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 Míle Fáilte agus míle buiochas to Dr Maria Löschnigg for being a speaker in 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 can learn from studying changes in sovereignty which occur after consulting by way of referendum the people affected.
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 Counsellor David Kyffin for his cooperation in obtaining this commitment of support in words and in treasure. Thank you, Kieran Cronin for hosting this lecture on behalf of the Luke Wadding Library and its outreach programme to the community in SETU and in its hinterland. Weare honoured to have Dr Löschnigg present to Dr Fiona Ennis’s English literature students on our Bachelor of Arts degree here at SETU Waterford.
Professor Veronica Campbell, our University’s president, has commended the organisation of this series. She has expressed her sincere gratitude to the guest lecturers for giving of their time and expertise as our students and community explore Canadian themes of 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.
Our speaker today Professor Löschnigg is a member of the Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Graz in Austria. She has written widely on Canadian themes in literature including drama, poetry, short stories and novels, and representations of the environment and marginalised groups within them. She has contributed to several edited volumes in this domain and presented at conferences in Europe and in Canada. In 2024 the International Council for Canadian Studies recognised the outstanding quality of her 2023 text The Routledge Introduction to the Canadian Short Story and granted her the Pierre Savard award for best international title in Canadian Studies published in English.
Maria will deliver her presentation and stimulate our thought on the human experience and condition reflected in the art form of the short story. We can obtain an international perspective on what is being expressed by writers living in communities across the vast territory that is Canada. They exhibit the traditions and culture of the milieu in which they now reside, drawing meaning from their neighbours and their own circumstances and in a nation of diversity often integrating them with memories from their locations of origin. She would welcome your perspective on these phenomena and wishes that this lecture will contribute to your personal development and appreciation of literature in this field. We appreciate the initiative of Kieran Cronin for assembling a set of reading guides for this series. These you may avail of for further exploration and inquiry in the weeks and months ahead.
Beannachtaí na nDéise ort, Maria. Bainfaimid tortha agus taitneamh as do sár-shaothar a léirionn tú inniu.
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