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Call for papers

SECOND Call for Papers

Ireland has entered what Bryan Fanning (2009: 179) calls an “uncertain phase of cultural-economic nation building”. Many social scientists and cultural commentators argue that key aspects of Irish national identity – the National Question (national reunification), Catholicism and anti-Britishness – have been eroded since the 1970s. Assumptions about politics based on the Civil War have been undermined by the rise of new parties with no roots in this period. Assumptions about a homogeneous nation have been eroded by the rapid growth of immigration. And assumptions about the unassailable position of the Catholic Church have been undermined by declining levels of piety, public scandals and the moral claims made by minorities or survivor groups previously silenced (e.g. Justice for Magdalenes, Adoption Alliance Group). The visit in May 2011 of Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama has had a significant impact on the Irish national psyche. President Michael D. Higgins’s follow-up state visit to Buckingham Palace earlier this year (along with Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness) has also been relevant in normalizing Anglo-Irish relations. At the same time that some old certainties have been displaced, others have resurrected. The scourge of mass emigration, which many thought had been consigned to history books, has returned. Yeats’s declaration in The Second Coming that “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold” seems, once more, prescient.

            This year’s AEDEI Conference aims to meet the challenges faced by Ireland now, by including the theme of “Discourses of Inclusion and Marginalisation: Minority, Dissident and Mainstream Irish Identities”. In the present context of social and economic turbulence, definitions must be broadened and scholarly boundaries pushed. The way in which we define notions such as “Irishness”, “native” vs. “foreigner”, “centre” vs. “periphery”, “marginal” vs. “mainstream”, and “normative” vs. “nonstandard” needs to be thoroughly reexamined so as to better accommodate the current polymorphous setting. Strategies of inclusion and marginalisation are inherent to all forms of cultural expression, which leads one to question the following: to what extent are deviant narratives informed by mainstream notions? And alternatively, how are canonicity and the mainstream informed by otherness? Is Irish identity being reformulated through the endless play of difference? Or is flux the new normal? All these recategorisations also reveal the need to reflect on the present state of research in Irish studies. Has the diverse nature of Irish society affected the ways we look at history and cultural productions? How are the structures of power and subordination expressed in social, political, literary and artistic discourses? 

The conference theme is not limited to a contemporary framework, as it aims to explore the presence of minorities, dissident voices and mainstream identities historically as well. Indeed, there is a growing interest in past-present relationships, as evident in the recent combination between Memory Studies and Migration Studies. Remembering the past can exert a (positive, healing) effect when establishing a (healthful) relationship with current forms of Otherness in present-day Ireland. As recently expressed by Fintan O’Toole, “If we’re to grow up, we need to cure our delusions of grandeur that produce lies and exclusion” (The Irish Times, 17 June 2014). Indeed, revisiting the canon might reveal new insights into how tradition interacts with questions of power, voice and representations of dissident identities.

This theme of inclusion and marginalisation ties in with a variety of disciplines ranging from literary and cultural studies, to media and film studies, critical theory, history, linguistics, anthropology, political science and sociology, among others. We welcome contributions on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

 

  • Irish minorities. Race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexuality and ‘Otherness’ in Ireland. Women, LGBT, migrants, Travellers, dissenting groups in politics, etc.;
  • Alternative cultures; marginalised histories and narratives; strategies of resilience;
  • Minority voices in art, cinema, theatre, and popular and traditional music;
  • Revisiting the canon. Reinterpretations, adaptations and rewritings of mainstream works;
  • Artistic mediation. The role of the artist in fostering social links. Spokesmanship;
  • Convergences between Memory Studies, Migration Studies and other subdisciplines;
  • Multiculturalism and Interculturalism: theoretical approaches and applications. Ongoing research related to multicultural issues in Ireland;
  • Reconfigurations of space and time in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. New socio-geographical and temporal configurations;
  • The discursive representation of minorities in public discourse;
  • Othering the language, languaging the Other;
  • Ireland and Spain.

 

Confirmed Writers:

  • Theo Dorgan
  • Paula Meehan

 

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

  • Andrew Carpenter
  • Bryan Fanning

 

Social Programme:

  • A stage adaptation of Sappho’s Daughter by Theo Dorgan;
  • Two conference tours: 1) A guided tour of Granada on Thursday 28th May and; 2) a visit to the Alhambra on Saturday 30th May. Both must be booked in advance;
  • Concert;
  • Gala dinner.

 

Submission Deadline:

We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers. We also welcome panels, roundtables, workshops, posters and project presentations of postgraduate and doctoral students. Please send proposals of 350 words and a short biographical note by 16 February 2015 to pvillar@ugr.es Inquiries can also be sent to this email.