IRISH STUDIES: GEOGRAPHIES AND GENDERS

American Conference for Irish Studies
2006 Southern Regional Conference
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
February 23-26, 2006

Please join us for the 2006 Southern Regional meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS). The conference will kick off Thursday afternoon with a very special address—poetry reading and discussion—from world-renowned poet and professor of creative writing at Stanford – Eavan Boland. As an author and editor of poetry and prose, Boland is recognized, critically and popularly, as one of Ireland’s finest writers. The USC Women’s Studies Program is co-sponsoring Dr. Boland’s address and we are all very excited about her participation. Thomas Cooper Library and the Thomas Cooper Society will help us welcome Dr. Boland and our other very special guests with a reception and exhibit of Irish materials immediately prior to her talk.

Friday morning will bring the first of many fascinating panels, including a staged reading of Christina Reid's recent play My Name, Shall I Tell You My Name, as well as interesting papers on all aspects of Irish literature, history, and culture. We are fortunate to be able to cross-list a number of panels with the 19th annual USC Women’s Studies Conference: Transnational Feminisms providing participants at both conferences with a wide range of presentations and workshops to enjoy. Friday’s sessions will wrap up with a keynote address by Margot Backus, whose first book The Gothic Family Romance: Heterosexuality, Child Sacrifice and the Anglo-Irish Colonial Order has already been highly influential in both Irish and Feminist criticism. Friday night we will unwind with a banquet, featuring Irish music from Corner House, in the Top of Carolina—a unique revolving restaurant offering fabulous views of the entire city.

Saturday’s events include more provocative panels, a luncheon, and readings by acclaimed Irish poets Vona Groarke and Conor O’Callaghan. The closing reception at the Inn @ USC will include readings by our very own, very talented, ACIS poets.

The entire weekend promises to be exciting and stimulating and we hope that you can join us for this memorable event!

The above drawing is from Come Aboard and Sail Away, Poems by John Fuller and illustrations by Nicholas Garland. Edinburgh, Scotland: Salamander Press, 1983.