EXTRA CREDIT

Dear Students,

I rarely, if ever, give extra-credit, but there are two talks coming up in our English Department that I think warrant this gesture.

Below is an email from John Gleeson detailing the events. To receive extra credit, you will have to attend one of these lectures (duh!) and post an extra blog about it. For this extra credit you will receive either

a) a "free" pass on a blog
0r
b) a "free" pass on comments for a week.
or
c) five points extra credit on your final grade.

Please email me privately as to what option you would like to take in exchange for your extra credit.

A chara, dear friends of Celtic Studies,

You’re warmly invited to be with us for what promises to be a fascinating presentation on the work of Milwaukee’s own Jeremiah Curtin.

'Myths, Tales or Stories? : Jeremiah Curtin's Indian and Irish Collections' will be presented by John Eastlake, from the department of Folklore at University College Cork (Ireland). The presentation will take place in Curtin Hall (named for Jeremiah Curtin), room 368 , at 4:00pm on Thursday, April 22nd .

Ethnologist, folklorist, and ‘mythologist’, Jeremiah Curtin, made a
crucial contribution the development of Irish learning, ethnology and
folklore at the end of the nineteenth century. Curtin (1835-1906) is
one of the more remarkable figures of a period not lacking in
larger-than-life personalities. He was raised in Wisconsin, graduated
Harvard College in 1863, and served in the United States' legation to
Russia in 1864. In 1883 he took a post with the Bureau of American
Ethnology (BAE) in what would become the Smithsonian Institute. He
also worked as a translator, with eventual commercial success,
allowing him to pursue his own interests more freely. His primary
interest throughout his life remained the acquisition of languages for
the purpose of collecting myths and folklore from diverse 'primitive'
cultures. He was purported to have been competent in 70 languages,
including Irish, by the time of his death. His childhood home on 92nd
and Grange is preserved in the care of the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

In this paper, Curtin's fieldwork with Native Americans and in Ireland
will be addressed, paying particular attention to how Curtin evaluated
the myths, tales, stories and other materials he collected.

John Eastlake is an IRCHSS Post-Doctoral Fellow hosted by Roinn an Bhéaloidis in University College Cork. Eastlake completed his PhD in Irish Studies in 2008 at the Centre for Irish Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway. His doctoral work examined the production and reception of collaboratively-produced 'Native autobiographies' representing the life-stories of Irish and Native American authors/subjects.

His new project is entitled: ‘Jeremiah Curtin: Cross-cultural, Collaborative Textual Production of Irish and Native American Mythologies’. This study is evaluating Curtin's Irish publications in comparison with his publications of Native American myths, allowing for a greater understanding of Curtin and his work, and exploring a further instance in the intersections of Native American and Irish cultures.

Eastlake is co-editor of Anáil an Bhéil Bheo: Orality and Modern Irish Culture, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), and has written widely
on Native Autobiographies such as An tOiléanach/The Islandman and Black Elk Speaks.

Also of interest to fans of Celtic Studies, will be a presentation this Friday, April 16th by Daniel Brown, from the Department of English. Daniel will talk about ‘ The Highland Clearances and Politics of Memory’ in Curtin Hall 118 at 3:00pm.

Look forward to seeing you at one or both of these events.

John Gleeson
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