Events
Cosponsors
- Brademas Center (NYU)
- Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation (NYU)
- Department of History (NYU)
- Center for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora (NYU)
- Institute for Public Knowledge (NYU)
- Deans for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NYU)
- UCD Clinton Institute
- African American Irish Diaspora Network (AAIDN)
- Consulate of Ireland (NY)
- Embassy of Ireland (Washington DC)
- NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
- Tenement Museum New York
- Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities
- Irish Network Against Racism (INAR)
- Black and Irish
Organizer
- Glucksman Ireland House and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU
Contact
email address [email protected]
Notes
- Free and open to the public
- Registration required. See details.

People of Irish and African descent have lived in the United States for more than four centuries. Their respective trajectories -- marked by complexity, conflict, and collaboration -- have been shaped by American conceptions of identity, hierarchies of belonging, and access to pathways of upward mobility. The aim of this conference and programing is to examine the constellations of Blackness and Irishness in the history of the United States and beyond and use their example to ponder present conundrums around race, ethnicity, inequality and identity politics.
“Where Do We Go from Here? Revisiting Black Irish Relations and Responding to a Transnational Moment” will take place on three Fridays in November in partnership with NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. The conference will run online on Friday November 5, Friday November 12 and Friday November 19.
Attendees are required to register for each day they plan to attend. The link will work for the entire day. The conference will run from 9am to about 5pm ET each day.
All sessions will be recorded.
Friday, 5 November 2021 (** please note that Ireland is only 4 hours ahead of New York on Nov 5)
10--10.15am ET Opening remarks, Taoiseach of Ireland (head of Irish government) Micheál Martin T.D. followed by conference organizers Kim DaCosta (Gallatin) and Miriam Nyhan Grey (Glucksman). Welcome from NYU by Provost of NYU Katherine E. Fleming.
10.15--11.30am ET Jane Ohlmeyer, Trinity College Dublin, “Irishness, Blackness and the Early Modern World”. Introduced by Provost Fleming.
11.45am--1pm ET Kevin Kenny, New York University, “The American Irish and Race in the Nineteenth Century”. Millery Polyné, New York University.
BREAK
2--3.15pm ET Christine Kinealy, Quinnipiac University, “'Be strikingly genteel': Two Black Women Abolitionists in Ireland, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield and Sarah Parker Remond”. Moderated by Stephen Small, UC Berkeley.
3.30--4.45pm ET Kim DaCosta, New York University, "How the Irish Became Black: Origin Stories, Genealogies and a Usable Past". Moderated by Liam Kennedy, University College Dublin Clinton Institute.
To read the Black, Brown and Green Voices report here
To view a discussion of the project see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lY8m2I8BgQ
For the most up to date details of the conference refer here