Freedom Proclaimed: Irish Association for American Studies (IAAS) Annual Conference

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Description

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “greatest demonstration for freedom in the history” of America, the Irish Association for American Studies (IAAS) invited papers on the theme of “Freedom Proclaimed” for its annual conference, held at the University of Limerick, 26-27 April 2013.

The necessity of the Emancipation Proclamation marks the tensions within the concept of America as the “sweet land of liberty” and “land of the free.” Conference participants were invited to explore how America’s various proclaimed freedoms – free speech, free expression, free press, free thinkers, free spirits, free love, free trade, free market, freedom of movement, freedom of the road, free exercise of religion, freedom from slavery, and more – connect to and impact upon issues of, for example, race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, ethnicity, and political affiliation. Conference participants were particularly invited to consider the ways and means by which freedom is proclaimed – in speeches, in song, in literature, in images, in action – and, as emphasised by Frederick Douglass in his Narrative . . . Written by Himself, the importance of expressing freedom for experiencing freedom. How do we “let freedom ring”?
Period26 Apr 201327 Apr 2013
Event typeConference
LocationLimerick, IrelandShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational

Keywords

  • American Studies