The 34th annual meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies-Western Regional (ACIS-West), sponsored by the University of Wyoming,will be held October 12-13, 2018 at the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jackson is nestled at the foot of the Teton Mountains and is the gateway to both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. This beautiful town—its gorgeous fall colors are on display in early October—is a hub of Wyoming cowboy culture.The Western-themed Wort Hotel, a National Register of Historic Places property, is one of the state’s finest hotels. Conference events begin the evening of October 11th and conclude with a banquet dinner on the13th. ACIS-West is an interdisciplinary conference that welcomes papers from all disciplines, including literature, history, politics, law, music, religion, language, culture, theater, film, dance, visual arts, sociology, economics, diaspora studies, peace and conflict studies, and comparative studies. We invite papers on any topic, and are especially interested this year in those related to our conference theme: The Human, the Non-Human, and the Posthuman in Irish Studies. This theme encompasses a wide variety of issues,such as ecocriticism, animal studies, affect, science and technology, human rights, and social movements. The conference will feature keynote addresses from Kathryn Conrad (English, University of Kansas), Myles Dungan (History, RTÉ Dublin), Charlotte Headrick (Theater, Oregon State University), and a plenary panel with Noah Novogrodsky (College of Law, University of Wyoming) on“Tuam and the Search for Historic Justice.”
The annual meeting of ACIS-West will also feature the Donald E. Jordan, Jr.–Willard C. Potts, Jr. Award, which recognizes exceptional work by emerging scholars in Irish Studies. It is awarded annually to the ACIS-West member judged the most meritorious emerging scholar (current graduate students and scholars within three years of having received a PhD). The recipient is chosen by a committee of ACIS-West members appointed by the organization’s president, and the award will be presented at the conference’s closing banquet. The award is accompanied by a $500 honorarium. For more information about the award and the generous donors who have made it possible, see https://aciswest.wordpress.com/awards/.