Mary Immaculate College, Limerick welcomed over 350 delegates from Ireland and across the globe for the multidisciplinary American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) this week in a coup for MIC as the event only takes place outside the United States every four years.
Plenary speakers including Paul Lynch, the Booker Prize winning author for Prophet Song, will address attendees who will also enjoy 120+ parallel panels, nine book launches, a gala dinner and complementary cultural activities.
The theme of the event is 'Embracing Change, Navigating Uncertainty: Ireland and New Beginnings' and it is hoped ACIS will examine how academic disciplines in Irish Studies are looking to embrace the changes and how they are traversing paths towards new beginnings.
Officially opening the event, Patrick O’Donovan TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and an MIC graduate commented:
“MIC is increasingly active in research and in the creation of new knowledge across a range of areas. Irish Studies is one such area. Attracting such a huge conference such as this one to MIC is a statement of intent by the College, and the fact that there will be nine book launches here, a number of them by MIC staff, is further evidence that the College is making its mark in the area and in the fields of research and postgraduate study. It is important for the students that come here that they know that they are being taught and lectured by academics who are at the forefront of so many fields and who are publishing books in those fields.”
Delegates and speakers were welcomed by ACIS 2024 Organising Committee Co-Chairs, Prof. Eugene O'Brien, Director of the Institute for Irish Studies at MIC and Dr Richard Butler, Director of Research, MIC.
“We are delighted to see this huge conference come to MIC. The theme of new beginnings locates so much of the scholarship in this gathering at the cutting edge of trying to understand where we have come from, where we are and where we are going. At a time of great change, and indeed upheaval is so much of Ireland’s socio-cultural context, it is timely to take a week and listen to each other and talk about the now and what is to come for Ireland.”
Matthew L. Reznicek, Associate Professor of Medical Humanities and President of The American Conference for Irish Studies added: “We are thrilled to be heading to Mary Immaculate for the annual meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies; returning to Ireland for these conferences is absolutely essential for our scholars and to do so at an institution like MIC provides us an unique opportunity to work with an extraordinary faculty of scholars.”
ACIS—founded in 1960—is the oldest and largest academic organisation dedicated to the study of Ireland and the Irish worldwide.
Eminent academics including Prof. Enda Delaney; Prof. Chanté Mouton Kinyon; Dr Radvan Markus; Dr Hannagh McGinley and Dr Caroline Magennis will also conduct plenary sessions in the Lime Tree Theatre on-campus in what is a truly multi and interdisciplinary event—with participants drawn from areas including history, sociology, literature, drama, language, geography, politics, music and art.
Topics under discussion will include Gothic literature, crime fiction, the millennial novel, Northern Ireland, podcasts, the 1798 Rising, AIDS, motherhood, the legacy of mother and baby homes, the Irish in Argentina, mixed marriages, settler colonialism, Irish American propaganda, women's prison poetry, Irish dance, murals, capitalism, Brexit, protest art, Irish radio, climate change, photography of the famine and more.
ACIS 2024 is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Limerick City & County Council and Fáilte Ireland.
Find out more information on the American Conference for Irish Studies 2024.
