2018-2019 Library Lecture Series

Each year, the Irish Cultural Center & McClelland Library are proud to host a series of visiting lecturers on various topics related to Irish literature, culture, and history. By bringing in experts in various fields, we hope to cultivate new interest and excitement about the many aspects of scholarship that make up the realm of Irish Studies. In addition to the traditional definition of Irish Studies, the McClelland Library expands the scope of its lecture series to include the personal connections to history discovered through family history research and genealogy. The lecture series is intended for audiences of all experience levels. Please join us each year to learn more about the various areas and experts that continue to teach us so much about Ireland.

The 2018-2019 Lecture and Exhibition Series is dedicated to the history and culture of the Irish in Latin America. Two internationally renowned guest speakers will be presenting lectures focused on the immigration experience of the Irish diaspora in the Americas.

January 19, 2019 Lecture

Speaker: James Silas Rogers
Friday, January 19th, 2019 at 7pm in the Great Hall
Admission: Free (Donations greatly appreciated)

Please join us Jan 19 at 7:00 pm as we host Jim Rogers, a major figure in Irish Studies and literature for an unforgettable evening. Rogers will talk about his recent book Irish-American Autobiography: The Divided Hearts of Athletes, Priests, Pilgrims, and More. His book is an engaging attempt to define the immigration experience and make sense of what it means for those who have a foot in both the old home country and America. Rogers brings a depth of knowledge and insight into his meticulously researched study of the extent to which this ethnic group assimilated into mainstream America. Two overlapping questions permeate his work: What does it mean to be Irish in America; and can Irish ethnic identity persist under the pressures of assimilation and the forces of homogenization?

Rogers will reflect on the notion that immigrants often feel there should be something distinctive about their identity, “but they don’t necessarily know what it is, nor are they necessarily happy when they find out.” A big part of this identity is “that sense of duality, of having a foot in both worlds, of having a foot in both the home country and in America”. Rogers has varied interests in Irish cultural, history, literature and family history and genealogy and his lectures appeal to a broad audience.

James Silas Rogers is editor of New Hibernia Review and the director of the Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas. He was president of the American Conference for Irish Studies from 2009 to 2011. Rogers’s publications focus on Irish-American literature, chiefly memoir. His Irish books are Irish-American Autobiography: The Divided Hearts of Athletes, Priests, Pilgrims, and More (Catholic University of America Press, 2017); Extended Family: Essays on Being Irish American from New Hibernia Review (Dufour Editions, 2013), which he edited and introduced; and After the Flood: Irish America, 1945-1960 (Irish Academic Press, 2009), which he co-edited with Matthew J. O’Brien.