Irish Studies South, the new online journal of the Southern Region of ACIS announces a Call for Submissions for Volume Two, to be edited by David Gleeson. The extended deadline for submissions is June 1st, 2015.
The Irish in the South
Traditionally the study of the Irish in American focused on the large cities of the Northeast and Midwest where the majority of Irish immigrants and their descendants lived. In the last fifteen years, however, there has been a huge growth of interest in the Irish beyond these metropolises. The results of 1990 Federal Census, the first to ask respondents for their ethnicity, shocked many when it showed that sections of the American South claimed Irish heritage that matched and even surpassed large swathes of the North. New Irish immigrants have flocked to the South too in the early twenty-first century, which along with growing economic connections between “Sunbelt” industries and Ireland has been acknowledged by the establishment of Irish Consulates in Atlanta and Austin. Investigations by scholars such as Randall Miller and David Gleeson have highlighted the significance of the Irish presence in southern towns and cities, while the works of Kieran Quinlan and Bryan Giemza have emphasized cultural connections between Ireland and the South as well as the important influence Irishness had on native southerners like Flannery O’Connor.
In recognition of this burgeoning field Irish Studies South welcomes submissions for a special issue on The Irish in the South to be edited by Professor David Gleeson of Northumbria University. Submissions from all disciplines are encouraged. Potential topics include:
1. The Irish cultural influence on the early South reflected through the settlement patterns of Scots-, Native- and Anglo-Irish.
2. Irish religious traditions in the South
3. Irish political movements, nationalist and loyalist, in the South
4. Irish immigrants and Irish southerners in southern politics
5. The significance of Irish heritage on southern writers
6. Irish labor and entrepreneurial contributions to the South’s economic development
7. Irish music in the South
8. The Irish and race relations in the South.
Submissions should be directed to David Gleeson, david.gleeson@northumbria.ac.uk.