With Shirley Lau Wong, Professor Mary Mullen will present her research on nineteenth-century Ireland at the University of Minnesota in an event titled, "Why Ireland?" on Thursday, March 27. The event will start by showing what we learn by understanding labor, liberalism, and neoliberalism from the vantage point of Ireland in the nineteenth century and in the twenty-first century, respectively. Then, drawing upon individual research, the two speakers will provide more contextualized case studies. Mary Mullen will consider how understanding labor and liberalism in Famine Ireland illuminates the afterlives of slavery in the West Indies. Shirley Lau Wong will examine how contemporary Irish literature provides a unique site for understanding the concept of human capital and its effects on literary and cultural production. Together, the speakers will trace historical continuities and ruptures as they demonstrate how attention to Ireland can elucidate global structures.
