Jesse has been a stellar participant in this program since the first meeting. He has had near perfect attendance,
takes detailed notes for his portfolio, and has consistently risen to the challenge of doing graduate-level work as an
undergraduate. Through it all, he has maintained a deep connection to the program materials, kept in
communication with his faculty, and helped dramatically in building a strong sense of community among his
colleagues. As a seminar participant, he regularly contributed important and insightful comments each week,
asking excellent questions and provoking thoughtful answers. Rebecca Chamberlain, his fall quarter seminar leader
, wrote "in my opinion, Jesse was the most effective and well-rounded student in my fall seminar. He exhibited
advanced depth and insight ... a good critical thinker ... he focused on information that might have been
marginalized or overlooked." The same qualities characterize Jesse's winter quarter work as well; both faculty noted
with surprise that Jesse is new to college.
Jesse's writing is a main outlet for the expression of his ideas; he writes forcefully and clearly, and is easily able to
draw in and integrate seemingly disparate issues. Rebecca Chamberlain noted that "Most of Jesse's writing was
densely-packed theoretical discussion; he pushed himself to develop a more refined and concise essay writing
technique. He was eager to incorporate constructive criticism." In winter quarter, his analyses were easily among
the best of the seminar; he thinks carefully about theoretical issues and draws out important conclusions from the
material, often hearkening back to material from fall quarter or from his background knowledge. It is exciting and
inspiring to see a student absorb so much in such a short period of time, as Jesse has done, and actually use the
knowledge he has acquired as he has allowed himself to change and develop.
Jesse took a take-home exam requiring eleven pages of essay-type responses in each of the two quarters. In each
quarter, it was one of the best of the seminar and was set aside by faculty for new students to use as an example of
how to write an exam well. Jesse's exam writing was truly tone setting for the faculty, as an example of the kind of
outstanding work that could be done with the materials we provided. In fall quarter, his seminar faculty wrote "[his]
exam followed themes (boundaries, crossings, cycles and gyres, cross-fertilizations, hybridization) that tie oppositions
together and that hold the center. [He] finds the linking nodules between various dichotomies. This is a mature,
responsible perspective, valuable not only to our program and seminar, but important for our world." In winter, his
work was elegantly integrative, invoking the presence of Celtic gods and goddesses into the mundane worlds of the
characters in the program films, texts, poetry, and seminar. At the risk of speaking too much about program materials,
Jesse's exam read like the embodiment of the Irish concept of Tir na nOg, where past, present and future combine
and the mundane links easily with the otherworldly.
Each student was required to converse in Gaelic, recite poetry, tell a story, and create two illuminated manuscripts.
In both quarters, Jesse easily was able to do his Gaelic poem (Mise Rafterai), and showed his mastery of the basic
phrases with good pronunciation and strong links to the culture. In winter, his pronunciation was perfect again and
he added more intermediate phrases. His poetic recitations were clear and evocative, and he seemed just as
comfortable in oral-poetic mode as in normal speaking mode. He is particularly good at making connections between
the poetry and the culture; the poems he selected revolved closely around the theme of fecundity, an apt topic for
Irish culture. His story was "How Cormac Found the Golden Cup." As with the poems, he was able to present it to the
class as if he'd known it all his life. He spoke calmly and clearly, projected his voice well, and had no hesitation.
Lastly, his illuminated manuscripts were done on a computer, but were beautifully designed and finished. He may
want to do more of this work by hand to get more access to the meditative quality of life that the Irish monks
experienced in working by hand.
As part of his work in the mode of orality as opposed to literacy, Jesse participated in several large-scale end-of-term
collaborative performances with other students. In fall quarter, his two performances were a Yeats play (Cathleen
Ni Houlihan) and an enactment of a Celtic ritual. He played a lead dramatic role in both productions, worked very
hard, and worked on all phases of the production, including gathering extensive props. His creativity, sense of
organization, and overall skill were quite good for each production, and he made himself known to the members of
his program who were not in his seminar. In winter quarter he also worked in two productions; one successful and
the other less so. In the less-successful production, he and several other students read a series of statistics about
American prison life with music playing so loudly that their words were unintelligible. The connection to the
program was not clarified. In the much more successful performance, Jesse acted as Mr. Townsend, the father of a
young sports star, in the Eugene O'Neill play "Abortion." His acting was very effective, and he was appropriately
smug and fatherly to the actor playing his son. Jesse is a very good actor and should use his skill and interest next
quarter to bring some aspect of the works of James Joyce onto the stage, at least within the context of his next
program. I have greatly enjoyed working with Jesse this term, and I hope to have the opportunity to do so again in
the near future.
SUGGESTED COURSE EQUIVALENCIES (in quarter hours) - TOTAL: 32
*4 - Irish America: History, Literature, and Politics
*4 - History of England and Ireland
*8 - 20th Century Ireland: History, Literature, and Politics
*8 Irish Language and Culture: Music, Philosophy, and Spirituality
*4 - Irish Literature
4 - Oral and Performance Traditions
(*Denotes upper division credit)
PERSPECTIVES ON IRELAND
Fall/Winter 1997-98 Program Description
This program was developed as advanced level work with a strong balance of intensive, comprehensive reading with
knowing works for performance by heart. The program included selected Irish works of non-fiction, poetry, film,
literature, music, and an introduction to the Gaelic language. The fall term was structured as follows: in the first
week, the students received a basic introduction to Ireland and to issues of orality and literacy. In the second week,
the focus was on the poetry of William Butler Yeats and on developing skills in understanding poetry. The class spent
several weeks on the culture of ancient Ireland, focusing on spirituality, bardic traditions, and gender. A week spent
on the Potato Famine and subsequent series of evictions and political unrest led to several more weeks of learning
about the history of Irish politics and expressive works in the early 20th century. Winter quarter was divided into
four blocks of study: early 20th century Ireland, Irish America, late 20th century Ireland, and Ireland's contemporary
cultural explosion. In each quarter, the students divided into teams to prepare for a collaborative performance in
the-tenth week; it was the main expressive assignment of each quarter. Students received a take-home
examination in the eighth week requiring eleven typed pages of response on such problems as linking different
concepts or names, contextualizing quotes from program materials, and answering essay questions. The four faculty
included Sean Williams (ethnomusicology and Gaelic language), Patrick Hill (spirituality and philosophy), Charles
Teske (literature and linguistics), and Rebecca Chamberlain (storytelling and art). Lectures in fall quarter included
such titles as "Sacred Springs, Holy Waters" (Chamberlain), "English and Irish Historiography of the Famine" (Hill),
"Gaelic Ways of Shaping Cosmology" (Williams), and "The Poetry of W.B. Yeats" (Teske). In winter quarter, lectures
included "The European Union and Irish Identities" (Hill), "On Contemporary Irish Poetry" (Teske), "Character and
Dialogue" (Chamberlain), and "Irish-American Music," (Williams). Williams and Chamberlain led a series of
workshops on old style Gaelic singing, and on the development and performance of stories, respectively. Other
events included lectures on the Celtic Calendar by Linda Vail, a lecture and performance by Irish musician
Mick Moloney, individual creation of two illuminated manuscripts in early Celtic style, a workshop on Irish set
dancing, a full day of student presentations of traditional stories, and seminar assignments requiring the analysis
of an Irish proverb, the telling of a family emigration story, and a presentation by each student on a particular Irish
writer.
Each week featured two seminars: one on the book of the week (requiring a short written response), and one for the
integration of the week's work. In fall quarter, students created a short integrative paper at the end of each week,
which was expected to be comprehensive, integrative, and personal about the entire week. In winter, the
integrative papers covered each of the first three blocks of study. Program activities also included faculty lectures,
films, Gaelic lessons, poetry, music, and group discussion; and presentations and workshops. At the end of the fifth
week of fall quarter the students developed a larger integrative paper that covered the first five weeks of the program,
and they wrote a similar paper for the tenth week of class, covering the entire quarter. All students maintained a
program portfolio containing notes of discussions, Gaelic language, films, poems, songs, and readings, all program
materials, weekly papers, exams, integrative essays, and journal entries. Students were required to recite from
memory poems by W.B. Yeats, Eavan Boland, Seamus Heaney, and a Gaelic poem ("Mise Rafterai") by Antony
O'Rafterai, and engage in Gaelic small talk for their final evaluations in each quarter.
The program used the following readings: Breandan O hEithir's A Pocket History of Ireland, Charles Teske's
"Orality and Literacy," "Notes on Poetry," and "That Old Time Linguistics" articles, William B. Yeats' Collected
Poems, Kevin Collins' The Cultural Conquest of Ireland, Thomas Kinsella's The Tain, Mary
Condren's The Serpent and the Goddess, Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization,
Thomas Gallagher's Paddy's Lament, Margaret Ward's Unmanageable Revolutionaries, Sean O'
Casey's Three Plays, and James Joyce's Dubliners. In winter quarter the texts were, James Joyce's
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes: a Memoir, Hasia Diner's
Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the 19th Century, Peter Quinn's Banished
Children of Eve: a Novel of Civil War New York, Mary Robinson's speech titled "Cherishing the Irish Diaspora,"
excerpts from Elizabeth Eisenstein's The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Padraig O'Malley's
Biting at the Grave: the Irish Hunger Strikes and the Politics of Despair, Richard Kearney's
Post-Nationalist Ireland: Politics, Culture, and Philosophy, Seamus Heaney's Selected Poems, 1966-1987,
Eavan Boland's An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967 - 1987, and Rosemary Mahoney's Whoredom
in Kimmage: Irish Women Coming of Age.
Program films -- discussed in seminar and written about in integrative papers and exams -included "The History of
Ireland," "Man of Aran," "The Penal Days," "The Curse of Cromwell," "St. Patrick: a Biography," "A Guide to Celtic
Monasteries," "The Secret of Roan Inish,"'When Ireland Starved," "Eamonn Kelly: Storyteller," "Mother Ireland,"
"Juno and the Paycock," and "The Dead" in fall quarter. In winter quarter, the films included "The Field," "Some
Mother's Son," "Riverdance - Live in New York," "Understanding Northern Ireland," "Corrymeela," "Into the West,"
'The Informer," "Out of Ireland," "The Molly Maguires," "The Bells of St. Mary's," "Did Your Mother Come from Ireland?"
and "The Last Hurrah." Students also either read, performed, or otherwise encountered plays such as "Riders to the
Sea" (John M. Synge), "The Ice Man Cometh" and "Abortion" (Eugene O'Neill), "The Rising of the Moon" (Lady Gregory),
"The Famine" (Thomas Murphy), "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" (W.B. Yeats), "Translations," "Molly Sweeney," and
"Philadelphia, Here I Come!" (Brian Friel). At the close of winter quarter, approximately one third of the class
prepared to spend spring quarter in Ireland (representing the final segment of Perspectives on Ireland) with Patrick
Hill, while the rest either went into related programs ("Studies in Ethnomusicology and Ethnopoetics: The Celtic
World," taught by Sean Williams and Rebecca Chamberlain, and "James Joyce," taught by Charles Teske), or
continued their studies elsewhere.