The School of Irish Studies at Concordia University in Montreal announced last week that Professor Jane McGaughey has been appointed to a five-year term as holder of the Johnson Chair in Quebec and Canadian Irish Studies.
Commenting on her appointment, Prof. McGaughey said, “My first research project as Johnson Chair will be to examine mental illness among Irish migrants and their descendants in nineteenth-century Quebec through cases from the hospital on Grosse Île, the Beauport Lunatic Asylum, l’Hospice St-Jean-de-Dieu at Longue-Pointe, and St John’s Asylum at the St-Jean military barracks.
“For centuries, prejudiced correlations between Irishness and madness thrived in various places around the world, Quebec included. I will investigate how traumatic migratory events such as the cholera epidemics of the 1830s and the Great Irish Famine affected rates of Irish incarceration in Quebec’s asylums.
“I also look forward to increasing the number of graduate students working with me on aspects of the Irish in Quebec, so that we can continue to expand knowledge on the rich contribution of the Irish to the evolution of Quebec over the past three centuries.”
Public round-tables and podcast
Prof. McGaughey plans to hold annual community round-tables between academics and the general public to examine current and historical issues for the Irish in Quebec.
She also wants to begin a podcast series highlighting key Irish people and Irish-related events from the province’s past, which, despite COVID-19, will still allow the public to engage with the community’s rich history and continuing legacy.
Prof. McGaughey received her PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London in 2008 after completing a BA (Hons) and MA at the University of Toronto. She was chosen as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow to spend a year at the Keough Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame in 2009-10.
Appointed as a professor of Irish Diaspora Studies at the School of Irish Studies in 2012, she has taught a range of courses, including The Irish in Canada, The Irish in Montreal, and Rebellions in Ireland and the Canadas.
Among her key publications are: Violent Loyalties: Manliness, Migration, and the Irish in the Canadas, 1798-1841, Ulster’s Men, and co-editor of Ireland and Masculinities in History.
Since 2015, Prof. McGaughey has served as president of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies.
Prof. McGaughey has spoken at several events, including genealogy conferences. If you have an opportunity to attend one of her lectures, I encourage you to do so.
