Seminar Videos:
30 May 2024:
Pierre Joannon, writer, historian and Franco-Irish diplomat.
TITLE: « Your closest EU neighbour : la montée en puissance des relations entre la France et l’Irlande au lendemain du Brexit » .
BIO: A doctor of law, Pierre Joannon was Honorary Consul General of Ireland in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region for fifty years. He is one of the leading specialists in Irish history, to which he has devoted a dozen books, including Histoire de l’Irlande et des Irlandais (2006 and 2009). He has been co-editor of the academic journal Études Irlandaises, a trustee of the Bibliothèque Irlandaise Princesse Grace de Monaco, a member of the Strategic Committee of the Centre Culturel Irlandais de Paris, President of the Ireland Fund de France, and a member of the Ireland Council of the American University of Notre Dame. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the National University of Ireland and the University of Ulster. In 2012, he was presented with one of the first Presidential Distinguished Service Awards for the Irish Abroad by the President of Ireland. In 2020, he was invited to sit on the Advisory Council of the John and Pat Hume Foundation. Finally, on 16 March 2021, Pierre Joannon was elected a member of the prestigious Royal Irish Academy.
23 May 2024:
Prof. Feargal Cochrane, Professor (Emeritus) in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent and Senior Research Fellow in the Conflict Analysis Research Centre, (CARC) at the University of Kent.
TITLE: Belfast Buildings and the Architecture of Conflict: Some Thoughts on the intersections of history, politics and culture over time.
BIO: Professor Feargal Cochrane is Professor Emeritus in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. He is also a senior research fellow at the Conflict Analysis Research Centre, which he was the Director of from 2012-2020.
He was previously Director of the Richardson Institute, a peace and conflict studies research centre at Lancaster University (2005-2012). Professor Cochrane has also held academic posts at the Centre for the Study of Conflict, University of Ulster (1996-1998) and at Queen’s University Belfast (1994-1995). Professor Cochrane has published widely in the area of political violence and conflict transformation in leading international journals and with prestigious academic publishing houses.
Over a 30 year teaching career he has published 12 books and numerous journal articles in these areas and his most recent book; Belfast: The story of a city and its people, (Yale University Press 2023) will be published as a paperback in May 2024.
28 March 2024:
Dr. Marc Scully, Mary Immaculate College Limerick
TITLE: Are you Irish? Well, I am now!”: Discourses of citizenship and transnational knowledge among post-Brexit applicants for Irish passports.’
BIO: Marc Scully is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, where he teaches social psychology and qualitative research methods. His research focuses on constructions of identity, belonging and ‘authenticity’ in the context of transnationalism and diaspora, from a social psychological perspective. He previously held academic posts at the Open University, the University of Leicester, and Loughborough University.
8 February 2024:
Patrick O’Sullivan, Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies, London Metropolitan University.
TITLE: Jean-Paul Sartre and that word, ‘diaspora’: movement in time and space
BIO: Patrick O’Sullivan is a working writer and researcher, whose main academic interest is the interdisciplinary study of the Irish Diaspora. His long track record of contributions to that field include Patrick O’Sullivan,Editor, The Irish World Wide, 6 volumes, 1992-1997, and the Irish Diaspora List, email discussion forum, 1997-2017. His current academic affiliation is with London Metropolitan University where he is Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies. A recent report for London Metropolitan University can be found on his blog, at Fiddler’s Dog…
http://fiddlersdog.blogspot.com/2024/01/visiting-professor-of-irish-diaspora.html
BIO: Claire Dubois wrote a PhD on representations of the Gaelic Past and their use in the construction of Irish identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is an Assistant Professor in Irish Studies at Université de Lille, in France. She works on visual culture, architecture, the press, travel writing, national identity and its expressions. Her book, L’art comme arme en politique. Les combats de Constance Markievicz, is forthcoming from Presses Universitaires du Septentrion (April 2024). Her current research focuses on the representation of Ireland’s revolution in France.
BIO: Erick Falc’her-Poyroux completed his PhD thesis on “Ireland’s Musical Identity” in 1996 and has translated or published several books on Ireland since, including “Histoire sociale de la musique irlandaise” in 2018 and is currently working on a revised version in English. He has also published a book on “The Beatles’ clichés”. He is an eclectic musician and a Professor of Irish and British Studies at the University of Tours.
19 October 2023:
Dr. Vanessa Boullet, University of Lorraine, Dr. Julien Guillaumond, University Clermont Auvergne,
TITLE: Voicing the concerns of cross-border workers in a post-Brexit/Covid Ireland: the example of the Cross-Border Workers’ Coalition.
BIO: Vanessa Boullet is a Senior Lecturer in Irish studies at Université de Lorraine in Nancy, France.
She is a member of the research lab IDEA, and is currently part of the GIS EIRE research network.
Her research focuses on Irish studies and on the interactions between economy, society and politics in Ireland. She has developed an interest in the impact of multinationals on the Irish economy and its uneven development as well as issues linked to well-being and cooperation between the north and the south of the island. She is the co-editor of the book The Unequal Costs of Covid-19 on Well-Being in Europe (Springer, 2022).
She also tries to develop research in Business and Modern Languages departments in France and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Revue International des Langues Etrangères Appliquées.
Julien Guillaumond is a senior lecturer in Irish studies at Clermont-Auvergne University. He is a member of the research lab Communication and Sociétés, and is currently part of the GIS EIRE research network. His research focuses on questions relating to identity representations, nation branding and diaspora issues in Ireland and France. He is currently working on Ireland’s soft power.
28 September 2023:
Dr. Joana Etchart, University of Pau, Dr. Grainne O’Keeffe-Vigneron, University Rennes 2
TITLE: The Irish Diaspora in France.
BIO: Joana Etchart is a Senior Lecturer in Irish and British Studies at the University of Pau. She formerly taught at the Paris Sorbonne. She takes part in French societies promoting Irish Studies (SOFEIR), and is also a member of the Oral History Network of Ireland (OHNI). She is currently writing a detailed history of community relations policy during the Troubles, 1969-1990, and of the community’s response and adhesion to it (Etchart 2023, forthcoming).
Gráinne O’Keeffe-Vigneron is maître de conférences at the Université Rennes 2 and is a member of the GIS-EIRE where she co-heads the research strand ‘Repositioning Ireland in the World’. She is currently co-editing a book with Anne Groutel, Paris 1, on Ireland and Soft Power.
29 June 2023:
Dr. Philippe Cauvet, University of Poitiers.
TITLE: Northern Ireland reconfigured? Reflections on Peace and Democracy in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement
BIO: Philippe Cauvet is a senior lecturer in British and Irish studies at the University of Poitiers. His research focuses on questions relating to territory, national identities, democracy and state sovereignty in Ireland and in the UK.
His latest article was just published in Etudes Irlandaises this spring. He is currently preparing a book on Irish constitutional nationalism and the idea of national territory.
11 May 2023:
Professor Christophe Gillissen, University of Caen.
TITLE: Ireland after Brexit
BIO: Christophe Gillissen is a professor in Irish studies at the University of Caen and is a specialist of Irish foreign policy. He has recently published several articles on the Brexit issue.
– « L’Irlande et le Brexit : un avenir incertain », Questions internationales, N° 85-86 (mai-août 2017), p. 136-141.
– « L’Irlande et le Brexit », Politique internationale, N° 160 (été 2018), p. 147-161.
– « L’Irlande du Nord et le Brexit : la quadrature du cercle ? », Questions internationales, N° 110 : « L’Europe post-Brexit » (novembre-décembre 2021), p. 59-62.
– “Brexit and the Irish border: an historical overview”, in O. Coquelin, B. Bastiat and F. Healy (eds), Northern Ireland: Challenges of Peace and Reconciliation since the Good Friday Agreement, Brussels: Peter Lang, 2022, p. 45-58.
– « Irlande : vers une réunification ? » Après-demain, N° 62 (NF) : « Union européenne et Brexit » (2e trimestre 2022), p. 28-29.