I am pleased to be able to report that New York
University has renewed, for a further year, 2017-2018, my Visiting Scholar
relationship with the University.
My thanks to the University. Special thanks to the team at the Glucksman
Ireland House, New York University, who choreographed and supported the procedure. And special, special thanks to Miriam Nyhan
Grey, Director of Graduate Studies at Ireland House, and Eli Elliott,
Department Administrator - who coaxed me into writing an up to date CV. I am not good at CVs - complicated life.
It was very good to, briefly, touch base with my
Glucksman Ireland House colleagues at the Global Irish Diaspora Congress, in
Dublin, August 2017. As all the world
knows, I am not a good traveller - but I can get to Dublin.
I do feel privileged to have this continuing relationship
with NYU. There are a number of
projects, in the scholarly, academic parts of my life, that I would hesitate to
take on if I did not have ready, and quality, access to the research
record. So, for a further year, I can feel
comfortable about that.
Also, people who know my work will be aware that in
recent years I have given myself the task - life has given me the task - of
rescuing and making sure that the research record knows about past
projects. Rescues have included the
Tolkien in Oxford BBC film, 1968, The Irish World Wide series, 6 volumes,
1992-1997, my song lyric archive, including the publication of a selection of
lyrics in book form, Love Death and Whiskey, 2010, the archive of the Irish
Diaspora List, 1997-2017. And so
on... A forthcoming rescue involves the oral history stage play, Irish Night, 1987-1988.
So, different kinds of rescue, from different mediums, in
different technological forms, spread over many decades. (Go on, then - you try writing the bloody
CV...) But all benefitted, enormously,
from the support of NYU, and, through NYU, access to research material. For example, the rescue of the stage play,
Irish Night, involves placing that 1987 project within the subsequent history
of the oral history, documentary history stage play - and within the research
record on the experiences of Irish people in England.
Thank you to the Glucksman Ireland House, and to New York
University...
Patrick O'Sullivan
