The Centre for Irish Studies and the Embassy of Ireland are happy to announce that the first seminar in our CISA Autumn Seminar Series 2018 will be taking place on September 12 at 16.30-18.00 at Nobelparken, building 1481 room 244.

The seminar series comprises a total of three double lectures, as well as five film screenings with companion lectures. All events are fuelled by snacks and followed by discussions.

Abortion and the Nation: Socio-technical imaginaries of reproductive rights in Ireland

Speaker: Sara Dybris McQuaid, CISA

Associate professor and director of CISA Sara Dybris McQuaid will open the seminar series with a talk on the Irish abortion referendum. In 2018 the Republic of Ireland voted overwhelmingly to repeal the constitutional ban on abortion. In this talk McQuaid first discusses how moral questions of reproduction have been important in making national identity, institutions and discourses in Ireland. Then she will try to demonstrate how the reimagining of reproductive rights in campaigns to #repealthe8th form part of a wider shift in national identity making, in which imagination, practice and technology come together to perform and produce desirable futures.

Associate professor Isabel Kusche on 'Gender Quotas in the 2016 Irish General Election

Speaker: Isabel Kusche, AIAS

The Irish general election of 2016 was the first election in which parties were required to ensure that at least 30 per cent of their candidates were women. The talk will outline the political reasons for introducing the gender quota and analyse some of its effects. On the one hand, it will look at the chances for women to get elected to the Irish parliament. On the other hand, it will draw on existing research about gendered political campaigning and ask whether there were differences between male and female candidates in how they tried to appeal to potential voters.