We are delighted to announce our Summer Bursary Winners!
Our Early-Career Conference Bursary Winner was Dr. Alan Carmody, while our Postgraduate Conference Bursary Winners were Máiréad Casey and Bowen Wang.
Congratulations, all!
Category: News
Latest news
The Irish Association for American Studies is 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. To sign up for the event, click here.
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.
About the W. A. Emmerson Annual Lecture:
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.
SHOULDN’T YOU BE WRITING?!
WRITE ALONG WITH OUR POSTGRADUATE MEMBERS!
Starting August 30th, the Postgraduate Caucus co-chairs of the IAAS, Janice Deitner and Andrew Clarke, will be hosting a write along session on Discord.
Information on the poster opposite. You can drop us a line at our Facebook page or on Twitter too for more info! @TheIAAS
The European Association for American Studies announces a new 15,000 EUR Scholars-at-Risk grant program. We will be offering grants of up to 2,000 EUR to scholars working within the field of American Studies who find themselves in a situation of precarity. Given the life threatening nature of war, in the 2022 edition of the grant, priority will be given to scholars with Ukrainian citizenship.
The grant is intended to cover expenses related to travel and research stay at a foreign institution or related to home-based digital access to archives and other scholarly materials.
To apply for the EAAS Scholars-at-Risk Grant, an applicant needs to fill in this application form, describing their proposed projects which can be related to their research, teaching at a university in one of European countries and aiming at establishing new academic initiatives between the grantee and their host institution in Europe. The application has to include an estimated budget. Applicants seeking travel grants to foreign institutions are expected to submit an invitation issued by the host institution; applicants seeking funds for a home-based digital access to archives and other materials, are expected to submit a recommendation letter from their home institution.
EAAS cannot help the applicants in arranging visas for the countries in which their host institution is.
An applicant can apply for this scholarship once per year.
The grants will be awarded three times per year. The deadline for applications for 2022 are: June 30, September 1, November 15.
Please send the application form (with all the necessary documents included) by email attachment to the address: aleksandra.izgarjan@ff.uns.ac.rs.
The IAAS was honoured to invite Professor Joy Porter to deliver the Alan Graham Memorial Lecture, 2022–the keynote talk for our annual conference. This is now available to watch on our Youtube channel.
“In wildness is the preservation of the world” said Henry David Thoreau, but was he right? Does the idea of the wild instead enshrine outdated thinking that works to prevent the West from addressing the wicked problems of a warming world? Is wildness better dispensed with? This lecture addresses these questions as the globe grapples with a series of profound and indeterminate risks created by humans themselves – war, unprecedented inequality and the extinction of the earth’s vital natural producers- the birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles and fish that have declined 68% since 1970. It considers the role for wildness in the coming era of synthetic biology where nature will routinely be altered by humans at the genetic level and it explores the role that conservationists anticipate “wild” Indigenous peoples will play in helping to restore the biodiversity without which our species cannot survive.
The IAAS opened this event to the public, because of the generous sponsorship of the School of English at Dublin City University. No part of this talk may be reproduced without prior consent. Please contact info@iaas.ie.
Prof. Porter is PI of the Treatied Spaces Research Group at the University of Hull which co-ordinates a portfolio of externally funded research with the aim of making treaties and environmental concerns central to debates across disciplines, policy registers and public discourse. She is PI of the Brightening the Covenant Chain AHRC Standard Research Grant, is currently a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow, and is a Lead Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series : Elements in Indigenous Environmental Research. Her most recent books are Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Native American Environmentalism (University of Nebraska Press, 2014). You can catch the collaborative exhibition Joy and her Group organised, featuring the work of Anishinabeg artist and researcher Celeste Pedri-Spade until July 2022 at the American Museum & Gardens in Bath, UK and digitally via the Treatied Spaces website. Joy is also PI Host 2020-24 for British Academy Global Professor Gregory Smithers’ project “Native Ecologies: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Change”.
IAAS Call for Nominations for positions on the Executive Committee
The Irish Association for American Studies is calling for nominations for the following positions on the Executive Committee:
Postgraduate caucus co-chair
EAAS Representative
Ordinary member
Please note that in accordance with the ethos of the IAAS, the committee especially welcomes nominations for members from under-represented groups, backgrounds and ethnicities.
Ideally, we are looking for executive committee members who have experience and familiarity with our activities, ideals, and membership. There are many ways to get involved with the IAAS, and new members are very welcome at association events.
- Nominations must be made by a member or members of the IAAS
- Nominees must be members of the IAAS
- We accept self-nominations
- All executive committee members, aside from fulfilling duties specific to their role, will be expected to attend all IAAS committee meetings throughout the year (January, April [AGM], June, September, November [PGR conference])
- The positions will be elected by members of the IAAS during the AGM (30th April 2022)
- Please email your nominations or any queries to our Secretary Sarah McCreedy, at info@iaas.ie by 25th April 2022.
Postgraduate caucus co-chair general responsibilities
- Attendance at all IAAS committee meetings (January, April [AGM], June, September, November [PGR conference])
- Assistance with widening the reach of the IAAS via own networks
- Working with their fellow Postgraduate caucus co-chair to provide a report at committee meetings on activities and feedback from the Postgraduate members of the IAAS
- Running with their fellow co-chair the annual IAAS Postgraduate symposium (November).
- The term of the appointment is two years, renewable.
EAAS Representative general responsibilities
- Attendance at all IAAS committee meetings (January, April [AGM], June, September, November [PGR conference])
- Attendance at EAAS Board meetings as the IAAS representative to the Board with voting rights on behalf of the IAAS. Upcoming Board meetings: 2023 Debrecen, Hungary (30 March 2023, ahead of the Women’s Symposium); 2024 Munich, Germany (c.3/4 April 2024, ahead of 70th Anniversary EAAS Conference); 2025 Karlstad, Sweden (April, ahead of the Women’s Symposium); 2026 Bologna, Italy (ahead of the 2026 EAAS Conference)
- Each EAAS Board representative has a vote on EAAS policy issues and for candidacies for the 4 EAAS Officer positions
- Each EAAS Board representative from a national or regional association is eligible to stand for election to an Officer position: eligibility depends solely on being a national or regional association representative at the relevant EAAS Board
- Each EAAS Board representative receives a per diem of €100 for attending meetings
- Representatives to the EAAS Board can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms as their national or regional association representative
- The term of the appointment is four years, renewable.
Ordinary member general responsibilities
- Attendance at all IAAS committee meetings (January, April [AGM], June, September, November [PGR conference])
- Assistance with widening the reach of the IAAS via own networks
- Input into the workings, activities, and events of the IAAS (including attendance at/contribution to events where appropriate)
- The term of the appointment is two years, renewable.
IAAS Social Media Officer
The Irish Association for American Studies is expanding year by year, hosting international events and attracting members far beyond the island of Ireland. We are currently seeking a social media officer to assist with running our Social Media accounts and updating our website regularly.
We regret that the role is unpaid, although comes with benefits. None of our committee members are paid for their work for the IAAS.
The IAAS is committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity, and welcomes applications from minority and under-represented groups.
The Social Media Officer:
- The social media officer will ideally be a current postgraduate student and member of the IAAS. The idea behind the position is to give members an opportunity to get more involved in the Association
- The officer will ideally have experience with running social media accounts, websites, and platforms such as WordPress and Canva
Responsibilities:
(We also welcome suggestions from the officer with regard to improvements for the website, as well as feedback on their role as it progresses)
- Liaise directly with the IAAS secretary
- Co-design, publish and promote (using Canva) the IAAS newsletter
- Post relevant news items on iaas.ie, Twitter, and Facebook groups (the officer will not be expected to perform any major site maintenance)
- Check relevant job sites for American Studies vacancies and post details accordingly
Commitments/requirements:
- No more than 1-2 hours of work per week
- No travel is involved
- The initial term for the role is 12 months, renewable. (Re-appointment cannot be guaranteed.)
Benefits:
- Free access to all IAAS events, including conferences and symposia
- Build a research network of Americanists and work with a friendly and dedicated team
- Enhance your professional development and CV
To express your interest, please send a one-page cover letter and brief C.V. to the IAAS Secretary, Sarah McCreedy, at info@iaas.ie.
Congratulations to our Winter Bursary Winners, Dr. Ciarán Leinster and Clare Geraghty!
The School of English, Trinity College Dublin, in conjunction with the Trinity Long Room Hub, are delighted to be hosting a live online symposium on the twentieth-century American writer Shirley Jackson on Tuesday 14th December, from 5-8pm (Irish time).
Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) is perhaps still best known for her short story “The Lottery” (1948) and her horror novel The Haunting of Hill House (1959), but her work also encompassed psychological thrillers, domestic humour, children’s writing, and a variety of short fiction, as well as cultural commentaries and advice for budding writers. After decades of relative critical neglect, Jackson’s critical and cultural standing has been transformed by a surge of academic and popular interest. This symposium explores Jackson’s current literary and cultural standing and asks, “Where next for Jackson studies, both within Ireland and globally?”
The symposium will consist of a mixture of live online Zoom panels as well as pre-recorded presentations, discussions, and written material, which will be uploaded to the website and made available to attendees to view in their own time. Asynchronous content will be available on the website (https://shirleyjackson21stcentury.wordpress.com) from 7th December 2021.
Registration for the live event is free and open to all. Undergraduate and postgraduate students are more than welcome. To register, go to: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/whats-on/details/event.php?eventid=156735347
To view the programme for the live event, and to access the pre-recorded/ asynchronous content, see: https://shirleyjackson21stcentury.wordpress.com/.
Join our Discord discussion: https://discord.gg/2UjjYrtpAQ.
Warm Congratulations to the winners of the 2021 IAAS Writing Prizes: Richard Hargy (QUB), Niamh Keating (UCD), and Sneha Holloway (UCD).