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CFP: Forgotten Pasts and Social Futures: The Fourth Annual Concordia Graduate Conference in Irish Studies
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Forgotten Pasts and Social Futures: The Fourth Annual Concordia Graduate Conference in Irish Studies
January 31 to February 1, 2020
Following on the success of last year’s conference, Insula, The School of Irish Studies at Concordia University (Montréal) invites graduate students working on Irish-related topics to submit abstracts for Forgotten Pasts and Social Futures: The Fourth Annual Concordia Graduate Conference in Irish Studies.
As the School of Irish Studies celebrates its 10th anniversary, we propose an interdisciplinary discussion on issues surrounding memory, change, and futurity in an Irish context. Both social futures and forgotten pasts can be broadly interpreted to encompass topics from geographical and climatological issues to political and cultural concerns about the past, present, and future. New directions in the field of Irish studies over the past decade have coincided with major political changes in Ireland as writers, visual artists, musicians, and grassroots activists have looked to reshape the cultural imagination through movements like the repeal of the Eighth Amendment and the Northern Civil Rights Movement. This growth in Irish Studies has also revitalized forgotten figures and events of the past, as seen in recent work from Heather Ingman, Clíona Ó Gallchoir, and Sinéad Gleeson, all of whom shed light on the marginalized writing of Irish women. Yet, as political, cultural, and scholarly developments engender renewed glances to the past, questions arise over who is remembered and who is forgotten.
In the past few years, a number of exciting projects have sought to find new ways to tell stories about the past. For example, Guy Beiner’s most recent publication, Forgetful Remembrance, boldly traces the function of social forgetting when it comes to expanding communal conceptions of the public. Thinking about the past and the future therefore prompts considerations of insularity and connectedness as they develop over time. The theme of forgotten pasts and social futures thus engages with a wide variety of topics, including, but not limited to, cultural insularity, multiculturalism, transnationality, the diaspora, and the globalization of the digital sphere. These topics cannot be divorced from social and environmental conditions. As environmental issues and crises continue to transcend borders, how we remember or forget the past might tell us a lot about how we live in the future.
Topics of Interest
The breadth of this theme includes literary, historical, political, and cultural concerns within Irish Studies. Presentations on society, culture, history, the arts and epistemologies of any time period will be accepted. We also encourage submissions that approach the theme in interdisciplinary, creative, and experimental ways.
Keynote Speaker: Professor Guy Beiner, Ben-Gurion University
Please submit an abstract of maximum 300 words to irishstudiesgraduateconference@gmail.com. Presentations should be 15 minutes in length; all A/V requirements should be noted in the confirmation email. Should you wish to submit a creative work, please send a multimedia/creation ‘abstract’ consisting of 4-6 slides of artwork OR a short video clip to accompany your written abstract.
Deadline for submission: December 9th, 2019
Partial travel funding may be available for a limited number of conference participants. For any enquiries regarding the conference, please contact:
irishstudiesgraduateconference@gmail.com
We look forward to welcoming you to Concordia University’s School of Irish Studies!
Sincerely,
The Organizing Committee & the School of Irish Studies