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.
Sample publications includes 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.
I’ve also recently published ’Crossroads of Art and Design: Musically Curating and Mediating Irish Cultural Artifacts in Chicago’ in Eire/Ireland Journal Of The Irish American Cultural Institute, (54) 1&2 :82-109, and “Ireland: History, Culture, and Geography of Music” and “Ireland: Modern and Contemporary Performance Practice” in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, ed. J. Sturman.Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, pp.1194-1200 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n383& http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n384
Currently I’m writing about the staging and performance of Irish music in Chicago from diasporic, ethnic/racial, civic and historical perspective from a contemporary, ethnographic standpoint.
