New Voices Conference 2014Multi-Disciplinary Postgraduate and Early Career Scholars Conference

5th to 7th June, 2014

After the first New Voices conference in 1999, P.J. Mathews published an edited collection of the speakers’articles, New Voices in Irish Criticism. In the introduction, Mathews notes the text “can be taken as a snapshotof the current state of Irish studies.” The collection of articles presented reflect the work of the Irish academyat the end of the twentieth century as well as Mathews’ and Declan Kiberd’s joint efforts to showcase not onlythe new voices in Irish criticism but also the ways in which those scholars were challenging the boundaries ofIrish criticism. In establishing this forum, Mathews and Kiberd emphasized the necessity for young scholarswithin the Irish academy to interact with one another, across universities and, most importantly, acrossdisciplines.More than ever it is important that early career scholars connect with their peers and future colleagues. Theacademic market is a challenging field, especially for young scholars. This conference seeks to establish anintellectual exchange that will only strengthen in the years to come.In that vein, National University of Ireland, Galway will proudly host the 2014 New Voices conference. Weinvite papers from all departments and encourage collaborative papers, new media, and panel ideas. We alsoinvite paper proposals from early career scholars outside of Ireland who focus on Irish Studies. Theparticipants at the inaugural New Voices conference presented papers on far-reaching topics, from theorizingthe novel to politics and revival. This year we seek papers that broaden what Irish Studies means, reflecting onthe legacy of the New Voices conference and the themes and issues which continue to resonate in itssubsequent iterations.We welcome proposals for twenty-minute papers, in English or in Irish, from all disciplines in relation to Irishstudies. We especially invite submissions which broaden definitions and push scholarly boundaries. Topicsmay include but are certainly not limited to:

Representations of the Irish Body-The Irish Body in film/literature/art-Irish Physicalities-Trauma and the Body

Irish Modernisms-Urbanity/Cosmopolitanism-Modernity in 20th century Ireland-Myth-making in Irish literature-(Post)Modern (Post)Colonial Ireland

Ireland and Place-The landscape of Ireland-The seascape around Ireland

Hidden Narratives-The Irish in Europe-The Role of Ireland in the World Wars-Cultural Memory

Comparative Ireland-Interdisciplinarity in Irish Studies-Inter/Trans-National Irishness

Performing Ireland-(Re)Presentations of Identity-Global Performances/Perspectives

Literature-Ireland and Eco-criticism-Urban versus Pastoral-Centre and the Peripheral/Borderlands

Alternative Cultures-Marginalised narratives-‘Queerness’ in Irish literature-Masculinites/Femininities-Race and ‰Û÷Otherness’ in Ireland-Ireland and the Diaspora

Deadline for abstracts: 31 January, 2014Please send abstracts of 250-300 words to newvoices2014@nuigalway.ie. Please also include affiliation and ashort biography (no more than 50 words). If you have any other questions, feel free to email us.

Confirmed Plenary Speakers:Nessa Cronin, National University of Ireland, GalwayOona Frawley, National University of Ireland, MaynoothDeclan Kiberd, University of Notre DamePJ Matthews, University College DublinLionel Pilkington, National University of Ireland, Galway

We would like to gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the NUI Galway community. The NewVoices Conference 2014 is sponsored by the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities & Social Studies,the College of Arts, Social Sciences, & Celtic Studies, the Discipline of English Studies, the Center for Dramaand Theatre Studies, the School of Humanities, the Huston School of Film & Digital Media, the Center forIrish Studies, the School of Languages, Literatures & Cultures, the Acadamh na hOllscolaÌ_ochta Gaeilge, andthe NUI Galway Millennium Fund.

http://www.conference.ie/Conferences/index.asp?Conference=346

Proposed New Voices Schedule Day One – Thursday, 5^th June 12.00 – 12.30 Registration

12.30-1.30 Opening Address by Nessa Cronin

1.30-1.45 Break

1.45 -3.15 Session One

A: Decade of Commemorations

Michelle O’Connor – “Vocabulary and Imagery in the Decade of Commemorations”

Richard McGuire – “JG Farrell’s Troubles and the Literature of the Post-Colonial Nation”

Nina Holmes – “Prescribing Ideologies: Irish Government Health Campaigns (1950s-1980s)”

B: Representing the West of Ireland

Jeannine Kraft – “Framing Perception: Contemporary Irish Photography and the Trope of the ‰Û÷West'”

Deirdre Ni Chonghaile – “Embodying Homage and Outrage: MÌÁirtÌ_n ÌÒ DireÌÁin’s ÌÒmÌ_s do John Millington Synge“

Amy Mitchell – “Blurred Lines: Gendered Wordplay in Three Poems by SeÌÁn ÌÒ RÌ_ordÌÁin”

3.15 – 3.30 Break

3.30 – 5.00 Session Two

A. Irish Classicism

Fion Lau – “The Classical-Reference Problem: Intertexts in Brian Friel’s Translations” Eileen Coughlan – “Concepts of Irishness in the Irish Language Movement in Northern Ireland”

Lisa Caulfield – “O’Grady’s Resurrected Hero: C̼chulain”

B. Siting Beckett

David Clare – “‰Û÷turn wick low’: Samuel Beckett’s Increasingly Dark Depictions of Co. Wicklow”

David McKinney – “‘Unsolved Mysteries’: Hawthorn and Child (2012)by Keith Ridgway and Murphy (1938)by Samuel Beckett”

Matthew McFrederick – “Beckett and the Royal Court: The George Devine Years (1957-1965)”

5.00 – 5.15 Break

5.15 – 6.15 Closing remarks by Lionel Pilkington

6.30 – 8.30 Drinks reception in Huston Film School

Day Two – Friday, 6^th June 9.30 – 10.30 Opening address by Oona Frawley

10.30 – 10.45 Break

10.45 – 12.15 Session Three

A: Considering Space, Place, and Character

Mark McGahon – “Not a Caricature, but a Character: Another Look at Mr. Deasy and the ‰Û÷Nestor’ Episode of Ulysses“

Niamh McGabhann – “A bright and dark land: space, freedom and the body in Edna O’Brien’s ‰Û÷Irish Revel'”

Siobhan Nevin – “A Long Division: The Big House as a Symbol of Discord in Nineteenth Century Irish Literature”

B: Irish Representations, Local and Global

Anna Zaluczkowska – “Writing a New Northern Ireland – Post troubles film/TV and transmedia production”

Jennifer Arthur – “The Emigration of Irish Showjumping”

Elizabeth De Young – “Along the Interface: A Walk Around the Lower Cliftonville-Lower Oldpark Peace Wall in Belfast”

12.15 – 1.30 Lunch

1.30 – 3.00 Session Four

A: Challenging Masculinities

Jim Grady – “Alienation and nihilism in the 21st Century Irish Short Story”

Carole Quigley – “Beckett the Feminist”

Barry Houlihan – “Not our Line of Territory: The Evolution, Death and Resurrection of ‘Mr. Roche’ and the Gay Character on the Irish Stage”

B. Theorising Place

Isabel Corfe – “Reflections of Irishness in Nineteenth-Century England”

Francesca Scapato – “‘I told you, Ben, it’s not as simple as all that’: Val Mulkerns’s Dublin in mid-20^th century Ireland

Michael Paye – “From East to West: Encoding the Capitalist “Ecological Regime” in The Silver Darlings and Gillespie“

3.00 – 3.15 Break

3.15 – 4.45 Session Five

A: Observing Comedy

Ciara Connelly – “‰Û÷Skobie O’Gill and the Lidl People’: Ross O’Carroll-Kelly as Irish Social Critique”

Katherine O’Keefe – “Doyle and Dev: Refiguring the image of the Irish Family in Roddy Doyle’s The Snapper”

Lee Vahey – “Vivian Mercier’s The Irish Comic Tradition: A Reappraisal”

B: Observing Death

Barry Ryan – “James Joyce’s “The Dead” and the Legitimacy of the Living”

Rachel Price Cooper – “Waking the Dead: Greek Precedents and Gendered Embodiment On the Early Abbey Stage” Huiwen Shi – “‘Failed’ Funeral Elegies: The Elegiac, the Gothic and the Ironic in Heaney’s ‰Û÷Widgeon Poems'”

4.45 – 5.00 Break

5.00 – 6.00 Closing remarks by PJ Matthews

6.30 – 7.30 Cultural Event

8.30 Conference Dinner at Ard Bia

Day Three – Saturday, 7^th June 9.30 – 10.30 Opening remarks by Declan Kiberd 10.30 – 10.45 Break

10.45 – 12.15 Session Six

A. Patterning Migration

Luke Kirwan – “Cork’s Trans-Atlantic Trade in the Early Nineteenth Century”

Sarah Goek – “Irish Encounters with British Modernity: Identities in Process, 1945-70”

Jesse Weaver – “‰Û÷The Lost and the Lonely’: Race, Gender and Representations of the Irish Diaspora in Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce“

B: Identity in Practice

Mairead Ni Chualain – “From the Ampitheatre to the Cube”

Rachel Flynn – “Releasing/Realising Through Narrative Modes as Artist Researcher”

Sarah Hoover – “Presentations of Identity: Self on Display”

12.15 – 1.30 Lunch

1.30 – 3.00 Session Seven

A. New Irishness

Elizabeth Howard – “Red Kettle Theatre Company and Waterford in the 1980s”

Laura Dooley – “‘The New Ireland’: Representations of Otherness in Irish Young-Adult Fiction

David Doolin – “My Family, My Mother, My Father: Representations of Irish American Communalism in Shameless“

B. Representing the Maternal

Claire Brophy – “The Mother’sBbody: Space and Place in the Writing of Anne Enright”

Mikyung Park – “A Token of Triumph?: Against Fetishistic Nostalgia for Male Myth in Teresa Deevy’s One-Act Plays, In Search of Valour (1931) and The King of Spain’s Daughter (1935)”

Katerina Koulianou – “The Maternal Body in Undressing My Mother“

3.00 – 3.15 Break

3.15 – 4.45 Session Eight A: Catholicism and Modernity

Ciara O’Dowd – “How the Women of the Abbey Theatre found Their Rhythm in New York City” Barry Sheppard – “Fighting Modernity? Agrarian Communitarianism in Ireland and Britain in the 1930s” Sonya Perkins – “‘Where and What is Ireland?’: The Capuchin Annual 1930-1945″

B: Theatre of Testimony

Kristi Good – “Uncovering Hidden Narratives: Changing the Face of Irish Identity Through Testimony”

Ashley Christine Soutor – “The Dynamic Energy of Truth and Story in Northern Ireland’s Theatre of Witness”

4.45 – 5.00 Break

5.00 – 6.00 Roundtable discussion (Nessa Cronin, Oona Frawley, Declan Kiberd, PJ Matthews, Lionel Pilkington)