The IAAS Annual Conference

In 2013, Timothy Garton Ash wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian which stated that: ‘The world no longer needs to discover America; but America urgently needs to discover the world’s view of America.’ Garton Ash was writing about the US budget crisis but three years on, as the new Administration-Elect readies itself to take over the White House, the  IAAS wonders if the America the world thought it knew ever really existed. This year’s conference will challenge us to re-discover and re-engage with America – explore the changing political and cultural landscape, uncover previously unheard voices, challenge conventional wisdom, and examine the role of the academic in a post-factual world. This conference represents a unique opportunity to reorient American Studies, both in Ireland and beyond.

The IAAS (Irish Association for American Studies) was founded in 1970 to promote American studies in Ireland. The founding members included Alan Graham (Queen’s, Belfast), Denis Donoghue (UCD; now NYU), Peggy O’Brien (TCD; now UMass Amherst), and Tony Emmerson (Ulster). Over the decades we have supported successive generations of students and scholars in the universities and colleges across the island in their postgraduate and postdoctoral work and as they set out on their academic careers in American studies.