Spring 2010 Events

BC Irish Studies events in spring 2010, including the Gaelic Roots concert series, the Film Series, and the Creative Writers Series, are now listed on the website.

Call for papers: Saints, Sinners and Scribes in the Celtic World

The Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA) Annual Meeting convenes April 9-11, 2010 at the University of Notre Dame to discuss papers related to the conference theme: "Saints, Sinners and Scribes in the Celtic World." The organizers welcome proposals from faculty and graduate students in particular for individual 20 minute papers that address the conference theme or any aspect of the languages, literature, history, folklore, music, art and archaeology of ancient, medieval and modern Celtic cultures. Potential presenters should send a 200-250 word abstract suitable for reproduction, plus a brief biographical sketch (one-half page in length) before Feb. 1, 2010 to csana2010@gmail.com.

Graduate students are encouraged to present at the conference and the 2010 CSANA Graduate Prize will be awarded to the best graduate paper presented at the conference (membership required).

Scholarship: Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool

The Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool announces the creation of a number of fees-only studentships for prospective PhD students from any country outside the European Union. The scholarships are worth 25,200-28,200 GBP over 3 years. These can be in any area of Irish Studies, where is existing expertise in the Institute. Currently, the area of Irish Literature is over-subscribed. Candidates wishing to work in the following areas will be particularly welcome: Gaelic ecclesiastical history, the Vikings in Ireland, Irish theater/drama, W.B. Yeats, Irish women's history (particularly 19th and early 20th century) and contemporary Northern Irish history/politics. Scholarships may be taken up any time during 2010 after Feb. 1st. Applications (C.V., one page outline of the topic to be researched and names of two academic references) should be addressed to Dr. Diane Urquhart (urquhart@liverpool.ac.uk), The Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liberpool, 1, Abercromby Square, Liverpool L60 7WY England.

Lecture: Declan Kiberd

Declan Kiberd presents "John Henry Newman and the Bonfire of the Humanities" on Nov. 17, 2009 at 6:30pm in the National Library Seminar Room of the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. Declan Kiberd is the Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama Department at University College Dublin. He is the author of several books, including Irish Classics (Harvard University Press, 2002) and The Irish Writer and the World (Cambridge University Press, 2005).This lecture is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Admission is free. No reservations are required.

Film Screening: Blazing the Trail

The Boston Irish Film Festival presents Blazing the Trail: The Story of the Kalem Film Company in Ireland on Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 at 7pm at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Mass. Blazing the Trail presents a selection of rarely-seen films with live musical accompaniment and interspersed with popular Irish parlor songs from the 1910s. All of the films have been digitally restored, with some receiving their first public screening in almost a century. Affectionately known as the "O’Kalems," screenwriter/actress Gene Gauntier, Sidney Olcott and their crew became the first American filmmakers to shoot overseas and the first to produce films that reflected the realities of the Irish experience. A sentimental mix of rebel dramas, folk romances, and tales of exile and emigration, their films proved tremendously popular with the Irish in America.

Tickets are $9.75 and are available online at www.coolidge.org or at the Coolidge Corner Theatre box office.

Call for papers: Young in Ireland, Old in America

The European Association for American Studies Biennial Conference, "Forever Young"? The Changing Images of America, will take place March 26-29, 2010 in Dublin. There is a call for papers for the workshop "Young in Ireland, Old in America: Irish-American Communities of Thought," which aims to build on and expand the parameters of recent scholarship on Irish America and to unsettle some of the most problematic aspects of the Grand Narrative of Irish emigration to the U.S. The workshop will also address the importance of new strands of engagement with America in Ireland itself and the growing influence of the United States in Irish contemporary culture. Please submit papers to Sinead Moynihan (Sinead.Moynihan@nottingham.ac.uk or Marisa Ronan (marisa.ronan@gmail.com by December 1, 2009.

Conference: The Fourth John Butler Yeats Seminar

The Fourth John Butler Yeats Seminar will be held Sept. 10-12, 2010 at The Swift Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. The Seminar will discuss the work of the Yeats family and their contemporaries over three days. There will also be a privately curated visit to the Yeats Museum at The National Gallery of Ireland. There are ten scholarships available to students. Register online