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With many students and faculty
at Baruch claiming Irish roots, and many more students interested
in the dynamics of assimilation and influence common to many
immigrant groups, the field of Irish studies offers a means
to consider the processes of identity formation while exploring
a rich cultural heritage. It should come as no surprise, then,
that Irish studies is alive and well at Baruch. The English
Department has three faculty members with Irish specializations:
Barbara Gluck, who has published a book about James Joyce
and regularly teaches the department’s Modern Irish
Writers course; Carmel Jordan, who is originally from Dublin
and writes and teaches about Irish author Bram Stoker; and
Mary McGlynn, whose work looks at contemporary Ireland and
Scotland.
 With
this sort of faculty presence in the New York Irish academic
scene, Baruch recently provided support for the Mid-Atlantic
Regional Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish
Studies. Held at Lehman College, the conference was co-sponsored
by Baruch, Lehman, and the Irish Arts Center, as well as a
new CUNY-wide program, the CUNY Institute for Irish-American
Studies. The two-day conference, entitled Ireland’s
Cultures, drew together over 40 scholars from the United States,
Ireland, Great Britain, and Canada. The conference featured
papers, roundtables, readings, and exhibitions on a wide range
of subjects, with particular attention to the visual arts
and film, including a screening of Ealaíntóir
Thar Sáile (An Artist Abroad), 2001, a subtitled
Irish-language short film profiling painter Elizabeth O’Reilly.
In addition to activities at the Lehman campus, the conference
also featured the New York opening of Home and Away: Contemporary
Irish Art (at Manhattan’s Irish Arts Center), an
exhibition of the work of six contemporary artists from Ireland.
The
conference provided many local scholars with their first introduction
to the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies (CIIAS),
which is in its third year. The CIIAS hosts readings, academic
panel discussions, and artistic activities. A festival of
films about the Irish in New York City is planned for the
upcoming year. For more information, visit www.lehman.cuny.edu/irishamericanstudies.
—MM
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Elizabeth O’Reilly
Downpatrick Head, 1997
Oil on panel, 15” x 17”
Collection of the artist
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