1.
Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora
Studies...
Colleagues who know the Irish
Diaspora Studies parts of my life will know that I am not a career academic - I
am a freelance writer and researcher. But my kind of writer needs to
maintain friendly and supportive relations with academia. And I do.
Many thanks to those who have
noticed that I have taken on a new role, as Visiting Professor of Irish
Diaspora Studies, London Metropolitan University...
And have sent me good wishes...
I had hoped that, by now, we would
be looking back at my first lecture as Visiting Professor - it would very
likely have been a Digital Humanities approach to a critical historiography of
the Irish Emigrant Letter, something fairly straightforward. And I would,
maybe, have my first seminar groups in place. But, as we all know, the
virus crisis intervened.
I am now in lockdown in my home in
Yorkshire. Words like 'visiting' and 'gathering' have, for the time
being, dropped out of use.
Some background, below...
2.
A fond farewell to the Glucksman
Ireland House, New York University...
As you know, I have in recent years
had a long distance scholarly relationship with the Glucksman Ireland House,
New York University. Long distance but rather lovely.
In a report to Ireland House I
said...
'It is not that I do not love you
But your house is so far away...'
(Confucius, Analects IX 30 - Arthur
Waley's translation)
For a number of reasons - and health
has been one reason - I have, in recent years not been as active as I would
have liked, or as active as I should have been, in Irish Diaspora projects and
within academia in these islands. But I have made efforts. Thus, I
attended two major conferences in Ireland, the Global Irish Diaspora Congress,
Dublin, August 2017, and the American Conference for Irish Studies, ACIS, Cork,
June, 2018. At both conferences I was able to confer with my NYU
colleagues and other old friends. And I attended a celebration of the
career of Joe Lee at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, in April 2019. A
fascinating socio-cultural experience - Dublin does these things well.
3.
A warm embrace from London
Metropolitan University...
Towards the end of last year,
2019, conversations took place with London Metropolitan University - and I
became their Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies. I am grateful
to London Metropolitan University for this interest and support - I especially
thank Don MacRaild, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange,
and Lynn Dobbs, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of London
Metropolitan University. London Metropolitan University is the kind
of university I believe in. When the news was announced we received a
lovely message of encouragement from President Higgins, and Áras an Uachtaráin
- in fact, we had to ask him to tone it down a bit. Too ebullient.
And so to London, the city where I
last worked, many decades ago, as a young community worker, probation officer,
and social worker, specialising in drug misuse. I have long had a
friendly relationship with London Metropolitan University, staff and students,
past and present. I have often visited the Archives of the Irish in
Britain, London Metropolitan University - recently to discuss the final
destination of my own archives, and my large research library. In the longer
term there might be synergy between the Archives of the Irish in Britain, at
London Metropolitan University, and the Archives of Irish America, at New York
University.
In the first months of this year,
2020, I had several meetings in London, rebuilding networks and rebuilding
friendships, beginning to put structures and funding in place. Looking at
matters Irish in London and in England, within academia and outside.
Looking at ways to be useful. I can see the problems, I can see solutions.
But, again, obviously the virus crisis intervened - at the time of writing, May
2020, structures and funding are not in place.
4.
Visit, Gather, Hug...
How we will go from here is not
clear. But we are all saying that.
I have reached an age, and a stage,
where I have to be careful about health and energy levels. And we should
all be saying that. I will add that the easiest way for me to safeguard
my health is to severely ration the amount of time I spend sitting at a
computer.
As you will have gathered I was
going to approach the new role in London, within London Metropolitan
University, quite humbly, cautiously - it is a new role for me, and I wanted to
be useful. However my approach to key issues within Irish Diaspora
Studies is... I will not say, speculative - I will say, meditative.
And I would have liked, for example, to bring together a seminar group, to
explore the issues, in a meditative sort of way.
I remain sure that our approach remains useful
in the world - interdisciplinary, world-wide, comparative. And is even
more useful in a world that needs a better understanding of the ways in which
evidence is constructed and policy developed. I was looking forward to
developing a guest speaker programme - indeed had already reached out to
friends. Visit the Visiting Professor.
I am a fan of a certain rough and tumble
approach to comparative Diaspora Studies - it is welcoming, it makes sense,
especially in London - and already lining up were colleagues who study the Cabo
Verde diaspora and the Armenian diaspora.
As I say, I was going to start
cautiously, with a sensible lecture on the Irish Emigrant Letter. But
maybe I am being too sensible. Could I go on, wildly, to give an entire
week to our Holyhead Project? And an entire term to our Doneraile
Project? Why not?
So, in lockdown in my home in
Yorkshire, I am still writing my notes, tidying my bibliographies, mapping the
research, collecting my thoughts. Writing new songs, of course.
Visit, gather, hug. We will.
Patrick O'Sullivan
May 30 2020
May 30 2020
Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora
Studies, London Metropolitan University
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050
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