Irish Migrant Adaptations: Memory, Performance and Place
This collection seeks to explore how immigration to Ireland has redefined perceptions of Irish communities and localities, performance traditions, and patterns of remembrance in the period between the mid-1990s and the present. Specifically, this collection will examine how adaptation, in its broadest sense, has been used as an avenue and strategy for cultural change.
We invite contributors to consider adaptation in the context of theatre performance, film, and literature, as well as other types of non-theatrical performances of cultural memory, such as parades, rituals, reenactments of history, performances of everyday life, and performances of place. By definition, adaptation involves the juxtaposition of a past with a present – the recollection and representation of past events in light of a current moment. More broadly, adaptation has been used by migrant communities in Ireland and beyond as a strategic process by which received cultural hallmarks, memories, norms, and values are adapted in light of migrants’ self-images, which adjust to the host culture in turn.
Contributions are welcome that examine how transnational migrant communities in Ireland have used adaptation to carve spaces for their self-perceptions within and against dominant narratives of Irish culture and identity. The book will consider adaptation in a variety of performance contexts, including, but not limited to, theatrical performance, performances of everyday life, performances of place, performances of display, ritual, parades, and reenactments of cultural and historical memory. In short, the book will consider topics related to Irish interculturalism, transnational migration, and adaptation in theatrical and non-theatrical contexts.
Please send a draft title and 500 word abstract to by March 31, 2016:
Jason King
NUI Galway
JASON.KING@nuigalway.ie
Charlotte McIvor
NUI Galway
Charlotte.mcivor@nuigalway.ie
Matthew Spangler
San Jose State University
matthew.spangler@sjsu.edu