Send proposals via electronic mail to: William S. Brockman (uxb5@psu.edu)

For more information on the conference, contact: Jim LeBlanc (JDL8@cornell.edu) or visit the conference web site:
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/joyce/

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Eighteenth Century Ireland Society Annual Conference 2005: Brian Merriman in European Context
9-12 June 2005,
University of Limerick, Ireland.
Deadline for Proposals: 31 January 2005

Contact: Dr Liam Chambers, Department of History, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. E-mail and Dr Sean Patrick Donlan, School of Law, University of Limerick. E-mail

2005 is the bicentenary of the death of the celebrated North Munster poet Brian Merriman (1749-1805), author of Cúirt an Mhean-Oíche (The Midnight Court). To mark the occasion the Eighteenth Century Ireland Society Annual Conference will be organised in association with Cumann Merriman. The Conference will commemorate Brian Merriman and The Midnight Court, as well as exploring a broad range of eighteenth-century topics and issues. The following topics are particularly relevant to the conference theme: text, MSS, transmission, translation, reception of The Midnight Court; Utopian elements in the work of Merriman and his contemporaries; European and/or Enlightenment contexts to the work of Merriman, including the European education of the priesthood; local history of Clare/Limerick; folklore; gender, marriage and sexuality; religion and the status of priests in Ireland; illegitimacy and the status of children; the legal context. In addition to proposals on the conference theme, proposals relating to any aspect of Ireland in the long eighteenth century will be welcomed.

Proposals of 100 words for a twenty-minute paper in English or Irish should be submitted to one of the following by 30 January 2005.

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GENDER AND MEMORY:documenting, recording, transmitting.
University of Limerick 8 -9 June 2005
Deadline for Proposals: February 2005
Plenary speakers: Breda Gray, Myrtle Hill and Eilish Rooney

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Women on Ireland Research Network is pleased to announce its third major international conference to be held at the University of Limerick in June 2005. The Women on Ireland Research Network was founded in 1997 and has held major conferences in London (1998) and Liverpool (2002). Its members work in many areas including history, sociology, literature, law and geography. The Women on Ireland Research Network invites proposals for papers from individuals and panels. Proposals should be no more 300 words max. Proposals are welcome from academic staff, graduate students and professionals working in related fields.Topics and themes could include: autobiography and biography; oral history; migration; nationalisms; media; biographical fiction; masculinities andfemininities. These are only suggested themes and we welcome all suggestions for papers in this wide area. Interdisciplinary approaches are very welcome.

The deadline for proposals is 28 February 2005 and should be sent to Dr. Yvonne McKenna at Limerick University

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Mapping Uncertain Territories. Space and Place in Contemporary Theatre and Drama
CDE Conference 2005, Bremen, Germany,
2-5 June 2005
Deadline for Proposals: 31 December 2004
e-mail: t.rommel@iu-bremen.de; mark.schreiber@iu-bremen.de
conference website: http://www.ContemporaryDrama.de

The German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English announces its 14th Annual Conference (5-8 May 2005). It will be organized by the Chair of English Literature at International University Bremen and held on the university campus.

In our post-national, post-colonial and postmodern world, categories of space and place have become increasingly contested. The capacity to create or "produce space" (Lefebvre) is a quality that all literary and artistic genres inherently share. Theatre and drama, however, takes a particularly challenging role in this respect. As a performative genre, it continuously oscillates between the imagined spaces and places of the text and the real, social, cultural and political spaces and places of its production and reception. Public spaces, market places and the stage as "the other place" create territories that invite exploration and mapping.

This conference aims to investigate the ways in which theatre and drama engages with, (re)negotiates and (re)defines the changing nature of contemporary notions of space and place.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

- contemporary drama and theatre as creative, commercial, political, cultural space
- space, place, identities and/or gender in contemporary drama and theatre
- alternative spaces and places in contemporary theatre and drama
- contemporary theatre and drama and/in cyberspace
- theatre, globalisation and the marketplace
- modes of exchange in time and place

Abstracts:
If you propose to give a talk (in English, not exceeding 20 minutes), please submit your title and an abstract of 200 words accompanied by a short biographical sketch. In addition to the presentation of papers we particularly invite contributions to alternative forms of discussion: e.g. proposals for workshops on Teaching Contemporary Drama in English and on Theatre Practice/Working with English Drama Groups. Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 December 2004.

Only paid-up members are eligible to read papers at CDE conferences. Membership subscriptions may be taken out or renewed during the conference.

Please send your proposals to:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Rommel/ Mark Schreiber, International University Bremen,School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Arts and Literature, PO Box 750561, D-28725 Bremen