ESSE Conference at NUI Galway - Archive Tours and Exhibition

This week (22 - 26 August) NUI Galway welcomes to campus the 13th conference of E.S.S.E The European Society for the Study of English. The Society is a European federation of national higher educational associations which relate to all fields of study within English and the European study and understanding of English languages, literatures in English and cultures of English-speaking peoples.

The Archives service are delighted to support the conference with two exhibitions of literary works which highlight not only NUI Galway's rich collection of literary archives and special collections, writing in Irish and English from Ireland and the west of Ireland but also a visiting exhibition on-loan from the McClay Library of Queen's University Belfast. We hope conference delegates may take some time among a packed week to see the exhibitions and also take part in the daily lunchtime tour of the Archives.

The exhibition within our Archives and Special Collections Reading Room (Ground floor, Hardiman Building) offers a selection of highlights from our literary collections, such as first drafts and published first edition of John McGahern's acclaimed novel The Dark, known as "The Pit" in its initial writing; first editions of Thomas Kilroy's Booker-prize nominated novel, The Big Chapel; poetry in Irish from Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, letters from the late Seamus Heaney; programmes and images of Druid Theatre Company's many international successes such as its 1986 tour of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World and Tom Murphy's Conversations on a Homecoming. John Huston's film adaptation of James Joyce's short-story The Dead, with its deep Galway connections, is represented through material from the archive of Oscar-winning director, John Huston.

Exhibition in our Archives Reading Room

Also on display is a rare first edition of Cúchulain of Muirthemne by Lady Augusta Gregory, which was published in 1902 and represents a version of old Irish legends worked from oral and written folklore and stories collected by Gregory herself. The portrait of Lady Gregory, painted in 1912 by renowned artist Gerard Festus Kelly, also hangs in our Archives Reading Room.

Portrait of Lady Gregory at NUI Galway

Next to these published works are a wall-mounted display of water-colour sketches, painted by artist and playwright, Jack Butler Yeats. Brother of poet and senator, William, this 'Galway notebook' as it is known, contains many beautiful images of the landscape of the West of Ireland and captures the people, topography and culture of the West, through its fields and stone walls, Norman towers and castles and events such as the Galway Races.

In the foyer of the James Hardiman Library (through the electronic turnstiles) one can find the "Shakespeare Lives" exhibition. Assembled from the papers of celebrated Shakespearean actor and director, Sir Kenneth Branagh, located at the McClay Library of Queens University, Belfast, the exhibition offers a timely examination of the staging and reception of Shakespeare's work in Britain and northern Ireland both on-stage and on-screen.

Throughout the ESSE conference there will be daily lunchtime tours of Archives at 1pm, with a chance to see further material and explore in greater detail the documented heritage of the literary and theatrical collections of the Hardiman library. The meeting point is adjacent to the large 'Video Wall' in the foyer of the Hardiman Building. Please see your conference programme booklet for more information.

Looking forward to welcoming all ESSE delegates to Galway and to the Archives!

'Performing the Archive' conference, NUI Galway, July 2015

'Performing the Archive' Conference

National University of Ireland, Galway

22 – 24 July 2015

Co-sponsored by the American Society for Theatre Research

Speakers: 

Professor Tracy C. Davis (Northwestern University)

Dr. Doug L. Reside (New York Public Library)

Professor Catherine Cole (University of California, Berkeley)

Dr. Hugh Denard (Trinity College, Dublin)

Professor Patrick Lonergan (National University of Ireland, Galway)

Professor Lionel Pilkington (National University of Ireland, Galway)

Dr. Emilie Pine (University College, Dublin)

'Performing the Archive' responds to new innovations in archival practices including digital methodologies and will bring together formative thinking among scholars, artists and archivists engaged in working with archival materials and on research and performance projects to explore the uses and possibilities of the archive today from theoretical and methodological perspectives.

We will debate: 

• What is the status of archival research methodologies in published research and graduate training today? 

• What are the possibilities of collaboration between researchers and practitioners working together to remount work based on the archives or research on new material? What working models exist and what have yet to be imagined? 

• How has the digital humanities begun to reshape the possibilities of archival engagement? 

• How can we support the labour of not only archival research methodologies but the maintenance of the archives themselves? How does the holding location of archives (university vs. community archive) affect the circulation of these resources?  How can partnerships be expanded or reimagined?  

• How has the cataloguing of new/recent archives contributed to new learning and change?

• Connection of archives, theatre and society: Documentary theatre and socially responsive theatre

• Theatre, Peace and Conflict – How memory of theatre and conflict, especially that of Northern Ireland, is newly understood and experienced through the archives and contributing to resolution and reconciliation

• The craft of the playwright: Drafting, editing and writing for stage or radio through adapting the archive

• How is contemporary performance shaped by memory of past performance?

This conference capitalizes on NUI Galway’s unparalleled strength in Irish theatre and literary archives, taking advantage of holdings including the Abbey Theatre Digital Archive and archives of Druid Theatre, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, Thomas Kilroy, Siobhan McKenna and the Galway Arts Festival, among others, to facilitate a national and international conversation about the place of archives in not only theatre and performance research and teaching, but arts practice and perception of theatre history more broadly. 

Coinciding with the Galway Arts Festival, the conference will immerse participants in the living performance culture of Galway as the Galway Arts Festival links together artists from around the world to mount Ireland’s largest international arts festival. 

Participants will take part in intensive working group sessions as well as participate in keynote and plenary sessions with leading scholars, archivists and performers working at the intersection of practice and research. 

You may propose either an individual paper or panel of three speakers.  Abstracts for individuals for individual papers should be no more than 350 words in length and panels should submit their panel title and grouped abstracts to be considered.  Proposed papers can address practical projects in the area of digitization, curation, or archives administration as well as presenting creative, scholarly or theoretical case studies. 

Individuals will also designate a working group to be associated with for an intensive workshop during the conference.   

You can apply to the following strands: 

• Archival Materials In/As Performance 

• Digitization: Methodology and Ethics 

• Early-Mid-Twentieth Century Irish Theatre

• Irish Theatre After Beckett

• Conflict, Memory and Trauma

• Scenography and Theatre Technologies

Please submit a 350-word abstract for your proposed paper as a PDF file ONLY with brief bio by 30 March 2015 to performarchive2015@gmail.com

For more information, please contact Barry Houlihan (barry.houlihan@nuigalway.ie), Charlotte McIvor (charlotte.mcivor@nuigalway.ie) or Ian Walsh (ian.walsh@nuigalway.ie).

http://performingthearchive2015.wordpress.com/ 

http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/collections/archives/

http://www.nuigalway.ie/drama/

http://nuigarchives.blogspot.ie

 

@NUIGarchives 

@NUIGDrama

Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour & Class - Inaugural Conference at NUI Galway

 

Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour & Class

Moore Institute, NUI Galway 

Inaugural conference

Venue: James Hardiman Building (new extension), NUI Galway

  

21-22 November 2013

For full conference programme please click here 

NUIG Archives and the Archives & Records Association Conference 2012

This week, we at the Archives service of the James Hardiman Library are delighted to be able to attend the annual conference of the Archives and Records Association (ARA) taking place in Brighton, England. This is the first time The James Hardiman Library will be able to be represented at the conference and this is in no small part to the generous bursary received direct from the ARA. The ARA offered ten bursaries across the U.K. and Ireland and we are delighted to be among those chosen.

The conference will run for three days beginning Wednesday 29 August and conclude on Friday 31 August. The schedule is simply packed with a huge range of speakers, talks and events, bringing together the largest gathering of the archival profession in the U.K. this year. The theme across the conference this year is "Progress, Innovation and New Landscapes". It is a very apt title as more than perhaps ever before, archivists and institutions really have to push the boundaries of their innovation and ingenuity in order to make progress. A range of international speakers will cover topics across a huge span of interests including; 'Are we all digital archivists now?', 'Burdened with the truth – Wikileaks', 'Decision making in conservation', 'Meeting the requirements of new audiences', The on-going impact of technology on archivists strategies' and 'The way forward for the archival sector'.

Given the wide range of topics, expertise and backgrounds of archivists from instututions large and small across the U.K. and Ireland, the annual conference promises to be a key event in this years calendar.