London Met academic to deliver paper as part of international conference.
Date: 21 June 2021
London Met’s Patrick O’Sullivan is set to deliver a paper at an international and multidisciplinary conference focusing on the past and present imprint of the Irish diaspora on Chicago, including its reverberations in Hibernia.
His paper, Chicago, Theory, and the Discourse of the Irish Emigrant Letter, offers a critique of the ways in which one kind of theory - 'Chicago school' sociology - entered the study of one kind of source material within Irish Diaspora Studies, the Irish Emigrant Letter.
The paper outlines the historiography of the Irish Emigrant Letter, the creation of a research resource, and the way to rescue a resource not valued within the homeland, the personal writings of the Irish people were found. The paper briefly considers solutions that might be offered by a Digital Humanities approach to the research material.
Patrick O’Sullivan is Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies at London Metropolitan University. He is a freelance writer and researcher, with a considerable track record in the development of projects which support diaspora scholarship. He has a special interest in the interface between academic research and community action.
The conference, 'Chicago: an Irish-American Metropolis? Politics, ethnicity and culture from 1830s to the present time': International and Multidisciplinary Conference, takes place from 21-23 June.
For further information see the conference website and the programme.
