My name is John Maher and as a Chair of the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies I want to offer from South East Technological University a Céad Mile Fáilte to Professor Anna Branach Kallas for being the first speaker at the inaugural Three Sisters Lecture Series. The 2024 series marks 75 years since Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada in 1949, following two referenda in the previous year.
We are deeply grateful to the Canadian Embassy in Ireland for their support for this lecture series and for the insightful remarks of chargé d’affaires Elizabeth Rice Maden regarding the depth and breadth of the relationship across communications, flight, literature, politics and trade between our peoples over the last 5 centuries. Thanks to David Kyffin for your cooperation in obtaining this commitment. Thank you, Dr Fiona Ennis for hosting this lecture for your English literature students in the School of Humanities here in Waterford.
Professor Veronica Campbell has commended the organisers of this series and expressed her gratitude to the guest lecturers for giving of their time and expertise as our students explore Canadian themes in the selected topics. She warmly acknowledged the support of the Canadian Embassy, and the recognition this gives to the connections between Ireland and Canada, and between the South East and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Professor Anna Branach Kallas holds a chair in the Department of Anglophone Literature Culture and Comparative studies at the Nicholas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. She has published several books, including, most recently, Decolonizing the Memory of the First World War: The Poetics and Politics of Centenary Interventions (Routledge 2024). She was awarded scholarships and research bursaries from at home and abroad and served as a Principal investigator in several funded projects. She received the Pierre Savard Award for the best international text from the International Council of Canadian Studies (the ICCS) in 2014. She continued to promote Canadian studies thereafter and is currently the incoming president of the ICCS.
Professor Kallas will deliver her presentation and stimulate our thinking She would welcome further discussion on its conclusion. We appreciate the initiative of Kieran Cronin in the Luke Wadding Library for assembling a set of reading guides for this series. These you may avail of for further scholarly exploration and inquiry.
Witamy Anna.
John Maher
Chair of the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies
Mr John Maher
Department of accounting & economics
South East Technological University
Executive Director - International Council for Canadian Studies
Council Member Association of Canadian Studies in Ireland
Email: john.maher@setu.ie