Heterogeneous Ireland

On May 9^th, 2024, the international symposium Heterogeneous Ireland took place on the Montclair State University campus.  Scholars from Ireland, Northern Ireland, the UK, Bangladesh, and the U.S. gathered to discuss the various ethnicities and forms of social difference in modern Ireland. Montclair graduate Ashim Dutta ’13 MA, Associate Professor of English at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, spoke on the relationship between the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore and the Irish poet W. B. Yeats. Using photos of her African, Irish, and Irish-American ancestors, poet and scholar Harryette Mullen of UCLA explained her background in conversation with Denise O’Shea, Associate Dean for Collections and Discovery in the Sprague Library Administration.  Participants in a session on the Irish border discussed the role of partition in creating complex hyphenated ethnic terminologies (Eve Patten)and analyzing (as Geraldine Higgins put it) “how border crossings, borderlines, and the partition of Ireland disrupt Irish writing and generate sites of heterogeneity.” Mary Burke examined the ethnically distinct Irish-American populations.   Other speakers discussed Jewish-Irish and Caribbean-Irish identities (Nicholas Grene, Maria McGarrity), Northern Irish poetry (Edna Longley, Matthew Campbell), sexualities (Adrian Frazier), and heterogenous archives (Lucy Collins).  Irish Studies faculty from NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House and Seton Hall University chaired the sessions. The symposium was organized by Lucy McDiarmid, Marie Frazee Baldassarre Professor of English.  Most of the speakers stayed over the weekend, enjoying a reading by Northern Irish poet Michael Longley, a visit to the Cloisters, and bird-watching in Central Park.

Images from May 2024 Heterogeneous Ireland Symposium.