CFP: Writing the Rising: An international Conference on 1916

Thursday, 14 January 2016

Universita` Roma 3 Facolta` di Lettere e Filosofia

This is a Call for papers for Writing the Rising, an international conference organised by CRISIS – Centro di Ricerca Interdipartimentale per gli Crisis – Centro Ricerca Studi Irlandesi e Scozzesi – at the Università Roma Tre in association with the Irish Embassy to Italy and the College of Saint Isidore in Rome. This interdisciplinary conference will particularly welcome contributions from historians, literary critics, and political scientists. The conference will examine the central importance of the written word both before, during and after the 1916 Rising, firstly as a source of inspiration, then as the container of the main political message of the Rising itself (the Proclamation of the Irish Republic) and finally as the principal means of reportage, witness, and critique.

Paper topics can relate to any aspect of the Revolutionary period of Irish history, from 1913 to 1923. However, participants are encouraged to examine various written forms from letters to journalism, propaganda to poetry, theatre to the novel, produced before, during and in the aftermath of the tumultuous historical events of 1916. Papers dealing with modern literary reappraisals of the Rising are also welcome as are contributions dealing with European aspects of the Rising, the connections with World War One, and journalistic and popular coverage of the Rising both in the Europe of the time and the Europe of today. Discussions of coverage of the Rising in Italy will be particularly encouraged. Papers which investigate the Catholic Church’s response to the Rising will also be welcome.

CONFIRMED PLENARY SPEAKERS: Professor Roy Foster (Oxford University), Dr Ben Levitas (Goldsmiths, University of London). Further plenary speakers will be announced shortly. Other speakers will include Ronan McDonald (University of Sydney) and Derek Hand (St Patrick’s College, DCU).

Proposals should be sent by 10 September 2015 to: john.mccourt@uniroma3.it