Welcome to the 2007/2008 IASIL Newsletter

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.

July 2008

The Novel and its Borders, 9-10 July 2008, University of Aberdeen. Deadline for Proposals: 31 December 2007

May 2008

Secularism and Globalization in France and Ireland, 23-24 May 2008, University Rennes 2. Deadline for Proposals 4 February 2008

April 2008

Politics and Propaganda, 3-5 April, 2008, Florida International University, Miami, Florida. Deadline for Proposals: 1 October 2007

All details should be confirmed with conference organisers

2007 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.

The Novel and its Borders
The Centre for The Novel, University of Aberdeen
8-10 July 2008
www.abdn.ac.uk/novelconference/

The novel is not only a literary form occupying a particular generic or cultural territory, but also an aesthetic, historical and social phenomenon that represents, constructs, and transgresses borders. The conference on The Novel and its Borders will engage with the novel in all its aspects, material and theoretical, from the 18th to the 21st century.

Plenary speakers: Malcolm Bowie, Jonathan Lamb, Terry Castle

Panel topics will include the following: Genealogies of the novel, Histories of the book, Memory, History and Narrative time; Transatlantic crossings; Travel narratives; Libraries, Archives, Markets; Borders of the mind; Territories of the body, novel sexualities; The novel and translation; The novel and real/imagined communities; The novel and old/new media; Materialities of the novel Transport of/in the novel; The novel and the city; The novel and the nation Technology, science and the novel; Realism and its borders (The experimental novel) ; The novel and its critical fields (Theories of the novel)

Please send 250-word abstracts for 20-minute conference papers to novel.conference@abdn.ac.uk by 31 December 2007.

Proposals for panel topics with participants are also welcome.

Organisers: Adrienne Janus, Abigail M Smith and Janet Todd

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Secularism and Globalization in France and Ireland
4th Conference of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies.
University Rennes 2, Brittany, France 23-24 May, 2008

Following the success of its three international conferences to date, the Association of Franco-Irish Studies, in association with the Centre for Irish Studies, University of Rennes 2, France, is soliciting papers for a conference, which will run from 23-24 May 2008. 

The enlargement of the European Union and globalization have accompanied a general process of secularisation of Europe. Today the separation of  Church and  State is a common feature in the Western world, though some counter examples such as the  British Monarchy still exist. Such a trend has often been described as an inevitable consequence of the spread of human rights, seen as the rights of individuals protected by  a State which has become neutral in religious matters. 

George Rupp, in his Globalization Challenged (Columbia University Press, 2006), gives a concise definition of this trend which he describes as “the call of Western secular liberalism”, according to which religious and other ideological views may be tolerated as long as they remain private convictions that do not shape public outcomes. Globalization often appears, to quote Ian Burruma (The New York Review of Books, 11 April 2002), as “another word for ‘ US imperialism.’”  In this regard, comparisons between the French and the Irish experiences may prove fruitful. In spite of the fact that the French and the American Revolutions were often seen as sisters born out of the Enlightenment, they bore fundamental differences: the French Revolution was secular, while the American one had a strong theological background. Today the French are defensive about their perceived identity in the face of Hollywood, Microsoft, MacDonalds and Sects, and the “exception culturelle” claim,  in addition to Claude Hagege's well-voiced stance on language, are evidence of  a strong suspicion as to the real motives behind globalization. Today the American-Irish connection is very strong, and a long history of migration has played a major part in this process, but one must not forget that for a long time Irish Catholicism considered American culture as yet another Anglo-Protestant threat.
 
Now, at the beginning of the third Christian millennium, we are not only in the globalization revolution, but also in the post-modern era. What will be the responses of people in this new era to the deep insecurities produced by globalization? Is it possible in this context that they may become more theological and religious rather than ideological and secular? What alternatives exist?

The aim of the Conference will be to examine and compare the French and the Irish experiences of these phenomena, and assess what understanding and  perspectives they may offer. The headings provided do not seek to be prescriptive. Any other valid areas can also be examined.

Previous conferences have resulted in the publication of a selection of essays and the proceedings from the Rennes meeting will therefore appear in the third volume of Studies in Franco-Irish Relations series (Peter Lang).

Papers in French or English should be of 20 minutes duration and abstracts of no more than 250 words must be submitted by the 4th of February 2008 to Dr. Eamon Maher,: eamon.maher@ittdublin.ie or Dr. Yann Bévant yann.bevant@uhb.fr
 
Keynote speakers include Pr Peadar Kirby (Dublin City University) and Pr Catherine Maignant (Université Lille 3)  

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Politics and Propaganda: 29th Annual Conference of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association
Florida International University, Miami, Florida
3-5 April, 2008

The conference organisers invite papers on themes including, but not limited to political figures, movements (Chartism, socialism, communism, anarchism, trades unions, reform), parties, campaigns, immigration, imperialism, suffrage, gender politics, war, slavery, nationalism, pacifism, uprisings, and revolutions. Equally welcome are paper and panel proposals concerning propaganda, including but not limited to advertising, periodicals, promotion (including self-promotion), news, campaign materials, songs, slogans, cartoons, souvenirs, paraphernalia, monuments, posters, and public art.

Abstracts (250 words) for 20-minute papers, author’s name and paper title in heading, with one-page c.v. by Oct. 1, 2007 to: Kathleen McCormack, Program Chair, Florida International University,  mccormac@fiu.edu

Registration and accommodation information will be available on November 1, 2008:

http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/ncsa/index.html

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