Beginning in 2014, the IAAS Lecture is an annual event, hosted at a third level institution on the island of Ireland, and presented by an invited member of the IAAS on a topic of their choosing. In 2015, the lecture was renamed the W. A. Emmerson Lecture, in honour of our much-loved late Treasurer. Broad in its remit, the IAAS Lecture appeals to both academic and non-academic communities, and promotes the long-standing interest in and connection to American culture in Ireland.
We are delighted to announce that the esteemed Dr Dara Downey will be delivering our 2022 W. A. Emmerson lecture in person, in the Neill Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.
Dr Downey will be presenting on her current research, the highly anticipated literary biography of Shirley Jackson. Her lecture is titled: ‘Mainstreaming Shirley Jackson: Resurrecting a Cold-War Author in the Post-Trump Age’.
Dr Downey will be introduced by Dr Bernice Murphy, Associate Professor in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin, whose work on American horror and gothic narratives is widely acclaimed.
All are welcome to this event, although booking is required. Seating is limited, so please register for a seat at the lecture at your earliest convenience.
The IAAS code of conduct applies to this event and all IAAS events.
In the interests of public safety and in light of sharply rising COVID-19 numbers, the IAAS asks that all attendees wear masks to this event.
About the speaker:
Dr Dara Downey lectures in English in Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University. She is the author of American Women’s Ghost Stories in the Gilded Age (2014), editor of The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, and co-editor (with Ian Kinane and Elizabeth Parker) of Landscapes of Liminality: Between Space and Place (2016). She has published widely on American Gothic fiction and popular culture, on authors from Charles Brockden Brown to Tananarive Due, and is currently writing a literary biography of Shirley Jackson for Palgrave Macmillan’s Literary Lives series.
For information on the 2014 lecture, delivered by Dr Ron Callan, click here.
For information on the 2015 lecture, delivered by Dr JoAnne Mancini, click here.
For information on the 2016 lecture, delivered by Prof. Stephen Matterson, click here.
For information on the 2017 lecture, delivered by Dr Dianne Kirby, click here.
For information on the 2018 lecture, delivered by Prof. Tom Moylan, click here.
For information on the 2019 lecture, delivered by Dr Aoileann Ní Éigeartaigh, click here.
For information on the 2020 lecture, delivered by Dr Nerys Young, click here.
For information on the 2021 lecture, delivered by Dr Alan Gibbs, click here.
To sign up for the 2022 lecture, delivered by Dr Dara Downey, click here.