UCHI, Irish Studies, and WGSS Present:
Ireland and the Making of America
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 9:30am–4:30pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room (HBL 4-209)
With the support of the Clinton Institute at University College Dublin and as part of a cross-Atlantic series to mark America’s 250th anniversary, UCHI, Irish Studies, and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies will host an event under the project’s umbrella title of “Ireland and the Making of America.”
Participants will critically examine how Irish peoples took a stake in the American national story and their impact on its politics and cultures, from the eighteenth-century Scots-Irish to the poor who fled Ireland’s 1845 famine, and on to the impact of those with Irish ties on America and Ireland into our century.
An American 250 | CT Community Event
Schedule
9:30–10:00am, Gathering & breakfast
Anna Mae Duane, Director, UCHI and Mary Burke, Professor of English, UConn
Welcome and Opening Remarks
10:00-11:00am, Panel 1: Early Irish America
Mary Burke, Professor of English, UConn
“Four Centuries of Irish America”
Wayne Franklin, Professor of English and American Studies, UConn
“Sir William Johnson and the Mixed Landscape of Colonial New York”
11:15am-12:15pm, Panel 2: Performing Irish America
Chris Dowd, Professor of English & Game Design, University of New Haven
“The Irish in American Popular Culture, 1850s-1930s”
Sarah Churchill, Art & Irish studies lecturer; Canadian Centre for Architecture 2026 Fellow
“Butching Up: Dance, Dress, and Gender in Contemporary Irish Dance”
12:15-1:15pm, Lunch
1:15-2:15pm, Panel 3: Irish Dance in America: History & Practice
Rebecca McGowan, Irish dance scholar & practitioner
“Community & Identity in Irish dancing”
Irish dance group workshop for all led by Rebecca McGowan
2:30-3:30pm, Panel 4: The Irish Americans
Grégory Pierrot, Associate Professor of English, UConn
“Marcus Rainsford: Between Ireland and Haiti”
Abby Bender, Director of the Center for Irish Studies, Sacred Heart U
“The Saint Patrick’s Battalion and Irish-Mexican Solidarity”
3:45-4:15pm, Panel 5: Irish Dance in America: History & Practice
Ted Smyth, former Irish diplomat; President, Advisory Board, Glucksman Ireland House, NYU; Chair, Advisory Board, Clinton Institute for American Studies, UCD
“Bringing Peace to Northern Ireland: The Critical Role of Irish America and Successive US Presidents”
4:15pm, Closing Remarks
Ted Smyth
Access note
If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible
