Centre for the Study of Working-Class Lives, Strathclyde

The University of Strathclyde now has a Centre for the Study of Working-Class Lives, with a very impressive team of Colm Breathnach, Neil Davidson and Patricia McCafferty. Something like this is badly needed in "these islands" as witness the Irish interest in the Youngstown Center for Working-Class Studies.

They're launching it on Friday March 11th. The programme's as follows:

09.00–09.45 Registration and Coffee

09.45-09.50 Welcome

Professor Jim McDonald (University of Strathclyde)

09.50-10.00 Introduction

Neil Davidson (University of Strathclyde)

10.00-11.15 Session 1: Why a Centre for the Study of Working Class Lives?

Professor Michael Zweig (Stony Brook University)

11.15–11.30 Refreshment Break

11.30–12.45 Session 2: Class, Work and Deindustrialisation

Dr Tim Strangleman (University of Kent)

12.45–13.45 Buffet Lunch

13.45–15.00 Session 3: The Power of Class: Inequalities, Injuries and Actions in the History of Advanced Capitalism

Professor Michael J. Haynes (University of Wolverhampton)

15.00–16.15 Session 4: Panel Discussion

Geographies of Social Class in 21^st Century Britain

Professor Danny Dorling (University of Sheffield)

Where is the Working Class? Class Agency and Resistance in British Cities

Dr Andrew Cumbers (University of Glasgow)

16.15–16.30 Refreshment Break

16.30–17.45 Session 5: Representations of the Working Class in Contemporary Art and Culture

Gail Day (University of Leeds) and Steve Edwards (The Open University)

17.45-18.00 Reflections on the Conference

Professor Michael Zweig (Stony Brook University)

18.00–19.00 Wine Reception/Informal discussion

Registration is £40 to academics, free to students and non-academics. Email claire.mcconnell AT strath.ac.uk to book.

Religious movements, new and old

Ireland's new religious movements, the first academic overview of the range of new religion in Ireland, has just been published. As opposed to the received wisdom that everyone in Ireland has been born either Catholic or Protestant for centuries, the book shows among other things the growing significance of the rejection of religion (and "lukewarm religion"), the long history of alternative religions in Ireland, the importance of feminism and woman-centre religious movements, the complexities of migrant religion and Ireland's role as a global "Celtic" homeland.
Co-edited by Olivia Cosgrove, Laurence Cox, Carmen Kuhling and Peter Mulholland. Available from Cambridge Scholars at £50 sterling, which is pretty steep but libraries can buy in copies if asked. Full details here.

While the rest of Ireland was competing in building denominational churches (and collaborating in converting the "heathen" under the auspices of the British empire...), a number of Irish people travelled to Asia and joined anti-colonial movements both religious and political. One of the most interesting of these was a Dublin-born ex-hobo turned Buddhist monk (and scourge of Christian missionaries), U Dhammaloka (?1856 - ?1914). UCC is celebrating the centenary of his trial for sedition; full details and a ten-minute video are online here. This is also the Irish launch of a special issue of Contemporary Buddhism on the subject.