St Mary’s Professor Wins Academy Grant for Research in New York

Professorial Research Fellow Mary Hickman of the Centre for Irish Studies (CIS) at St Mary’s University, Twickenham has been awarded a British Academy Grant to support her latest research on the Irish diaspora. Prof Hickman, a leading figure in the sociology of the Irish in Britain who teaches on St Mary’s MA Irish Studies programme, will spend part of the coming semester working in the Ireland House Oral History archives at New York University (NYU). Collected since 2005, these interviews by Irish migrants and multi-generational Irish Americans will be systematically analyzed to yield valuable information about changing diasporic identities. Prof Hickman said, “I’m delighted to receive this award because it allows me access to some untapped archives that I want to feed into my next project which compares the changing formation of diasporic Irishness at crucial moments in the history of the USA and Britain.” Well known for her academic publications and public advocacy on the political rights of the Irish diaspora, Prof Hickman’s latest co-edited book, Women and Irish Diaspora Identities is published this month by Manchester University Press. For further information about Prof Hickman’s research contact her by email at mary.hickman@stmarys.ac.uk and engage with her on Twitter at @MaryJHickman