Thanks very much for your interest in opportunities for Irish and Irish Immigration studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. As a teaching and research institution, SIUC has many resources that allow for a focused, multidisciplinary study of Ireland and Irish Immigration. These resources include:
Irish Holdings in the Morris Library
Holdings in Irish literature in the Humanities Division and Special Collections of the Morris Library are among the most extensive in the United States. The general collection boasts a broad selection of secondary material on Irish literature, particularly the early Twentieth Century. The strengths of the Special Collections manuscript and rare-book holdings are in James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, and the Abbey Theatre, and many other Irish artists are well represented, including Flann O'Brien, Lennox Robinson, Katherine Tynan Hinkson, and Mary Lavin.
An academic exchange program with the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI-Galway)
Students enrolled at SIUC have an opportunity to undertake formal coursework and, especially at the graduate level, independent reading and research projects at this constituent college of the National University of Ireland. At the same time students from NUI-Galway take courses at SIUC, affording the Americans the opportunity of meeting and studying with their Irish counterparts.
The Irish Studies Forum
A university-recognized campus organization, this group brings together Irish and SIUC students together for weekly, informal discussions of shared Irish readings and Irish issues. In Spring 1999, the ISF hosted the National Graduate Conference in Irish studies.
SymposiaAs part of our on-going development of Irish Studies, SIUC is the location of various symposia, featuring an international assembly of experts, on various topics relating to Irish and Irish Immigration studies. The subject of the 1997 symposium was Irish and Irish-American musical interactions, and in 1998 the focus was the Irish Diaspora.
Visiting Writers and Scholars
SIUC hosted the 1996 annual meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies. Keynote speakers were former Senator George Mitchell and Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist William Kennedy. This gathering continues a tradition of bringing internationally recognized writers, leaders, and scholars to campus. Recent visitors have included Irish statesman Conor Cruise O’Brien, playwright Thomas Kilroy, and poets including Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Paul Muldoon, Eavan Boland, and Nobel Prize recipient Seamus Heaney.