2011 Press Releases
17.10.2011
A conference on Irish-Iranian encounters and comparatives will be held in UCC on October 22nd 2011. Papers will explore the multiple parallels between both lands; from heroic themes in Indo-European narratives, to Orientalism and Persian poetry at the turn of the twentieth century in Ireland, to women’s rights in Iran and Ireland. The gathering includes scholars from UCC, Harvard, Boston University, UCLA as well as from cultural institutions such as London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
The conference venue is Boole Lecture Theatre 2 and will run from 9am -6pm. Members of the public are invited to attend any part of or all of the conference and admission is free. For further details, please contact Professor Grace Neville, vpteachingandlearning@ucc.ie
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Panel I:
Comparative Legends
Chair: Grace Neville, UCC
Iran and Erin:
Gorgani’s Viseh and Béroult’s Iseut
Richard Davis,
Ohio State University
Parallel Heroic
Themes in the Old Irish Cattle Raid of Cooley and the Classical
Persian Book of Kings
Olga Davidson,
Boston University
Building Bulls and Crafting Cows:
Indo-European Narratives of Bovine Fabrication
John McDonald, Cornell University
The Conqueror
Worm in Irish and Persian Tradition
Joseph Nagy,
UCLA
Discussant
Lunch break
Panel II: Literary
Encounters
Chair: Fan Hong, UCC
The Wilde Iran:
Lady Jane Francesca Wilde, Ancient Iran, and Irish Nationalist Historiographies
Mansour
Bonakdarian, Independent Scholar
Orientalism and
Persian Poetry in Late-Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Ireland
Oliver
Scharbrodt, UCC
The Irish and
Iranians in Simin Daneshvar’s Savushun: Sharing Poetic Sensitivity
and Misery
Mohammad Ghanoonparvar,
University of Texas
Discussant
Panel III: Socio-Cultural
Encounters
Chair: Houchang
Chehabi
Collecting for the ‘Dublin Museum’: Robert Murdoch Smith and the Acquisition of Artefacts in Qajar Iran
Moya Carey,Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Irishwoman in
Tehran (1849-53)
Brendan
McNamara, UCC
Gendered Images
and Women’s Rights in Iran and Ireland
Roja Fazaeli,
Trinity College, Dublin
Melanie
Hoewer, University College, Dublin
Discussant: Ali Ansari, University of St. Andrews