Leverhulme: Public Lecture

'Look Back in Hunger: Ireland in Famine's Wake from Munster to The Maze, or The Faerie Queene to Steve McQueen ' by Professor Willy Maley (University of Glasgow)

Professor Willy Maley is a Fellow of the English Association (FEA). He has published widely on English Renaissance Literature, from Spenser to Milton, and on aspects of early modern and modern Scottish and Irish culture, from James Joyce to Alasdair Gray. He is the author of A Spenser Chronology (1994), Salvaging Spenser: Colonialism, Culture and Identity (1997), and Nation, State and Empire in English Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare to Milton (2003). He is editor, with Andrew Hadfield, of A View of the Present State of Ireland: From the First Published Edition (1997). He has also edited five collections of essays: with Brendan Bradshaw and Andrew Hadfield, Representing Ireland: Literature and the Origins of Conflict, 1534-1660 (Cambridge University Press, 1993); with Bart Moore-Gilbert and Gareth Stanton, Postcolonial Criticism (Longman, 1997); with David J. Baker, British Identities and English Renaissance Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2002); with Andrew Murphy, Shakespeare and Scotland (Manchester University Press, 2004); and with Alex Benchimol, Spheres of Influence: Intellectual and Cultural Publics from Shakespeare to Habermas (Peter Lang, 2006).
Willy has published with Argyll Publishing, Ashgate, Barnes and Noble, Blackwell, the British Council, Cambridge Scholar’s Press, Cambridge University Press, Capercaillie Press, Clydeside Press, Continuum Press, Duquesne University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Fitzroy Dearborn, Four Courts Press, Freight Design, Greenwood Press, Longman, Manchester University Press, MIT Press, Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Peking University Press, Peter Lang, Prentice Hall, Rodopi, Routledge, St Martin’s Press, Sulis Press, Sunderland University Press, Universitätsverlag C. Winter Press, and University of Toronto Press. His work has appeared in forty different journals and magazines, and has been translated into several languages, including Chinese and German.

Willy founded, with Philip Hobsbaum, the Creative Writing Master's at Glasgow in 1995. The course has since become one of the most successful of its kind, producing a host of published writers and prizewinners, including Anne Donovan, Rachel Seiffert and Louise Welsh.

Willy has been a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (1997), and was the first recipient of the Gerard Manley Hopkins Visiting Professorship at John Carroll University in Cleveland (1998). Research interests range from the representation of national and colonial identities in early modern texts through to deconstruction and postcolonialism. Willy is presently working on the depiction of Britain in Milton and Shakespeare.

His own interests for postgraduate supervision are contemporary Irish and Scottish writing; creative writing; literary theory; and Renaissance literature (focusing on colonialism and national identity).

Leverhulme: Public Lecture

'The Irish Novel andConsumer Culture in the Nineteenth Century' by Dr Helem O' Connell (University of Durham)

Helen O'Connell's research interests lie in the fields of Irish literature and culture; British writing and educational theory of the Romantic period; and the relationship betwen literature and modernisation. In particular, her work to date has focused on 'improvement' (principally in the form of fictional pamphlets and instructional manuals) and literary culture in Ireland from the Romantic period through to the Irish Revival. She is the author of Ireland and the Fiction of Improvement (Oxford University Press, 2006).Current research includes a study of the relationship between fiction and education in the early nineteenth century.

NEICN's Reimagining Ireland: the morning after

The conference was a big success with around 80 delegates from the UK, Europe and America, plus the Lady Mayor, and some extra guests at the banquet. NEICN give special thanks to Professor Flavia Swann who did so much, and the Glasgow University staff: Will, Paddy and Matt Mcguire and also to Colin, Vikki, Gemma, Bernie and Mel who co-ordinated the conference so well and to all attendees. Thanks also to the Inchigeelagh Irish Dance Academy who provided a number of fine displays. ITV News visited the conference and gave us an excellent article on the local news. We will post the video of the news item as soon as we can acquire a copy and video highlights of keynote speeches will follow over the coming weeks. In the mean time, do check out our picture galleries and get in touch with any feedback.

One delegate commented that; 'You know what I am going to say: I had a lovely time as usual. I know how much work goes on behind the scenes and how exhausted and mad it makes you feel, but it was well worth it. I met lots of old Sunderland conferences buddies and made several new buddies too. I came home with bulging notes of things I have to read, and new and interesting connections so it was a success on all levels.'

Another said that; Thanks for having me to speak at the conference - you did such a tremendous job and all your hard work really paid off; it was a great weekend. It was lovely to see you and to catch up. See you again soon, I hope. I'll definitely hope to be back in Sunderland again.'

The Leverhulme project

It is with great pleasure and delight that we, the NEICN team congratulate Dr. Alison O' Malley- Younger and Professor John Strachan on winning the Leverhulme award.

This project, funded by the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust, addresses a fascinating but relatively neglected topic: the historical and literary resonance of consumer culture and advertising in Ireland between 1848, the year of the Famine, and 1921, the year which saw the signing of the treaty which led to the formation of the Irish Free State.

Alongside detailed consideration of the cultural significance of advertising copy in the period, both amongst nationalist and unionist constituencies, the project will also look at the way in which literary figures such as James Joyce, W. B. Yeats and others reacted to the nascent commercial culture around them.

The project team is based at the Universities of Durham and Sunderland.

Professor John Strachan, University of Sunderland, will deleiver the initial lecture, ‘Consumer Culture, Advertising and Literature in Ireland, 1848-1921’, on Wednesday October 8th 2008.

Flavia's farewell

Professor Flavia Swann has stepped down after over 16 years at the School of Arts, Design, Media & Culture. The School has grown from strength to strength since its inception in 1992 with Professor Swann at its head.

Professor Swann is still very much committed to the development of the University, and will retain her links with us as an Emeritus Professor.

She said: “I am very proud of all that each of you, singly and collectively, have achieved, as well as what you have facilitated for our students. I am sure you will continue in this excellent and positive vein into the new era of Faculties.”

Thank you for all your years of hard work and determination, which have made the School Arts, Design, Media and Culture a school of brillent, bright minds fuelled by passion and determination

Festival Time

Members of NEICN have for a long time said that 'we will take over the world' and it has finally happened, well we have taken over the city at least, as NEICN launches its first city Irish festival with its many and expanding friends, as the event has been organised by the Strategic Partnership, which includes the University of Sunderland, NEICN, Sunderland Council, The Chamber of Commerce and Gentoo. All of who are part of our international strategy, so please do all come along and enjoy excellent Irish entertainment.

A brief precis of the programme is:
1.00 - River Wear Dance with Fagan's School of Irish Dancing
1.30 - The Funky Buddhas, (students from English and Performing Arts at Sunderland stru their stuff
2.15 - Peter Desmond, (brilliant Irish musician)
3.00 - Open air ceilidh (this will be great fun)
4.00 - Solo dancers and exhibition dancing with Inchigeela dance troupe
5.00 - Alan Kelly and the Dogs of Tralee, (not to be missed)

All of this is to be followed by Aos Dana, led by Colin Younger and food in Eauzone

More information can be found at http://www.neicn.com/NEICN/Newsandevents/200808%20Sunderland%20Irish%20Festival/Festivalhome.html