How is Ireland being collected, exhibited, re-presented? And for whom? What of collection itself? If “everything is a text,” then what formations other than the canonizing book can be understood as “anthology”: the syllabus, the gallery, the department curriculum (or even its mission statement)? Furthermore, is this multiplicity generative or does it actually perpetuate the delimiting power of discourse? Is the anthology or the exhibition, inevitably, an enterprise of closure? And, if so, why do we continue anthologizing at all?

For Ireland and Irish studies—for culture and academia in general—how representations are packaged and disseminated is of the utmost importance, yet the focus often remains with the objects represented. Hence, we ask that for this conference, we step back and consider the enterprises of anthologizing and curation themselves.

Indeed, the conference medium itself is an act of anthologizing, and this meeting will critically engage the familiar structures of the anthology as possible presentation topics. For example:
 

• “Forward,” “introduction,” or “conceptualization”:  How and what do we identify in Irish studies to examine? (e.g., “What is this ‘Irish studies’ we are collecting and exhibiting under the aegis of?”)
• “Sources,” “archives,” and “collections”:  How do we analyze the repositories of our sources, such as libraries and archives? What and where are these receptacles? What gets included/excluded? Who makes those decisions? How do we know what ‘good’ sources are/can be, and how do we face the often troublesome idea of “source-ness” itself?
• “Approaches,” “narratives,” and “curation”:  What are our various methodologies—structural, thematic or otherwise—and how do they produce new ways of seeing the same material … or reproduce the same ways of seeing the same material?
• “Conclusion,” “afterword,” and “deconstruction”:  What have we done? Also, where do we go from here? What are the limitations of our current investigations? How might our contents or our approaches limit our investigations in ways we had not anticipated?
• “Dissemination,” “distribution,” and “pedagogy”:  Where does the material go? How do we approach classroom practice and program curricula? What gets reviewed, screened, exhibited, critiqued?

“Anthologizing Ireland” invites work from all areas and disciplines, focusing on texts, objects, as well as methodological and theoretical approaches. We also encourage prospective presenters to submit other types of documents in addition to paper abstracts, such as: innovative curricular documents or interesting departmental policies, syllabi of adventurous courses either taught or proposed, important archival management documents, experimental treatises or manifestoes, etc. for posting on our website prior to the conference. Anonymity can be preserved where tact proves the better part of valour.

Email submissions to Will Hatheway at grianconference@hotmail.com, by December 1st.
All selected presentations will be considered for publication in Foilsiú.
For more information about GRIAN, visit www.grian.org.

GRIAN is a New York-based nonprofit organization devoted to collaboration between academia and the arts.