2015 SUNY Geneseo Study Abroad in Ireland
Irish Studies in Ireland: Borders and Boundaries
Daily Diaries: Students submitted reflective comments on expectations and experiences as we traveled through Ireland. This created a virtual diary of our trip, with commentary on class lectures and discussions, field trips, and activities associated with the Yeats International Summer School.
- Thursday, 16 July: Overnight Flight to Dublin
- Friday, 17 July: Arrival in Dublin, Bus to Galway, Walking Tour and Orientation to Galway
- Saturday, 18 July: Seminars on Plantation, the Penal Laws, and the Rise of the Ascendancy
- Sunday, 19 July: Bus Tour of the Burren, Cliffs of Moher, and Doolin with Seminars on Landscape and Sustainability and the Irish Literary Revival
- Monday, 20 July: Bus to Dublin with a Mid-Afternoon Stop at Strokestown Park and the National Famine Museum
- Tuesday, 21 July: Seminar on Young Ireland the 19th Century Nationalism and Walking Tour of Glasnevin Cemetery
- Wednesday, 22 July: Literary and Historical Walking Tour of Dublin’s City Centre
- Thursday, 23 July: Free Day in Dublin
- Friday, 24 July: Bus to Derry with a Visit to the Battle of the Boyne Museum
- Saturday, 25 July: Walking Tour of the Derry City Walls and Tour of Murals with the Bogside Artists
- Sunday, 26 July: Bus to Sligo with a Visit to Glenveagh Castle and Gardens
- Monday, 27 July: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Tuesday, 28 July: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Wednesday, 29 July: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Thursday, 30 July: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Friday, 31 July: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Saturday, 1 August: Bus to Clifden with Visit to Kylemore Abbey
- Sunday, 2 August: Free Day in Clifden
- Monday, 3 August: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Tuesday, 4 August: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Wednesday, 5 August: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Thursday, 6 August: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Friday, 7 August: Yeats International Summer School Lectures and Seminar
- Saturday, 8 August: Bus to Dublin and Return Flights to US
Textual Analysis: Throughout the class, students read extensively in primary sources from Irish history and literature. These connected to sites that we visited as well as the lecture and seminar content of the Yeats International Summer School. As part of the course requirements, all students wrote short analytical essays on the readings and revised one of these assignments for an online presentation.
- John Conroy’s Belfast Diary and Palestine: A Comparison (Fathima Qureshi)
- Wild Spaces in Early Modern Conquest Literature and Yeats’s Early Poetry (Zoraida Dooley)
- The Civil Rights Rhetoric of Bernadette Devlin and Martin Luther King Jr. (Evan Goldstein)
- Civil Rights and the Troubles (Katherine Jerabek)
- The Anglo-Irish Treaty: Borders and Boundaries (Pamela Haas)
- The Contradictions of “The Stolen Child” (Kathryn LaBine)
- Toxic Masculinity in James Joyce’s “Counterparts” and J.M. Synge’s Riders to the Sea (Michael Gole)
- English Colonization and the Stereotype of the Irish Male (Greg Stewart)
- Walls and Language as Tools of Oppression (Kristen Druse)
- J.M. Synge and the Absence of the Essence (Sam Devine)
Projects: Each student prepared a research-based or creative project on the trip, which provided an opportunity to pursue deeper research on a historical or contemporary issue that students could connect to other academic work (e.g. an academic minor or some other outside interest).
Interviews: Each student interviewed someone they met on the trip.