Posted: 21 February 2006
Screening Irish America, Boston College, March 16 and 17, 2006
Screening Irish America is a research project developed by Dr. Ruth Barton
at the O¹ Kane Centre for Film Studies, School of Languages, Literatures and
Film, University College Dublin, with the Clinton Institute, UCD and the
Irish Studies Program, Boston College. The Huston School of Film and Digital
Media, National University of Ireland, Galway, and the School of Film and
Television Studies at the University of East Anglia have also collaborated
on this initiative. This project brings together academics working in the
field of film, television and electronic images of Irish America to
facilitate the exchange of ideas and the publication of research. The Boston
College symposium is the first of two events and will be followed by a major
conference held in UCD in Spring 2007. Additionally, The Early Cinema and
the Irish Diaspora Network will be launched during the symposium. This
research network led by Professor Desmond Bell of Queen¹s University Belfast
and supported by the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council,
aims to provide a forum for research on early cinema and the Irish in
America and plans a major exhibition on this theme for 2007.
Thursday March 16 McGuinn 121
3:00 pm
Opening remarks, Richard Kearney, Department of Philosophy, Boston College
Launch: The AHRC Early Cinema and Diasporic Cinema Network
Introduction: Desmond Bell, Queen¹s University Belfast
Keynote: Tom Gunning, University of Chicago
Responses: Desmond O'Rawe, Queen¹s University Belfast, Martin McLoone,
University of Ulster, Gary D. Rhodes, Queen¹s University Belfast
5:00 Screening: Rebel Frontier, introduced by Desmond Bell
Reception to follow
Friday March 17
Connolly House
Session I 9:00 to 10:30
Chair, Joseph Nugent, Boston College Irish Studies
Nicole McClure, University of Connecticut
How Dracula Got His 'Irish' Back: Angel and the re-emergence of the Irish
vampire in American Television.
Jenny Murphy, University College Dublin
Re-positioning Irish-America: Neil Jordan¹s American-Irish and the value of
interstice.
Mary Burke, University of Connecticut
'Swindlers. Scammers. Con-men. As American as apple-pie': How the
Irish-American Traveler Became White
Session II, 11:00 to 12:30
Chair, Marjorie Howes, Codirector Boston College Irish Studies
Harvey O¹Brien, University College Dublin
Filming Kennedy in Ireland
Jim Byrne, Trinity College Dublin
Regeneration and the Irish-American Experience of Ethnic Identity
Seán Crosson, National University of Ireland, Galway
'They can¹t wipe us out, they can¹t lick us. We¹ll go on forever, pa, 'cause we¹re the people' Coping with Death in In America
Lunch 12:30 to 1:30
Session III 1:30-3:00
Chair, Robert Savage, Codirector, Boston College Irish Studies
Tony Tracy, National University of Ireland, Galway.
Of Schlemiehls and Shillelaghs: The Irisher-Jew Relationship in Silent
American Film
Timothy J. Meagher, Catholic University
Abie's Irish Enemy: Irish and Jews, Social and Political Realities and Media
Representations
Christopher Shannon, Christendom College
The Bowery Cinderella: Gender, Class and Community in Irish-American Film
Narrative
Session IV 3:15 to 4:45
Chair, Ruth Barton, University College Dublin
Conor Groome, National University of Ireland, Galway
Scrub a Dub! Ethnicity and Irish-American Masculinity in NBC¹s Scrubs
Jonathan Mulrooney, College of the Holy Cross
ET and the Irish
Diane Negra, University of East Anglia
Urban Space, Luxury Retailing and the New Irishness
Reception to follow hosted by the Consul General of Ireland
For further information contact tel: 00 353 1 7168634
http://www.ucd.ie/film