Wednesday, February 10, 9.00AM EST/2.00PM IRISH TIME
Dramatists, scholars, and disability activists have started taking an interest in a deaf Irishwoman who was once considered the premiere national playwright of her day: Teresa Deevy. Interest in her life and works has taken different shapes, from those drawn to her representations of women living circumscribed lives in 1930s Ireland to those who want to recover a neglected history of deaf artistry. In a series of panels, we ask what it means to look in the archives for a writer as elusive as Deevy. Where do we find information about Deevy and her work, and how is this quest inflected by the needs of the present moment? This symposium will include discussions between archivists, scholars, theatre historians, disability activists, performance artists, and directors to examine the various ways of finding Deevy in a historical record that has too often blotted her out.
The symposium will be held the week of February 8-12 to precede a conference on Deevy’s work (Active Speech) organized by the Waterford Institute of Technology and Maynooth University. Irish Sign Language interpretation and captioning will be provided.
Columbia's Heyman Center website: http://heymancenter.org/events/disability-and-the-archive-teresa-deevy-in-context/
Participants:
Lauren Arrington (Maynooth University, National University of Ireland)
Hugh Murphy (Maynooth University Archives)
Mairead Delaney (Abbey Theatre)
Lianne Quiqley (Dublin Theatre of the Deaf)
Amanda Coogan (performance artist)
Emily Bloom (Columbia University)
Christopher Morash (Trinity College)
Elizabeth Redwine (Seton Hall University)