Fall 2022
Karolina Rosiak, Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Karolina Rosiak, Adam Mickiewicz, The Role of language attitudes and ideologies in minority language learning motivation. December 2nd. 5pm, Kates Room, Warren House.
Winter/Spring 2021
Brent Miles, Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Brent Miles, University of Toronto. The Just and Unjust King: Treatises on Biblical Kingship from Medieval Ireland. April 30, Online.
Kim Mcone, Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Kim Mcone, Maynooth University, Mocking the Afflicted: Morals and Missing Body-Parts in the Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig and Waltharius. April 16, Online.
Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Scottish Highland Second Sight: A Second Look. February 26, Online.
Deirdre N Chonghaile Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Deirdre N Chonghaile. The Rev. Daniel J. Murphy Archive: Reconfiguring the Cultural History of Irish-speakers in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Janurary 21, Online.
Fall Speakers 2020
Bo Almqvist and Mícheál Ó Gaoithín, Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Bo and Micheál: Collection and Connection—A Swedish Folklorist and a Kerry Storyteller. November 24, 3pm. Online
Jerry Hunter, Aled Llion Jones, Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by
Jerry Hunter: The Four Branches of the Mabinogi: What Kinds of Windows on Which Ages?
Aled Llion Jones: Martin Buber Translates the Mabinogi: Myth, Legend or Literature? Wednesday November 20th. Online
David Stifter
The Dark Sides of the Moon and Every Other Heavenly Thing under the Sun in Medieval Irish Tradition
October 23, 2020, Online
Fall Speakers 2019
Aled Llion Jones. Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Aled Llion Jones, Bangor University
9/13/2019 4:30pm to 6:00pm, Barker Center Room 133
Douglas Hyde, Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature & Culture. Harvard and the Irish Revival: Douglas Hyde's 1905-06 American Tour
Friday, October 25, 2019, 3:30pm to 5:00pm Barker Center Room 110
John Bollard, Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature & Culture. Cymru Dafydd ap Gwilym / Dafydd ap Gwilym's Wales with John Bollard, Independent Scholar
Friday, November 22, 2019, 4:30pm to 6:00pm, Kates Room, Warren House 201
Spring Speakers 2019
Fall Speakers 2018
Winter Speakers, 2018
Roy Flechner
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Roy Flechner, University College, Dublin ”Pseudo-Origen and the Earliest Irish World Chronicle ”
Thursday, March 1, 2018 - 4:30pm Room 201, Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA. 02138
Geraldine Parsons
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Geraldine Parsons, University of Glasgow”The Cáma enigma: re-reading the opening of Acallam na Senórach ”
Thursday, February 1st, 2018, 4:30 pm Barker Center, Room 133 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA. 02138
Fall Speakers, 2017
Margo Griffin Wilson
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Margo Griffin Wilson, University of Cambridge “Editing and interpreting Teallach coisreagtha críoch Bharrach (c. 1600): A bardic poem to Dáibhídh de Barra ”
Friday, Septermber 22, 2017 - 4:30pm Kates Room, Warren House Room 201.
Dorothy Africa
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Dorothy Africa, Harvard University “Telling a Book and its Cover: medieval western book construction”
Friday, Nov. 3 at 4:30, 2017 - 2 Arrow St. room 420.
Sìm Innes
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Sìm Innes University of Glasgow “Pastorals for Warriors?: The 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment and Gaelic poetry”
Friday, November 17th, 2017 at 4:3o Kates Room, Warren House, Room 201
Winter/Spring Speakers, 2017
Huw Pryce
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Huw Pryce, Bangor University “History and Legend: Remembering Rulers in Medieval Wales”
Friday, November 10th, 2017 - 4:30pm Barker Center 133.
Aidan Doyle
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Aidan Doyle, University College Cork, "Language and Religion in Ireland: 1800-1870"
Friday, February 17th 2017 - 4:30pm Room 201 Warren House
Bryan Frykenberg
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Brian Frykenberg. Independent Scholar, "Evocations of Immortality: Interpreting Suibhne's Praise of the Garbh"
Friday, February 24th 2017- 4:30pm Barker Center 133
Nancy Edwards
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Nancy Edwards, Bangor University, "Early Medieval Wales: Material Evidence and Identity"
Thursday, March 9 at 5:00 in Kates Room, Warren 201
Tudur Hallam
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Tudur Hallam. "The poetics of biculturalism: lessons from Wales: Dylan Thomas and Saunders Lewis"
Friday, March 24 at 4:30 in Barker Center 133
Margo Griffin-Wilson
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Margo Griffin-Wilson, University of Cambridge. "Recognition and Reconciliation in an Irish Bardic Poem of Petition"
Friday, April 7 at 4:30 in Barker 133
Margaret Lloyd
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Margaret Lloyd, Springfield College, "Travelling on My Own Errands: Voices of Women from The Mabinogi"
Thursday April 20 at 5:00 in Kates Room, Warren 201
Fall Speakers, 2016
Peredur Lynch
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Peredur Lynch, Bangor University “Welsh Poetry and Neuroscience”
Friday, November 4th, 2016 - 4:30pm Barker Center 133.
Winter/Spring Speakers, 2016
Natasha Sumner
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Natasha Sumner, Harvard University “Fionn mac Cumhaill from the Revival to the Big Screen”
Friday, April 22nd, 2016 - 4:30pm Room 420, Two Arrow street
Colmán Ó Clabaigh
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Colmán Ó Clabaigh, Glenstal Abbey and Boston College “Daughters of Eve: Women and Religion in Late Medieval Ireland”
Friday, April 8, 2016 - 4:30pm Room 201, Warren House
Matthieu Boyd
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Matthieu Boyd, Fairleigh Dickinson University "On Not Eating Dog"
Thursday, March 3, 2016 - 4:30pm Room 114, Barker Center
Chris Killip
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Chris Killip, Harvard University "On Being Manx"
Friday, February 26, 2016 - 4:30pm Room 133, Barker Center
Edel Bhreathnach
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Edel Bhreathnach, Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland "Kings, Ceremonies, and Landscapes: Understanding the Royal Sites of Ireland"
Friday, February 19, 2016 - 4:30pm Room 133, Barker Center
Fall Speakers, 2015
Vera Kreilkamp & Diana Larson
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Vera Kreilkamp & Diana Larson, of Boston College. Planning "The Arts and Crafts Movement: Making it Irish"
Friday, Dec. 4th at 4:30 in Barker 133. 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Dr. Katharine K. Olson
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Dr. Katharine K. Olson, of Bangor University. "The Seven Journeys of the Soul": Women, Manuscript Culture, and the Apocalypse in Medieval and Renaissance Wales and Ireland"
Friday, Nov. 6th at 4:30 in Barker 133. 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Christopher Loveluck
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Christopher Loveluck of the University of Nottingham. "Atlantic Networks and Social Change in the Early Medieval West: Western Britain and Ireland in an Expanding Archaeological Context, c. AD 400-1200"
Thursday, Nov. 19th at 4:30 in Warren House 201. 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
E. Wyn James
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Professor E. Wyn James, School of Welsh, Cardiff University and Co-Director of the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies. "Identity, Immigration and Assimilation: The Case of the Welsh Settlement in Patagonia"
Friday, Sept. 11 at 4:00 in Barker 133. 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Winter/Spring, 2015
1st Harvard Breton Workshop
Université Rennes 2 and the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Presents: the 1st Harvard Breton Workshop.
11 - 14 May 2015, 9:30 am to 5pm. Kates Room, Room 201, Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA. For a complete shedule click here - Breton Workshop Schedule
Natasha Sumner, Thesis Defense
The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures presents: Natash Sumner of Harvard University.
A thesis presentation and defense by Natasha Sumner. 'The Fenian Narrative Corpus, c.600 - c.2000' on Wednesday, May 6 from 1:00-3:00. Kates Room, Room 201, Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA.
Feargal Ó Béarra
The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures Presents: Feargal Ó Béarra of the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Please join us in welcoming Feargal Ó Béarra of the Department of Irish, National University of Ireland, Galway, who will be visiting our Department on Thursday, April 30, 4:00 p.m. Feargal Ó Béarra will be giving a talk entitled Author, audience, and tradition in medieval Irish literature: listening afresh to Síaburcharpat Con Culainn. Then the following day, Friday, May 1st, at 11 am in the Kates Room, he will offer a seminar entitled An introduction to Irish palaeography, and to the transition from Old to Middle Irish as exemplified by Cath Almaine. Room 201, Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA.
Joseph Nagy
The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures Presents: Joseph Nagy of UCLA.
Please join us in welcoming Prof. Joseph Nagy of UCLA who will be visiting our Department. On Wednesday, April 22 at 4 pm, Prof. Nagy will give a talk in the Kates Room entitled Fráech and Fungibility in an Early Irish Saga. Then the following day, Thursday, April 23, also at 4 pm in the Kates Room, he will offer a seminar on Táin Bó Fraích. Room 201, Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA.
Neil McLeod
The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures Presents: Neil McLeod of Murdoch University.
Please join us in welcoming Prof. Neil McLeod of Murdoch University who will be visiting our Department April 8-10. On Wed. April 8 at 4 pm, Prof. McLeod will give a talk in the Kates Room entitled The political context of the Middle Irish tale Cath Crinna. Then the following day, Thursday, April 9, also at 4 pm in the Kates Room, he will offer a seminar on Irish metrics. Room 201, Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA.
Maureen Murphy
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Maureen Murphy, Hofstra University .
"Asenath Nicholson and the Great Irish Famine"
Friday, March 27, 2015 - 4:30pm Room 201, Kates room Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Aled Llion Jones
Celtic GSAS Seminars & Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar by Aled Llion Jones, Bangor University
"Poets, Princes, Grammar, Death: reading the Gogynfeirdd with Heidegger."
Thursday March 26, 2015 - 4:30 in 133 Barker. 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Frances Ludlow
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Frances Ludlow, Yale University.
'Extreme Weather, Violence and Conflict in Medieval Irish Chronicles’
Thursday, February 5th , 2015 - 4:30pm Kates room Warren House, 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Winter/Spring, 2014
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Brian Frykenberg
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Brian Frykenberg, Museum of Printing.
"'The Death of the Wild-Man' in the Legend of Suibhne Geilt"
Thursday, February 20, 2014 - 4:30pm Room 201, Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Matthieu Boyd
Celtic GSAS Seminars & Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar by Matthieu Boyd, Fairleigh Dickinson University.
"Seven Ways of Looking at the Barzaz Breiz."
Tuesday, February 25th, 2014 - 5pm, Room 201 Warren House 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Sim Innes
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Sìm Innes, University of Glasgow.
'The Minority Language Stage: Shakespeare’s Scottish Play in Scottish Gaelic’
Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 4:30pm Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
Fall, 2013
Liam Breatnach
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Liam Breatnach, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Fíngen mac Flainn’s poem to the Fir Arddae: an early medieval Irish threat of satire
Thursday Oct. 3rd, 4:30 pm, Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Geraint Evans
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Geraint Evans, Swansea University
Robert Southwell and Welsh Printing in Paris, c. 1610
Friday Sept. 6th, 4:30 pm, Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
This paper discusses the work of Roger Smyth, a Welsh Catholic exile who lived in Paris, where he translated and printed four books in Welsh between 1609 and 1615. One of these is a Welsh version of Robert Southwell’s 'Letter to His Father', which had circulated in English since the 1590s in both manuscript and print. A single copy of this Welsh translation has survived, in a library in Paris, and the book was completely unknown until it was recatalogued in the 1990s. In addition to the translation of Southwell’s text the book contains a short preface of dedication, in Welsh, which has yet to be reprinted or translated. This paper will describe the rediscovered book, locate its production in the context of recusant printing in Welsh and English, and examine the text of the letter of dedication from Roger Smyth to Morgan Clynog in south Wales.
Helen Fulton
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture by Helen Fulton, University of York
Troy on the Medieval March of Wales: The Welsh Troy Story and the Middle English Seege or Batayle of Troy
Thursday Sept. 5th, 4:30 pm, Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
This paper links the Middle Welsh version of the Troy story, compiled in the early 14th century, to the Middle English poem Seege or Batayle of Troy, composed around the same time. Unlike other medieval English versions of the Troy story, both are based on the Latin text of Dares Phrygius. The paper argues that both texts represent Welsh Marcher interpretations of the story for local audiences.
Jerry Hunter
Celtic Languages and Literatures seminar by Jerry Hunter,
School of Welsh, Bangor University, Wales
(Re)writing Welsh Literary History: big questions and small answers
Wednesday Sept. 4th, 4:30 pm, Kates Room, Warren House, Room 201, 2nd Floor, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Spring, 2013
Elizabeth FitzPatrick
Friday, 12 April, 4:30 pm: Dr. Elizabeth FitzPatrick, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, NUI Galway, “Assembly Places, Hunting and Wild Animal Coursing in Medieval Gaelic Ireland”, Kates Room (Rm. 201), Warren House, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Nancy Netzer
Thursday, April 25, 2013, 4:30 p.m. Barker Center Rm. 133, 12 Quincy St. Cambridge MA. :Nancy Netzer, Professor of Art History, Fine Arts Department; Director, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, “The Book of Durrow: Old Story amidst New Discoveries”.
Fall 2012
William Nolan
Thursday, September 13, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: William Nolan, (Emeritus Professor of Geography, University College Dublin), “Young Ireland, The Nation, and the Irish language in the 1840s,” Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Elizabeth Fitzpatrick
Friday, October 19, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: Dr. Elizabeth FitzPatrick, (Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway and Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University),
“The mindful past: exploring ways of finding medieval Gaelic royal demesnes in Ireland,” Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Sarah Covington
Friday, November 16, 2012, 4:30 p.m.:Associate Professor Sarah Covington, (Department of History, Queens College), “The Irish Afterlives of Oliver Cromwell: Folklore, Memory, and Landscape, 1650-1800,” Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Elizabeth A. Gray
Friday, December 7, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: Dr. Elizabeth A. Gray, (Harvard University), “Visible Raven, Virtual Wolf: Deirdre as Satirist and Fénnid in Longes mac n-Uislenn,” Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Spring 2012
Dr. Daniel G. Williams
Thursday, March 1, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: Dr. Daniel Williams (Swansea University and Harvard University), "Convergence and Divergence in African American and Celtic Studies," Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Dr. Katherine Olson
Thursday, March 29, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: Dr. Katherine Olson (Bangor University and Harvard University), "Religious Identities, Cultural Reorientation, and the Literary Tradition in Britain and Ireland, c.1435-c.1700: The Case of Wales," Kates Room, 201 Warren House, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Dr. Barbara Hillers
Thursday, April 12, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: Dr. Barbara Hillers (Harvard University), "‘The Wandering of Ulysses’ and the Makings of Early Irish Literature," Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Professor E. Wyn James
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: Professor E. Wyn James (Cardiff University and Harvard University), "Images of Slavery and Welsh Print Culture," Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Dr. Paul Russell
Thursday, May 3, 2012, 4:30 p.m.: Dr. Paul Russell (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge), "In aliis libris: adaption and reworking in the commentaries to Amrae Coluimb Chille," Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Fall 2011
Fiona Dunn
Thursday, February 17, 2011, 4:30 p.m.: Fiona Dunn (Gaelic Language Officer, University of Glasgow), "Minority Language Policy and Planning: The Promotion of Scottish Gaelic in Higher Education," Warren House 201 (Kates Room), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Francis Ludlow
Thursday, October 20, 2011, 4:30 p.m.: Francis Ludlow (Trinity College and Harvard University), "Exploring the Reliability and Potential of the Environmental Record in the Irish Annals, c.425–1650AD", Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Professor David Dumville
Thursday, September 22, 2011, 4:30 p.m., Professor David Dumville (University of Aberdeen), "In Conversation with an Irish Penguin: What is Mediaeval Gaelic Poetry?", Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Spring 2011
Bryan Carella
Thursday, February 17, 2011, 4:30 p.m.: Assistant Professor Bryan Carella (Department of English, Assumption College), "Irish Vernacular Law and the New Testament: Pseudo-history and Gentile Identity in Early Irish Legal Thought," Warren House 201 (Kates Room), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Professor Rory McTurk
Friday, April 8, 2011, 4:30 p.m.: Professor Rory McTurk (Visiting Professor, Department of English, University of New Mexico; Emeritus Professor of Icelandic Studies, School of English, University of Leeds), "Ferguson’s Fight with the Worm: an Ulsterman’s Viking Death-Song," Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Fall 2010
Dr. Paul Russell
Friday, September 24, 2010, 4:30 pm: Dr. Paul Russell (University of Connecticut, Storrs, and University of Cambridge), "Etmic Dinbych: some thoughts on editing an early Welsh poem," Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Assistant Professor Brendan Kane
Thursday, October 28, 2010, 4:30 pm: Assistant Professor Brendan Kane (Department of History, University of Connecticut), "Irish Views of England and London, 1500–1660," Warren House, Kates Room (2nd Floor), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Dr. Jerry Hunter
Friday, November 19, 2010, 4:30 pm: Dr. Jerry Hunter (School of Welsh, Bangor University), "Byd Anafus–Staging Anarchy: Folk Culture and Popular Drama in Early-Modern Wales," Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA