Irish Music Studies has a long and venerable tradition in Ireland. What I term ‘Critical Irish Music Studies’ is a way of approaching the study of Irish (traditional) music (its production/reception, historiography, political economy, aesthetics, identity politics, etc) using critical and cultural theory to prise apart the discourse (and its relationship to practice) and to explore different ways of conceiving and thinking about/performing Irish Music. For more on the MA in Irish Music Studies, click here.
Recent publications include an article in the 2017 Australasian Journal of Irish Studies on the little-known 20th century vocal pedagogue and ethnic entrepreneur, Cecilia Curtin, who frequently performed at events patronized by Archbishop Daniel Mannix (originally from Charleville and famous for his long episcopacy in Melbourne). The research was supported by the 2016 O’Donnell Research Fellowship in Irish Studies at the O’Donnell Library, Newman College, University of Melbourne.
Currently I’m writing about the staging and performance of Irish music in Chicago from diasporic, ethnic, civic and contemporary global perspectives.
