| abstract/call for papers: |
European Association for American Studies Biennial Conference
Dublin, 26-29 March 2010
CFP for a workshop entitled: Young in Ireland, Old in America: Irish-American Communities of Thought
Workshop Chairs:
Sinead Moynihan, University of Notingham, UK.
Sinead.Moynihan@nottingham.ac.uk
Marisa Ronan, UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies, Ireland.
marisa.ronan@gmail.com
Deadline: December 1st 2009
This panel aims to build on and expand the parameters of recent scholarship on Irish America and to unsettle some of the most problematic aspects of the Grand Narrative of Irish emigration to the U.S.
There has long been a consensus within the Irish-American scholarly community that the Irish are the most successfully assimilated ethnic group in the United States. It is widely recognised that the Irish in America have provided fundamental contributions to many strands of life in the United States, from early contributions in the most basic forms of infrastructure development, to the loftiest of engagements in the highest political and cultural circles in the nation. This panel, however, aims to build on and expand the parameters of recent scholarship on Irish America and to unsettle some of the most problematic aspects of the Grand Narrative of Irish emigration to the U.S. While the panel recognises the relative youth of the American nation, our methodological perspective reflects the relatively established nature of Irish ethnicity within America and draws upon the long history of scholarship focused within this area. It also highlights the importance of new strands of engagement with America in Ireland itself and the growing influence of the United States in Irish contemporary culture.
We invite papers that focus on:
· Does Irishness now operate as a "guilt-free" form of whiteness? Is claiming an Irish-American identity "a way of speaking a whiteness that would otherwise be taboo?"
· Has the global promulgation of the image of the American city - an increasingly powerful political tool within the contemporary neoliberal era - had a particular effect in Ireland? How has it influenced Ireland's own negotiation with urban modernity?
· Has Irish-American hypermasculinity been informed by what Seamus Deane argues to be a “lethal form of nostalgia,” a crisis of masculinity bound to Irish-American concepts of place and identity? |