UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies
UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland | Director: Professor Liam Kennedy
Ireland’s America
The Irish Association for American Studies,in association with the UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies,
Conference Report 30 - 31 March 2007
The UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies hosted the annual Irish Association for American Studies conference on the 30 -31 March. The conference theme, 'Ireland's America', invited exploration of the presence of 'America' in the Irish imagination. Speakers covered a range of topics including perspectives on the US in Irish literature and culture, immigrant projections of America, parallels between Irish and Native American experiences, representations of the US in Irish music and cinema, and the influence of American modernism on Irish architecture.
A highlight of the conference was the opening keynote lecture on Friday evening by Professor Denis Donoghue, formerly of USC and now the Henry James Chair of English and American Letters at New York University. Professor Donoghue, the first Proessor of English and American Literature at UCD, described the development of his teaching and scholarship in the field of American literature and provided a stimulating commentary on issues of literary politics. His talk was followed up by a lively roundtable on Saturday morning that included Professor Donoghue, Professor John Montague (former Ireland Professor Poetry) and Professor Peggy O'Brien (University of Massachussetts), discussing their literary influences and the evolution of American literature teaching in Ireland. The closing roundtable, with Dr. David Doyle (UCD), Dr. William Riches (formerly of University of Ulster) and Dr. Michael Coleman (University of Jyvaskyla in Finland), further developed the theme of the conference by elaborating the ways in which an interest in American history was given disciplinary form over time at Irish (including Northern Irish) universities.
During the conference it was announced that UCD and TCD will share the hosting of the 2010 European Association for American Studies conference. This biannual conference is one of the largest events in the international American Studies calendar and the President of EAAS, Professor Marc Cheneier (Paris VII Diderot), won on hand at the weekend to help us betgin the planning of the 2010 event.
Much of the 2007 IAAS conference looked back to the history of the US in Ireland. The award of the 2010 EEAS conference to Ireland indicates the good present health and bright future of American Studies in this country.
Barbara Ching & Peggy O'Brien
P. Coleman, J. Montague, P. O'Brien, D. Donghue, B. Riches, R. Callan, L. Kennedy
Tony Emmerson, Megan Murphy, Hilary Bracefield, Bill Riches
Wendy Ward & Jenny Daly
Peggy O'Brien, Denis Donoghue, Philip Coleman
Marisa Ronan & Aoileann Ní Eigeartaigh
Sinéad Moynihan & Barry Shanahan
Julie Sheridan, Aoileann Ní Eigeartaigh, Tony Emmerson & Michael Coleman
Friday 30th March
Venue : William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium, UCD
6.00 Registration
6.50 Welcome
Liam Kennedy, Director of the UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies
7.00 The Alan Graham Memorial Lecture
Chair: Ron Callan (UCD)
Professor Denis Donoghue (New York University)
'First Stirrings'
8.15 Reception
Saturday 31st March
Venue: - William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium
9.00 Registration
9.30 - 11.00 Panel A - C
Panel A
Hilary Bracefield (University of Ulster)
'The Kingston Trio, folk or 'folk': the Irish perspective on an American phenomenon'
Barbara Ching (University of Memphis)
'Forty Shades of Americana: Johnny Cash and Folk Balladry'
Ruth Barton (University College Dublin)
'HONK IF YOUR'RE LONELY! - Irish cinema and the emotional space of American Country music'
Panel B
Pat Brereton (Dublin City University)
'Ireland's America: A case study of Sheridan's films: including Into the West, In America and Get Rich or die Tryin.'
Jon Mitchell (NUI Maynooth)
'What is this film doing here?: The Presence of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Mickeybo and Me'.
Padraig Kirwan (Goldsmith College)
"Take 'em to Missouri, men": Patrick McCabe's Huckleberry Finn
Panel C
Michael Coleman (University of Jyväskylä)
'Counterfactuals I'd rather not contemplate: What if the nineteenth-century educational campaigns to Americanize the Indians and to Anglicize the Irish had never taken place?'
Marie Coleman (Queen's University Belfast)
'The Irish Hospitals Sweepstake in the USA in the 1930s'
11.00-11.30 Tea/Coffee
11.20 - 12.30 Roundtable Discussion
American Literature in Ireland: chaired by Philip Coleman (TCD)
Denis Donoghue (New York University)
John Montague (former Ireland Professor of Poetry)
Peggy O'Brien (University of Massachusetts)
12.30 - 2.00 Lunch
Annual General Meeting of the IAAS
2.00- 3.30 Panels D & E
Panel D
Gerard Naughton (UCD)
'Sexual Exile and Indomitable Forces in the fiction of James Baldwin and Colm Toibin'
Sinéad Moynihan (University of Nottingham)
'"Ships in Motion": The Black and Green Atlantics in Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea (2003)
Barry Shanahan (UCD Clinton Institute)
'The Irish & their famous profanity": Hip Hop & Identity in Roddy Doyles "Home to Harlem"
Panel E
Megan Murphy (Trinity College Dublin)
'The Production of Doubt in Contemporary Ireland'
Sara Keating (Trinity College Dublin)
'There's Nothing Romantic About Poverty' or is there? Tom Murphy and the Myth of the Other West
3.30 - 4.00 Tea/Coffee
4.00 - 5.30 Panels F & G
Panel F
Victoria Kennefick (University College Cork)
"Why Don't You Write About America?" Representations of relations between Ireland and America in the work of Frank O'Connor'
Peter Denman (NUI Maynooth)
''"Dreaming of Cambridge, Mass. in Inis Oirr": Images of America in Irish Poetry, 1950-1980'
Maria Johnston (Trinity College Dublin)
'Somewhere Else': Louis MacNeice and America
Panel G
Madeleine Lyes (UCD Clinton Institute)
'Unsettling Visions of Home: Maeve Brennan's "Talk of the Town" and the Grand Project of the New Yorker.
Ellen Rowley (Trinity College Dublin)
'From Dublin to Penn and Back Again: An Exploration of the Influence of American Modernisn on Irish Architecture of the 1970's'
5.45 - 6.45 - Roundtable Discussion
American History in Ireland.
Ciaran Brady (Trinity College Dublin)
David Doyle (University College Dublin)
William Riches(University of Ulster)
Accommodation & Food
Attendees are responsible for booking and paying their own accommodation.
Food on Campus
Tea/coffee will be provided however delegates responsible their own lunch.
Details of places to eat on campus are listed here and can be located on the UCD Campus Map.
Registration & Fees Information
Registration fee includes a conference pack, admission to seminars, plenary sessions and teas/coffees. Once you have filled in the necessary details on the booking form, please return to:
Ms. Catherine Carey, Manager, UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies, William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
or email the form as an attachment to Catherine.Carey@ucd.ie. You will then receive confirmation of your booking.
Fees
€30, conference fee
€15 conference fee for student/unwaged
Booking Form
Please copy the booking form onto a word document before completing and returning it.
- Name
- Institute/Affiliation
- Full Postal Address
- Tel/Fax
- Number of places
How to get to University College Dublin and the William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium
The opening lecture of the IAAS Conference will be held in the William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium at University College Dublin, on the 30 March 2007.
Delegates are responsible for booking their own travel and accommodation.
How do I find the Conference Venue when I reach UCD Campus?
Please print this map and bring it with you. The William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium is number 50 on the map and you will be entering the campus from the N11 entrance.
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