University of Connecticut

Undergraduate: English majors may pursue a Concentration in Irish Literature by taking 4 courses (12 credits) focusing on Irish Literature. We offer 2-3 qualifying courses every semester across three campuses and two departments. The upper-level Contemporary Irish Literature after 1939 and Early and Modern Irish Literature before 1939 are offered almost every semester. Seminars on major writers such as Wilde, Heaney, Yeats, Joyce, O’Brien, and Doyle and on topics such as the literature of the Troubles are routinely offered.

Graduate: Eight graduate students are currently working on dissertations with an Irish focus, from the medieval to the contemporary period. All are eligible to apply for our Moriarty Irish Studies Scholarship. Recent alumni hold tenure track positions at places like Sacred Heart and U of New Haven, while earlier alumni of Irish Studies include the current Director of Irish Studies at Villanova, and Heads of Department at Miami University and William Paterson University. Recent graduate seminar offerings have included Wilde and James, Survey of Irish Literature, Modern English and Irish Drama, Oscar Wilde, and The Abbey Theatre. The Irish Studies Alliance is a graduate organization of 16 active members across history, English, and Comp Lit.

Irish Language: UConn has been hosting an annual Fulbright instructor in Modern Irish (Gaelic) since 2012, one of only a handful of North America institutions to do so. Classes are taken by undergraduate and graduate students as ability in Irish is increasingly a desirable skill for Irish Studies positions. Each year, two such students win the opportunity to attend summer language courses in Ireland.

Talks and readings: The Storrs campus hosts 2-3 scholarly talks and readings in Irish literature per semester and our annual Gerson Irish Reading has hosted the following global names since 1998: Edna O’Brien; Eamonn Grennan; Colum McCann; Colm Toibin; Eilis Ni Dhuibhne; Jamie O’Neill; Paul Muldoon; Marina Carr; Eavan Boland; Mary Morrissy; James Ryan; Frank Delaney; Geraldine Mills and Lisa Taylor; Anne Enright, Colm Toibin; Belinda McKeon; Glenn Patterson; Claire Kilroy; Sinéad Morrissey

Updated by Mary M. Burke, UConn in May 2016. Contact mary.burke@uconn.edu with queries.