Reimagining Ireland: 100th volume continues to map way forward for Irish studies
Rich field of analysis of series that I edit casts light on shifting dimensions of Ireland’s culture
about an hour ago
Eamon Maher
The series Reimagining Ireland began life in 2008, when the first call for proposals was sent out. The goal was to commission books that would look at all aspects of Ireland’s past and present, while also having an eye to the future.
Irish studies has blossomed as a discipline over time. This flowering took root with the emergence in the 1960s and 1970s of “area studies”, or area-based programmes, which emphasised that knowledge of the literature, culture, history and diversity that shape and mould various cultures and disciplines should form an essential ingredient of university courses. Hence, French studies, peace studies, women’s studies, European studies, and postcolonial studies, to cite but a few examples, all came to the fore and proposed a broader menu for students’ delectation than had previously been the norm.