Program Schedule for the 45th Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium
John V. Kelleher Memorial Lecture
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8th, 2026. 5:00pm
The 22nd John V. Kelleher Lecture is given this year by Professor Barry Lewis of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
The John V. Kelleher Lecture commemorates the fondly remembered Professor of Irish Studies, John Kelleher.
Please refer back to this page for the 45th Harvard Celtic Colloquium Schedule.
October 9-11, 2026. Details to follow.
Barker Center 110, Thompson Room, Harvard University, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA
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44th Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium Schedule
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2025
8:30am Registration and Refreshments
8:55 Opening Remarks (Dolan Wells Gallagher and Rory Yarter, Harvard University)
9:00-10:30 Session One: Grief and Elegy
Chair, Sam Puopolo (Harvard University)
❖ Rachel Martin (Harvard University). A Wild Goose Chase?: Reinterpreting A Mór Maigne Moige Síuil
❖ Georgia Henley (Saint Anselm College). Poetry as History in the B- and C-Texts of Annales Cambriae
❖ Sorcha de Brún (University of Limerick). Wealth and Status in Caoineadh Airt uí Laoghaire
10:30-10:45 Tea/Coffee Break
10:45-11:45 Session Two: Nature in Medieval Irish Poetry and Literature
Chair, Katherine Scheidt (Harvard University)
❖ Dylan R. Cooper (Harvard University). Canait luin laíd láin: Experimental Alliteration and Birdsong in Early Irish Nature Poetry
❖ Natalia Schwien Scott (Harvard University). “Yew, Little Yew, You are Conspicuous in Graveyards": Plants in the Vocative—A Consideration of Buile Shuibhne in Conversation with Decolonial Theory and Kinship Studies
11:45-1:45 Lunch
1:45-3:15 Session Three: Queer Celtic Approaches
Chair, Dolan Wells Gallagher (Harvard University)
❖ Jamie Murphy (University College Dublin). Queer Terminology in Irish: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities
❖ Tony Vitt (Harvard University). Kingship as "Closet": Crises of Masculinity in Togail Bruidne Dá Derga and the Alliterative Morte Arthure
❖ Kit Kapphahn (Aberystwyth University). A Marriage Portion of Poems: Patrons and Poets in Medieval Welsh Panegyric
3:15-3:30 Tea/Coffee Break
3:30-4:45 Keynote: Sarah Zeiser (Harvard University)
Introduction by Catherine McKenna (Harvard University)
Picking a Fight with Daniel Huws: "Welsh" Manuscripts and the Provenance of Lambeth Palace Library MS 1230
5:00-6:00 Reception (Warren House, Kates Room)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2025
8:30-9:00 Coffee, Tea and Pastries
9:00-10:30 Session Four: Irish and Scottish Linguistic Insights
Chair, Dylan R. Cooper (Harvard University)
❖ Roxanne Reddington-Wilde (Cambridge College). An Heretical Proposition: Clan is a Scots Term
❖ Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh (University of Edinburgh). Gaelic Language and Orthography in Dugald MacNicol's Argyll-Caribbean Travel Narrative
❖ Peter McQuillan (University of Notre Dame). Emotion in Irish and the Preposition ar
10:30-10:45 Tea/Coffee Break
10:45-12:15 Session Five: Early Celtic
Chair, Harrison Saunders (Harvard University)
❖Joe Eska (Virginia Tech). Todi 2.0
❖Jo Wolf (University College Cork). Apocope Now!: Celtic During the Early Medieval Apocope Event
❖Joseph Watkins (Boston University). Where the Tin Comes From: Contextualizing the Earliest Greco-Celtic Interactions
12:15-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:30 Session Six: Interpreting Welsh Epic Across the Ages
Chair, Tony Vitt (Harvard University)
❖ Helen Fulton (University of Wales). Epic and Nation-Building in Medieval Wales
❖ Geraint Evans (Swansea University). From the Gododdin to In Parenthesis: Is There a National Epic for Modern Wales?
❖ Maia Williams (Jesus College, University of Oxford). Math uab Mathonwy, Mythology and John Jones of Gellilyfdy: An Alternative Ending of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi
3:30-3:45 Tea/Coffee Break
3:45-5:15 Session Seven: Women in Medieval Irish and Welsh Literature
Chair, Rory Yarter (Harvard University)
❖ Katherine Scheidt (Harvard University). Abortion in Compert Con Culainn
❖ Kit Treadwell (Cambridge University). Gruffudd ap Maredudd and the Women of Welsh Arthurian Romance Literature
❖ Madeline Link (University of Notre Dame). The Treatment of Women as a Marker of Good Governance in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi
5:30-7:30 Conference Dinner
Dumpling House, 950 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge MA
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2025
8:30-9:00 Coffee, Tea and Pastries
9:00-10:00 Session Eight: Satire and Satirists
Chair, Saskia Behrens (Harvard University)
❖ Mark Lindenburg (New York University, American Irish Historical Society). A Reasonable Appeal: Trefhocal Approaches in Finghen mac Flainn’s Poem of Seventy Quatrains
❖ Matthieu Boyd (Fairleigh Dickinson University). Athirne and the Politics of Coercion
10:00-10:15 Tea/Coffee Break
10:15-11:45 Session Nine: Reanalysis and New Insights
Chair, Graham O'Toole (Harvard University)
❖ Marie-Luise Theuerkauf (Harvard University). The Work of Harvard Scholar Charles Arthur Bowen
❖ Charlene Eska (Virginia Tech). The Version of the Tract on Marriage and Divorce Preserved in Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh’s Legal Glossary
❖ Adrian Doyle (Maynooth University). Bastards and Bedding: A Reassessment of Terminology in the Poem Gaib do Chuil isin Carcair, and New Translations
11:45-12:45 Lunch (provided)
12:45-2:15 Session Ten: Language and the Preservation of Tradition
Chair, Lorena Alessandrini (Harvard University)
❖ Tim Swales (Independent Scholar). Writings of William and Caesar Cashin in the Manx Museum
❖ Ciara Ní Riain (Harvard University). Ráiseanna Bhaile Chaisleáin Bhéarra: The Transatlantic Journey of a Nineteenth-century Song from the Beara Peninsula
❖ Cormac Ó hAodha (University College Cork). Amhráin Mhúscraí: A Collaborative Digital Repatriation Initiative
2:15 Closing Remarks
The organizers of the 44th Harvard Celtic Colloquium acknowledge with thanks the support of the Ella Hull Fund, the Friends of Harvard Celtic Studeis, the John V. Kelleher Memorial Lecture Fund, and the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures.