"Irish Studies: Forged/Forging Youth"
5th Annual GRIAN Conference on Irish Studies
March 7-9, 2003
Glucksman Ireland House, New York University
forge (fôrj, fōrj) n. a smithy, workshop; a physical space where
metal is shaped and worked
v.1 to beat into shape, cast, coin, construct,
hammer out, manufacture, mould, shape, work
v.2 to push ahead slowly; to make way, ie. of a
vessel: ‘shoot ahead’ esp. by mere momentum, or
the pressure of tide
v.3 to conjure falsely; to fabricate, frame, invent;
to make or devise in fraudulent imitation
Irish Studies, while still "young," has in recent years come of age as a
discipline. And with that relative maturity arise issues beyond those of
discovery and establishment that have dominated much of the "youthful"
discourse to-date. Both new responsibilities and possibilities arise at such
a juncture, as well as contrary applications of traditional material. We are
very excited at the possibility of a conference that embodies youthfulness
in all its resistance to conventional definitions, and instead applies the
multiple manifestations of that term in order to explore the concept of
"youth" —the content, the methodology, the historiography and the
interdisciplinarity of Irish Studies at its current moment.
Conference methodology:
Critical projects are in constant danger of transforming their objects of
study into "children"— the push to make studies alive, pertinent and
relevant endlessly inaugurating an act of "parentage." But these same
critical projects also provide spaces for creation, nurturing and
development. Why/how/where/with what tools do we forge youth? To what
result? Youthful things discover, develop, and establish themselves; they
also get produced, exploited, and represented by others.
Describing/analyzing/questioning how Irish Studies has made its subject
youthful and/or how youth has been the subject of Irish Studies is a return
to the smithy’s workshop as the site of conception/construction/contention;
to see where, how, why and in what way we make pliable the raw material of
youth in the ongoing fabrication of our discipline.
Regardless of particular focus, we especially desire works that are
self-reflective about their processes. We hope to talk not simply about
"youth" or Ireland, but to think critically and to complicate the term
through the vehicle of Irish Studies. To forge, to make/create, to rebel.
Some particulars to consider: the "non-traditional family" (i.e. Irish
Studies and interdisciplinarity); the parents (mentorship, wisdom and
generational anxiety); the children (what they witness, how they develop,
what they remember); plus all of their stories (in works of literature,
history, art, film, etc.).
Other applications might include questions of… forging or coining identity;
politics of youth; memoir and nostalgia; formation and adolescence; rituals
and rites of passage; rebellion; play and sport; innocence and naivete;
witnessing and interpreting, or witnessing rather than interpreting;
violence; mythology of youth; memory; and self-consciousness.
Methodological applications might explore new approaches to… (re)writing or
(re)conceiving nationality; historiography; iconography; psychology and
origins; anxieties of influence; education and teaching; and varieties of
curriculum.
This working conference, for both emerging and established scholars, will be
held March 7-9, 2003 at Glucksman Ireland House (1 Washington Mews, New
York, NY). Paper and panel proposals are due December 13, 2002. We welcome
relevant papers from all disciplines. Those presented at the conference will
be considered for publication in the fourth volume of Foilsiu, an Irish
Studies journal. In addition, travel and/or housing assistance may be
available for graduate student presenters.
For information, or to propose a paper or panel, email
grianconference@hotmail.
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CFP@english.upenn.edu
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or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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