This one-day conference – taking place on 30th September 2017 – is an interdisciplinary opportunity to examine the historical, literary, cultural, religious and social ties between Scotland and Ireland in the modern period.

Bound together by geographical proximity, Scotland and Ireland are underscored by political, cultural and religious ties. But such interconnections are often typified by difference. Indeed, Scotland and Ireland can be seen as similarly different, from certain angles.

English-speaking but not English, and with comparable access to “other” languages, literatures and histories, Scotland and Ireland can stand at both the centre and periphery of an “Anglophone” world. But these are also nations marked by centres and peripheries of their own, with those outwith the capitals of Dublin and Edinburgh frequently cast as figures “beyond the pale.” Both nations negotiate with varieties of Britishness; with multiple and often divisive states of nationalism.

As such, Scotland and Ireland are inherently and unavoidably interconnected. This conference seeks to explore these relationships.

The conference organisers welcome submissions on the following themes:

– Religion: schisms and ecumenisms.
– Literatures and “other” languages.
– Nationalisms in relation: with and outwith the British empire.
– Migrations, minorities and diasporic interactions.
– Gendered representations.
– Politics and institutions: unions, ‘Home Rule(s)’, independence.
– Celticism and myths of “race.”
– Economics: Urban and Rural, including the Land Question.

Speakers are encouraged to submit a 300-word proposal and one-page curriculum vitae to scot.irl.standrews2017@gmail.com by 17 May 2017. We anticipate being able to reimburse reasonable travel expenses for all speakers.

Further information is available on the conference website.

This half-day colloquium, under the auspices of the Carnegie Literature and Union project, the St Andrews Institutes of Intellectual History and Scottish Historical Research, and the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, University of Glasgow, will take place on Friday 7 October 2016, in The Senate Room, South Street, University of St Andrews (Entrance via the King James Library in St Mary’s Quad).

The event is free and open. However, for catering purposes, please register your interest with Prof. Colin Kidd on cck3@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Program:

2 pm Welcome

2.05 Dr Valerie Wallace (Victoria University, Wellington) ‘Thomas Pringle’

2.40 Gerard McKeever (University of Glasgow), ‘Circling Time: The Scottish Cotter Idyll and Social Change’

3.15 TEA in Undercroft, Mediaeval History, 71 South Street

3.30 Dr Andrew Holmes (Queen’s Belfast), ‘Poetry, politics and Presbyterianism: the Ulster Dimension’

4.10 pm Prof Gerry Carruthers (University of Glasgow), ‘Presbyterianism and the Legacy of Thomas Muir’

4.45 pm Concluding Discussion