IASIL Japan Newsletter2019 No. 2
The Japan Branch of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures
September 20191. IASIL Japan Conference 2019, Konan Women’s University/Konan Gakuen HiraoKinenkan
The IASIL Japan Conference 2019 will be held on Saturday 12 October at Konan Women’s University
and Sunday 13 October at Konan Gakuen Hirao Kinenkan, with the theme of ‘Borderlands’. Theprogramme, book of abstracts, campus map, and poster of the conference are downloadable from theIASIL Japan website <http://iasil.jp/conference.html>. Students and guests are welcome to attend. We
hope to meet you all there. As of 2017, we switched to online registration system. Please go to ourConference website <http://iasil.jp/conference.html> and register by 24 September 2019.
About the Guest Speakers
Aileen Douglas is Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin. Recent publications include Work in
Hand: Script, Print, and Writing, 1690-1840 (Oxford University Press, 2017), which deals with theinteraction of manual writing and print. The book gives particular attention to the reproduction of script
through printed engraving; to concepts of the copy and the autograph; and to constructions of the author.
Currently she is working on issues relating to women and print in the long eighteenth-century with aparticular focus on the Maria Edgeworth’s writing for children. Forthcoming work includes 'The Provinceof Poetry: Women Poets in early Eighteenth-Century Ireland' (Irish Literature in Transition, Cambridge
University Press, 2019). Her other publications include Uneasy Sensations: Smollett and the Body (Chicago,1995); a co-edited volume of essays, Locating Swift: Essays from Dublin on the 250th anniversary of thedeath of Jonathan Swift (Four Courts, 1998); as well as a range of journal articles and book chapters oneighteenth-century fiction and print culture.

Eoin McNamee is from Kilkeel, County Down. He has published eight fictions, including The Last ofDeeds (1989), Love in History (1992), Resurrection Man (1994), The Blue Tango (2001), TheUltras (2004), 12:23: Paris. 31st August (2007), Orchid Blue (2010), Blue Is the Night (2014) and The
Vogue (2018). Resurrection Man was made into a film in 1998, The Blue Tango was longlisted for theBooker Prize, and Blue Is the Night won the 2015 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year. He has also written
the Navigator Trilogy, for children, The Navigator (2006), City of Time (2008), and The Ring of Five(2010). He lives in County Sligo, and will be taking up the position of Director of Creative Writing at theOscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College Dublin, in September 2019.
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2. New IASIL Executive Committee for 2019-2022
Rui Carvalho Homem, IASIL Returning Officer, reported in April that the nomination process for theIASIL Executive was complete, and that the list of duly nominated members for the period 2019-2022
is as follows:Ondřej Pilný – Chairperson

Andrew Fitzsimons – Vice-Chairperson for Japan

Cormac O’Brien – SecretaryNaoko Toraiwa – Representative for Japan

Christina Morin - Treasurer

Toshiki Tatara – Representative for Japan

Rui Carvalho Homem - Returning Officer

Hironao Kobayashi – Representative for JapanAll positions were filled and were uncontested. Under the applicable regulations, an election was notnecessary, and the nominations were validated at the AGM at Trinity College Dublin.

3. Payment of annual membership fees
If you have not already paid your membership fees for 2019, please do so by the end of September, as
the journals will be distributed to paid-up members at the conference. This of course applies to
non-paid fees for past years, as well. A Student membership fee (with JIS only) went into effect as ofApril 2018. If you are applying for a Student membership, please provide the office with a copy of avalid student ID with your payment.
Membership with JIS
Membership with JIS & IUR
Student with JIS*

¥7,000¥10,000

Couple membership with JIS¥10,000
Couple membership with JIS & IUR ¥13,000¥5,000三菱東京 UFJ 銀行（銀行番号：0005）
川越支店（店番：382）
普通 0343056 イアシル・ジャパン 会計*a copy of valid student ID should be provided annually小林広直

ゆうちょ銀行
振替口座 00940－4－143302(099 店（099） 当座 0143302）

If you live abroad, please transfer your membership fee to the following account:
Bank Name: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, LTD.
SWIFT CODE: BOTKJPJT
Branch Name: Kawagoe Branch (Branch No. 382)
Branch Address: 1-2-7 Shintomi-cho, Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, 350-0043, Japan
Tel: +81 (0)49-222-2351
Account Name: IASIL Japan Treasurer Hironao Kobayashi
Account No: 0343056

Please add the overseas postal charge to mail you the copies of Journal of Irish Studies and Irish
University Review for which you have paid, according to the table below:
International postal
rates for JIS & IUR
JISJIS & IUR

Asia
¥ 750
¥ 1,500

Oceania, North America, CentralAmerica, Europe, Middle East¥ 1,000¥ 2,000

2South America, Africa¥ 1,300¥ 2,600

4. Report of IASIL 2019, Trinity College Dublin
The 50th-anniversary IASIL conference was held from the 22-26 July in Trinity College Dublin, thevenue of the inaugural IASAIL conference with the theme of ‘The Critical Ground’.
The conference started with a fascinating lecture on contemporary Irish poetry by Matthew
Campbell, and a thought-provoking panel where Angela Bourke, Patricia Coughlan, MichaelKenneally, Chris Morash and Shaun Richards looked back on 50 years of IASIL and Irish studies,
during which time the association made the crucial decision of dropping ‘Anglo-’ from its name andacknowledging the plurality of Irish literatures, in particular recognizing the place of the Irish
language in the story of literature in Ireland.
Indeed, the plurality of Irish literatures was one of the things that came through the conference, witha keynote lecture on Irish-language literary criticism by Máirín Nic Eoin, an Irish-language poetry
reading by Biddy Jenkinson, Caitríona Ní Chléirchín and Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh, and conference
papers given in Irish. Most notably, the reading by a new generation of Irish poets with diverse
backgrounds (Indian, Nigerian, Shona, and Traveller) chaired by Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi was
eye-opening.
Other keynote lectures and events were suggestive of where Irish literatures stand now andquestioned the ‘critical ground’: these included Nicholas Grene on the representation of rural Irelandin contemporary fiction, Helen Small on cynicism in academia, the discussion between John Banvilleand Fintan O’Toole, and the conversation with the directors of the Abbey. Irish University Review
roundtables were scheduled during the week, discussing the direction of Irish literary studies and thejournal itself (next year being its 50th anniversary), and our chair Andrew Fitzsimons participated in
one of them. There were also a variety of readings by Hugo Hamilton, Caitriona Lally, Kevin Power,
Carlo Gébler, Moya Cannon and Leontia Flynn, as well as tours of the special-collections in Trinity
and several book launches.
The number of delegates for the conference amounted to nearly 400, including those from IASIL
Japan, Toshio Akai, Andrew Fitzsimons, Kiminori Fukaya, Chen-wei Han, Kaori Hirashige, NaoIgarashi, Youngmin Kim, Hironao Kobayashi, Li Yuan, Akiko Manabe, Hiroko Mikami, Nobue
Miyake, Soichiro Onose, Fuyuji Taigawa, Toshiki Tatara, Naoko Toraiwa, Shotaro Yamauchi andmyself. It was heartening to see younger members of IASIL Japan taking an active part in theconference, and I hope they will continue to do so making the most of our scholarship scheme. Despitethe overwhelming number, the conference was run remarkably smoothly throughout the week andfinished with a memorable closing reception at the City Hall, all thanks to the gracious hosting of theconference team lead by Tom Walker.
Haruko Takakuwa (Ochanomizu University)35. IASIL Annual Conference, 20-24 July 2020
The IASIL conference will be hosted by University of Łódź, Poland, next year with the theme of‘North and South: Creative Borders.’ This will be the first IASIL conference in Poland and also mark50th anniversary of Irish University Review. IASIL Japan continues to offer a scholarship for a
postgraduate student to attend the IASIL conference. Details will be uploaded in November on ourwebsite.

IASIL Japan
c/o Toshiki Tatara
Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Yasuda Women’s University
6-13-1 Yasuhigashi, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima 731-0153, Japan
Tel: +81-(0)80-3701-0547

Email: secretary@iasil.jp

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