American ConferenceF O R I R I S H S T U D I E S

Newsletter ~ Fall 2011

I hope this brief note finds you well and in good spirits as we begin another academic year. In ACIS terms, the onset of fall brings a closer focus on the upcoming regional and national conferences. In terms of the national, I am happy to report that Laura Kelley and Terence Fitzmorris have done a wonderful job organizing the upcoming conference in New Orleans. An exciting array of plenary speakers has been selected (Dan Barry, Christine Kinealy, Cormac O’Grada and Stephen Watt) and the

conference promises to be a delightful blend of scholarly substance and collegial camaraderie. This jewel should not distract our attention from an excellent schedule of regional conferences in Bridgewater, the Bronx, Fargo-Moorhead and San Jose (the Southern regional will be held in conjunction with the national in New Orleans) and I hope members continue to get involved at the regional as well as national level.

There is little doubt that we face difficult times. Ongoing efforts to gut higher education have deepened dramatically over the past year, forcing members to stretch

already scarce resources even further. Unlike our cantankerous and endlessly incompetent political elites, we can face up to these challenges. As an organization, we do so from a position of real strength, most recently reflected in the excellent national conference put on by current VP Mary Trotter and her col-leagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Thanks to the stewardship of Treasurer Nicholas Wolf in particular, our financial situation is stable and our membership numbers are improving. Most of all, of course, we are fortunate in our general membership, whose determination to explore and share scholarly understandings of the

complexity and vital richness of the Irish experience must remain at the heart of our mission. I am tremendously honored to be President of this organization. I have been very fortunate in my mentors and

friends, and I would like to make particular mention of three people: my academic mentor Jim Donnelly, my talented predecessor Jim Rogers and my good friend Danine Farquharson (past president of CAIS, not Canada, as I apparently said at the banquet!). Finally, I would like to urge people to keep in touch. This organization is chock full of talented and imaginative people; please submit your ideas and suggestions about the organization to disciplinary and regional representatives and to other members of the executive. I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you at the upcoming regional and national meetings.

President’s Corner

Greetings from DeKalb!

Sincerely, SeanSfarrel1@niu.edu

Twelfth Annual ACIS Prizes for Books In Irish Studies

The American Conference for Irish Studies sponsors five book prizes annually for scholarship on Irish subjects, open to books published worldwide. It also sponsors a sixth

prize for the year’s outstanding dissertation on a subject related to Irish Studies.

Copies of the books nominated must be received by each of the members of the appropriate committee (listed on the following pages) by 9 January 2012.

The James S. Donnelly, Sr. Prize for Books on History and the Social Sciences

Duais Leabhar Taighde na Bliana Fhoras na Gaeilge/The ACIS Award for Books in the Irish Language

The Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book

The Michael J. Durkan Prize for Books on Language and Culture

The Robert Rhodes Prize for Books on Literature

The Adele Dalsimer Prize for a Distinguished Dissertation

Twelfth Annual ACIS Prizes for Books In Irish Studies

ELIGIBILITY

All books submitted for these awards must have a publica-tion date of 2011. All dissertations must have been defended in 2011. Anyone, including the author, may submit books for consideration. ACIS members may nominate a book by con-tacting the relevant committee chair, who will then contact the publisher. Edited collections, fiction, poetry, and anthologies of literature are not eligible.

Adele Dalsimer Prize - Dissertations nominated for the may be submitted to the committee electronically as.pdf files.

No book may compete for more than one of the three disciplin-ary prizes (Donnelly, Durkan, Rhodes), but an author’s first scholarly monograph (or collection of original essays) may be submitted to the Murphy prize committee in addition to one of the three disciplinary committees. Authors may contact the committee chair to determine whether their book has been submitted for a prize. Prize chairs may choose to reassign entered works.

Please do not send copies of books to ACIS officers. For more information contact the Chair of the Book Prize Committee, Mary Trotter (mtrotter@wisc.edu) and/or the relevant book prize committee chair (see below).

The winners will be recognized at the ACIS National Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the selection committee’s en-comium is read during the ACIS luncheon and business meet-ing. Each prize includes a cash award of $500 for the author.

ACIS will also announce the award winners in a press release in early March, in its quarterly newsletter and on its website. ACIS will publish a display ad announcing the winners in The Irish Literary Supplement: a Review of Irish Books.

PRIZE COMMITTEES

Authors and nominators should be guided by what academic audience the book addresses. Books addressed primarily to historians and/or social scientists should go to the Donnelly committee. Books addressed primarily to literary scholars should go to the Rhodes committee. Books that are addressed to students of language or culture (including the visual and performing arts) should go to the Durkan committee. Books addressed to an interdisciplinary audience (e.g., works in cul-tural studies, gender studies and postcolonial studies) may be submitted to any of the three committees.

Deirdre ni Chonghaille

The Rules

2011 Winners:

Twelfth Annual ACIS Prizes for Books In Irish StudiesTwelfth Annual ACIS Prizes for Books In Irish Studies

James S. Donnelly, Sr. Prize for Books on History and Social Sciences

Professor Brigittine French, ACIS Donnelly Prize Committee Chair Department of Anthropology Grinnell College1118 Park StreetGrinnell, IA 50112-1670e-mail: FRENCHB@Grinnell.edu

Professor Margaret Keiley-ListermannDepartment of Political ScienceGeorgia Gwinnett College1000 University Center LaneLawrenceville, GA 30043

Professor Adam R. KaulDepartment of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Welfare Au-gustana College639 38th St.Rock Island, Illinois, 61201-2296

Duais Leabhar Taighde na Bliana Fhoras na Gaeilge/ACIS Award for Books in the Irish Language

Professor Sarah McKibben, ACIS Irish Language Prize Committee Chair Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies University of Notre Dame 710 Flanner Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556-4637e-mail: Sarah.E.McKibben.2@nd.edu

Professor E. Moore QuinnDepartment of Sociology and Anthropology College of Charleston66 George StreetCharleston, SC 29424

Dr. Colin IrelandResident Director, Global Studies Program Arcadia University6 Clare StreetDublin 2Ireland

Michael J. Durkan Prize for Books on Language and Culture Professor Donna Potts, ACIS Durkan Prize Chair Department of English108 E/CS BuildingKansas State University - ManhattanManhattan, KS 66506-6501e-mail: donnal.potts@gmail.com

Professor Jennifer MolidorDepartment of EnglishKansas State University - Salina2310 Centennial Rd. Salina, KS 67401 Professor Gavin FosterSchool of Canadian Irish StudiesConcordia University1455, boul. de Maisonneuve OuestH 1001Montréal (Québec) Canada H3G 1M8

Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book

Professor Cara Delay, ACIS Murphy Prize Chair Department of History The College of Charleston66 George StreetCharleston, SC 29424e-mail: DelayC@cofc.edu

Professor Claire BrackenEnglish DepartmentUnion College807 Union StreetSchenectady, NY 12308

Professor Ray CashmanDepartment of EnglishOhio State University509 Denney Hall164 West 17th AvenueColumbus, OH 43210

Twelfth Annual ACIS Prizes for Books In Irish StudiesRobert Rhodes Prize for Books on Literature Professor Richard Rankin Russell, ACIS Rhodes Prize Committee Chair Department of English Baylor University One Bear Place, #97404 Waco, TX 76798-7404e-mail: Richard_Russell@baylor.edu

Professor Bryan GiemzaDepartment of EnglishRandolph-Macon CollegeP.O. Box 5005204 Henry StreetAshland VA 23005-5505

Professor Heather ClarkDepartment of LiteratureMarlboro College2582 South RoadMarlboro, VT 05344

Professor Michael DeNie, ACIS Dalsimer Prize Chair Department of History University of West Georgia Technology Learning Center 32001601 Maple StreetCarrollton, GA 30118e-mail: mdenie@westga.edu Dr. Christie FoxDirector of the Honors Program Utah State University1438 Old Main HillLogan, UT 84322-1438e-mail: Christie.fox@usu.edu

Professor Jason KnirckDepartment of HistoryCentral Washington UniversityL & L Bldg., 100T400 E. Univ. WayEllensburg, WA 98926-7553e-mail: knirckj@cwu.edu

Professor Ed MaddenDepartment of EnglishHumanities Office BuildingUniversity of South CarolinaColumbia, SC 29208e-mail: maddene@mail-box.scu.edu

Adele Dalsimer Prize for Distinguished Dissertation

“Contributions to Books”

Call For Papers

Abstracts (500 words) due 1 December 2011Completed essays (3000-5000 word) due 1 June 2012 For a contributed volume on the influence of W.T. Stead on Irish journalistic practices, we seek essays examining the impact of New Journalism on Irish politics, culture, newspa-per practices, and representations of journalism from the 1870s through the 1930s. Essays might consider editorial, typographical, and textual changes in Irish newspaper and pe-riodical practices during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We encourage essays that engage in wide cultural perspectives, exploring how Irish periodicals provide new opportunities and challenges for cultural researchers seeking to understand and ana-lyze cultural phenomena, such as nationalist advocacy, progressive activism, sexual scandal, reading practices, national pedagogy, theatrical and political spectacle, and more.

Please submit electronically to Karen Steele (k.steele@tcu.edu) AND Michael de Nie.

W.T. Stead

“Ireland and the New Journalism ”

Twelfth Annual ACIS Prizes for Books In Irish Studies

“IASIL 2012 Conference:”“International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures”

“Weighing Words: Interdisciplinary Engagements with and within Irish Literatures”

Conference Hosts: School of Canadian Irish Studies and Department of Design and Computation Arts Concordia University, Montreal, QuebecDates: July 30 - August 3, 2012Proposals Due: March 1st, 2012Contacts: Michael Kenneally and Rhona Richman Kenneally Email: irishstu@alcor.concordia.ca Telephone: +1(514) 848-2424 ext. 8711.

This conference will take interdisciplinarity as the point of departure in its engagements with Irish literatures. The premise is that literature provides a portal to worlds of visual and material culture, to landscapes and built environments replete with relationships between humans, things, and spaces.

We are therefore inviting papers that respond to these interdisciplinary engagements inscribed in literary texts, and/or are infused by ideas or methods of other fields such as anthropology, architecture, art, design, digital humanities, film, geography, music, theatre, etc. Papers will also be welcome on other topics of interest to members of IASIL.

Guidelines: Please submit your proposal to irishstu@alcor.concordia.ca. Full panels will also be considered. Proposals should be 250-500 words in length, plus a brief (50 word) biography.

Conference Host: Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish StudiesDate: March 29-31, 2012Proposals Due: November 15, 2012Contacts: John Dillon, Nathaniel Myers About Hybrid Irelands:In recent literary and cultural analyses, Ireland’s unique relation to various notions of hybridity has been given preliminary consideration. Whether pertaining to genres and styles, discourses and disciplines, or identities and influences, it has become apparent that a defining feature of many Irish works is their resistance to traditional, narrow categorization. In an attempt to expand upon these earlier approaches, the Keough-Naughton Institute at the University of Notre Dame will be holding a three-day graduate-student conference to address the relationship between hybridity and Irish literature, with a special focus on texts from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Submissions might interrogate past engagements with the concept of hybridity—a term itself which has no clear definition—as well as posit possible new understandings of “the hybrid” that are specific to Ireland. We invite criticism that focuses on conventionally understood literary genres (poetry, fiction, drama, memoir) as well as work from related fields, including but not limited to history, art, theory, folklore, material culture, and film studies. Furthermore, because the nature of hybridity suggests a coming-together of different elements, one of our goals is to cultivate a critical approach that is itself hybrid; in other words, we very much encourage interdisciplinary approaches to the topic. Our hope is to facilitate a critical conversation that envisions a hybrid Ireland—or, more appropriately, hybrid Irelands—and its litera-ture.

Guidelines: Abstracts should be no longer than 150 words. Please email your abstracts t o hybridIE@nd.edu.

Call For Papers

Suggested topics: • TransnationalPoetics• GenericCrossovers• ContemporaryEngagementswithFolklore• TransatlanticFictions• CultureandImmigration

• IrelandinTranslation• EvolvingImagesinFilmandArt• Recontextualizing“LiteraryIreland”• DialectsandLanguageChange• DislocatedSpaces• PrintCultureandTextualAuthorship

“Hybrid Irelands”Three-Day Graduate Student Conference

Call For Papers

Conference Host: Queen’s University, Belfast: Date: April 19-21, 2012Proposals due: December 15, 2011 ACIS Affiliated: yes

Contact :Matthew Rezniceknewvoices2012@qub.ac.ukhttp://newvoicesqub.wordpress.com/ From plantations to Grattan’s parliament, poitín distillers to the IMF bailout, the Irish have always had a fraught relationship with institutions of political, social and religious power. It raises questions surrounding the legitimacy of performative and systemic aspects of Irishness, which has been and continues to be in flux both north and south of the border. The concept of legitimacy calls for increasingly interdisciplinary respons-es, from both an historical and contemporary perspective.

This postgraduate and early career researchers conference aims to interrogate the concept of legitimacy sur-rounding Ireland and Irishness, the representation of which has always implied experiences on the margins of society and the law. From language, literature, theatre and fine arts sociology, politics, economics and law, we invite postgraduate and early career researchers from across the humanities and social sciences to challenge received opinion and interpretive impasses.

Paper topics include, but not limited to, the following: •Thespacesandplaces,performancesandsubversionsofIrishness.•Transgressionandinforming,surveillanceandpolicing.•Biopoliticsandtheregulationofthebodyandbehaviour.•TherepresentationofgenderedandLGBTQidentities.•Thechallengeofmulticulturalismanddiaspora.•Economicandpoliticalaccountability.•TherelationshipbetweenChurchandState.•Challengestotheestablishedcannon.•ThenationalquestionfromTheActofUniontopostnationalism. Guidelines: We invite abstracts of 250 words for 20 minute presentations to be submitted by Friday 15th December 2011 to newvoices2012@qub.ac.uk New Voices 2012: “Legitimate Ireland”

“New Voices in Irish Criticism 2011: Legitimate Ireland

“At home in Ireland, there’s a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude

towards the authority figure.”- Seamus Heaney

Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers Conference

ACIS News:

ACIS has done well with cover-ing a range of visual arts, music, dance and theater. Since moving the entire family to Ireland this year, Donna has been working

heavily on film. She reports that it’s always a challenge to get Irish films in a format we can watch, and she’s working now with the direc-tor, Eamon Little, arranging screenings for his film, *Living Colour*, for ACIS in New Orleans and elsewhere. The film is about a community of artists with disabilities--or, as one of the artists puts it more accurate-ly, “mixed abilities.”

Living Colour

N ews from our Arts Representative, Donna L. Potts

Richard Rankin Russell has put together an essay collection on Bernard MacLaverty’s fiction.

Bryan P. McGovern reminds us that there will not be an ACIS SE regional conference this year since the national conference is in New Orleans from March 14-17.

Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies

Check out this page.

Spotlight on Maria Doyle

Maria Doyle, associate professor of English at the University of West Georgia, has been publishing on issues of performance and national identity in modern Irish culture for over a decade. Her most recent article, on the devolving patriarch in Marina Carr’s Midlands plays, appeared in Modern Drama last December. Currently, she’s added Canada to her research agenda, exploring related questions of national identification and performativity and considering how Canada and Ireland function as divergent manifestations of the postcolonial process.

Her last ACIS presentation, which examined plays about Ire-land’s Magdalene laundries and Canada’s residential schools, marked a starting point in that joint

exploration. She teaches drama, modern Ireland and modern British and postcolonial studies and directs her campus’s Canadian study abroad program.

ACIS2012 International Meeting

New Orleans, LouisianaMarch 14 ~ 17

Erin at Home, Erin Abroad: Capturing the Irish Experience

AnnouncementsParticipate in a conversation across the ocean by ordering a copy of Prairie Schooner’s Winter 2011 issue, a Special Irish Issue featuring prose and poetry (and even a play!) by an eclectic mix of contemporary Irish authors. Award-winning authors include Patrick Chapman, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Theo Dorgan, Anne Le Marquand Hartigan, Kevin Higgins, Michael McKimm, Mary O’Donnell, William Wall, and many others. For 85 years, Prairie Schooner has brought the best writing to dedicated readers, and we want to make it easy for you to read every word. To pre-order a $9 copy of the Winter 2011 issue, contact Marianne Kunkel at PrairieSchooner@unl.edu or call 800-715-2387.

Want to meet some of the Irish authors? Come to Prairie Schooner’s launch event for its Special Irish Issue on Thursday, Feb. 9, and Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, at the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. Any questions? Please contact Marianne KunkelInterim Managing Editor, Prairie SchoonerUniversity of Nebraska-Lincolnhttp://prairieschooner.unl.edu

Sheldon Museum of Art

The Irish American Heritage Museum Launch

October 3rd to November 16th.

Solo ExhibitionConsulate General of Ireland, New York An exhibition of artworks by Roisin Fitzpatrick - Artist of the Light, opens at the Consulate General of Ireland, New York. The exhibition runs from 3rd of October to 16th of November. This exhibition will provide a contemporary interpretation of all

aspects of light, from the illumination of Newgrange at the winter solstice to various aspects of light in nature including the Whirlpool galaxy, water crystals and fractal designs. Each piece of art expresses beautiful, intricate patterns with simple elegance using natural silks and fine crystals to create entirely unique art forms. Following a career at the United Nations, European Commission and European Bank, Roisin experienced a near death, life-changing event from a brain aneurysm which ultimately inspired the creation of the

Artist of the Light contemporary artwork collection. Evoking an inexplicable sense of serenity and peace, Roisin’s primary intention through this art is to introduce and share the bliss and beauty of radiant light and create a greater sense of well-being in both residential and corporate environments.

Roisin Fitzpatrick - “Artist of the Light”

Look for more details in early February in the Winter 2012 Newsletter

ACIS2012 International Meeting

New Orleans, LouisianaMarch 14 ~ 17

Erin at Home, Erin Abroad: Capturing the Irish Experience

Newsletter EditorACIS Dues

The ACIS Newsletter appears three times per year, in Fall, Winter, and Spring. Deadlines for submissions are Oct. 1 for Fall, Feb 1 for Winter, and May 1 for Spring/Summer. Please send official material, conference pictures, tidbits, and news to Jill Brady Hampton via email: Jillh@usca.edu. Thanks!!

As you know, ACIS dues now run through the calendar year. Single-year memberships expire at the end of each calendar year.

Your annual membership dues in the American Conference for Irish Studies dues are essential to the organization. To re-join, go to the ACIS website at http://www.acisweb.com/index.php and click on “Join ACIS” at the bottom of the page. You may pay by credit card though a secure PayPal account, or print out a form and mail your dues to Nicholas Wolf, VCU Department of History, PO Box 842001, 811 S. Cathedral Place, Richmond, VA 23284-2001 E-mail: nwolf2@gmu.edu

Thank you in advance for your continued membership in the American Conference for Irish Studies.

Michael de Nie Secretary

Click the Facebook logo below to check out the ACIS West page.

Newsletter editor Jill Hampton and new designer under graduate Phylesha Hiers at work.

P R E S I D E N T S e a n F a r r e l lS f a r r e l 1 @ n i u . e d u

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C E L T I C S T U D I E S R E P R E S E N T A T I V ET h o m a s F i n a nt j f i n a n @ m i n d s p r i n g . c o m