The website for the Global Irish Diaspora Conference in August at University College Dublin is up:
There is still time to submit a proposal. There is an early bird discount on registration through 30 April.
This is the inaugural congress in a triennial series that examines the histories, cultures, heritages and identities of Irish communities beyond Ireland’s shores.
More than 70 million people worldwide can claim descent from Irish emigrants. For many decades there has been considerable scholarly interest in the history of emigration from Ireland, from its beginnings in the middle ages (to Britain and parts of Europe) through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (to all corners of the globe), and in how ‘Irishness’ has been and continues to be maintained and expressed by descendant communities.
However, the sheer scale of the Irish diaspora has created obstacles to an international conversation and exchange of ideas. Comparative perspectives will greatly enhance our worldwide research on subjects such as the many causes of Irish migration, the types of people who migrated, the shared or divergent experiences of the migrants in different places and times, the material remains of diaspora, the impact of migrations on host populations and cultures, and relationships between diasporic communities and Ireland.
This congress provides a stage for this long-needed, international exchange and discussion. Researchers from many fields and from every corner of the world are invited to Dublin to attend four days of plenaries and parallel sessions, where they can present their work, meet fellow-researchers, exchange ideas, and establish research networks within and across disciplinary boundaries.