Program – CSANA at StFX, 7-10 MAY 2026 - Mulroney Hall 2032

Participants are reminded that they should have a CSANA membership to speak at the conference. See here for membership details: https://celtic-studies.org/members/ 

Timetable – 7-10 May 2026

Mulroney Hall 2032

Thursday, 7 May 2026

12:00pm-1:00pm Registration

1:15pm-2:45pm: Session 1
Chair: Michael Linkletter (St Francis Xavier University)

• Diùd Sampson (Dalhousie University): Dùthchas ann an Tìr nan Craobh: An Exploration of TEK, Human Ecology and Responsibility to Land Among Gaels in Mi’kma’ki
• Chris Greencorn (Queen's University, ON): An Gàidheal agus an t-Ìnnseanach: Race and Settler Colonialism in Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia
• Cameron Wachowich (University of Cambridge): Absolute and Conjunct: Notes from the Algonquian analogue

2:45pm-3:15pm Coffee Break

3:15pm-4:15pm: Session 2
Chair: Jessica Hemming (The Folklore Society, London)

• Luke Wilkinson (University College Cork): Táin Bó Flidais as Remscéla and the History of Scribal Traditions in Medieval Connacht
• Maio Nagashima (University of Cambridge): Beyond the Remscéla Model: The Episodic Structure of In Cath Catharda

4:15pm-4:45pm Coffee Break 

4:45pm-5:45pm: Session 3
Chair: Joshua Byron Smith (University of Arkansas)

• Anna Pagé (University of Vienna): Constructing a Story World: Linking Strategies and Information Structure in Some Ulster Cycle Stories
• Natasha Sumner (Harvard University): “An expiring controversy… besprinkled with peculiarly acrid ink”: John Francis Campbell, Ossian, and the Celtic Revival

6:15pm: Welcome Reception & Book Celebration – North American Gaels: Speech, Story, and Song in the Diaspora, ed. Natasha Sumner & Aidan Doyle (McGill-Queen’s UP)

Friday, 8 May 2026

8:30am-9:00am: Coffee, tea, fruit & pastries

9:00am-10:30am: Session 4: Cultures and Identities on the Medieval March of Wales
Chair: Helen Fulton (University of Bristol)

• Amy Jones (University of Bristol): Defining People, Defining Boundaries: British and Welsh in the Twelfth Century
• Rachael Harkes (University of Bristol): Communities on the Border: Religious Guild Membership in the Welsh Marches
• Geraint Evans (Swansea University): Welsh-Language Printing along the March of Wales in the Eighteenth Century

10:30am-10:45am Coffee Break

10:45am-12:15pm: Session 5: Natural Frames of Acallam na Senórach
Chair: Natasha Sumner (Harvard University)

• Marie-Luise Theuerkauf (Harvard University): Gaelic Manuscripts and their Anglo-Norman Patrons: An Examination of Old English Interest in Irish Placename History
• Jo D’Ambrosio Wolf (University College Cork): ‘On Fish ⁊ Foul ⁊ Venison’: The mechanics of ‘netting’ in Early Irish Law
• Cian Ó Cionnfhaolaidh (University College Cork): Salmon, wells and sore thumbs: Underlying and interwoven strands of tradition in how Find acquires his prophetic abilities

12:15pm-1:45pm Lunch Break (not provided)

1:45pm-3:15pm: Session 6
Chair: Jessica Hemming (The Folklore Society, London)

• Paul Russell (Harvard University): A medieval Latin poem composed by a Welsh poet?
• Rebecca Thomas (Cardiff University): Praise and authority in Canu Heledd: reinterpreting Caranfael
• Claire Lober (Bangor University): Marginalia in Brut y Brenhinedd

3:15pm-3:30pm Coffee Break

3:30pm-4:30pm: Session 7
Chair: Michael Linkletter (St Francis Xavier University)

• Heather Sparling (Cape Breton University) & Iain MacLeod (Mount Saint Vincent University): Revitalizing Nova Scotia Gaelic through Immersion: Insights from a Four-Month Gaelic Residential Program
• Coinneach MacCoinnich (Memorial University of Newfoundland & Colaisde na Gàidhlig): Storytelling, Song, and Proverbs in Second-Language Pedagogy: Reconnecting Oral Traditions and Communicative Competence
• Lodaidh MacFhionghuin (Oifis Iomairtean na Gàidhlig): Gàidhlig aig Baile: Ag ath-bheachdachadh Dòigh-ionnsachadh Nàdurra Cànain [Gaelic in Community: Revisiting a Natural Way of Learning Language]

5:00pm: Keynote – John Shaw (University of Edinburgh): “John Francis Campbell of Islay: A 21st-Century Perspective”

6:00pm Launch of Cainnt is Ceathramhan/Sruth nan Gàidheal - Heather Sparling (Cape Breton University)

Saturday, 9 May 2026

8:30am-9:00am: Coffee, tea, fruit & pastries

9:00am-10:00am: Session 8
Chair: Natasha Sumner (Harvard University)

• Jeff Justice (South Texas College): Creating a Celtic Linguistic Commonwealth: Applications of Hardt & Negri to Language Politics
• Rory Yarter (Harvard University): Broken Mirror: Welsh-Language Women’s American Civil War Poetry Did Not Reflect Their Experiences

10:00am-10:15am Coffee Break

10:15am-11:45am: Session 9: Manuscripts and Linguistic Geography in the Medieval March of Wales
Chair: Rachael Harkes (University of Bristol)

• Matthew Lampitt (University of Bristol): (Un)Mapping the March: Dark Networks, Ghost Data
• Luciana Cordo Russo (University of Bristol): The Dissemination of the Ami and Amile Story in Wales, England, and the March
• Helen Fulton (University of Bristol): Uses of French in Welsh Towns, c. 1100–1400

11:45am-1:15pm Lunch Break (not provided)

1:15pm-2:45pm: Session 10
Chair: Joshua Byron Smith (University of Arkansas)

• Fañch Bihan-Gallic (Sabhal Mòr Ostaig): At the source of Pleuveur-Bodoù’s Arthurian legends
• Matthieu Boyd (Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ): The City of Ys in the Anglosphere
• Dorothy Danbury (Saint Joseph's University, PA): Motherhood and Mother Languages: Survival, Temporality, and Welsh in The Blue Book of Nebo

2:45pm-3:00pm Coffee Break

3:00pm-4:00pm: Session 11
Chair: Ranke de Vries (St Francis Xavier University)

• Nathaniel Harrington: Aisling is Trom-laighe (Dream and Nightmare)
• Emmet Taylor (University College Cork): Understanding Misunderstandings: Malignant Idol to Maggot God and Other Oddities
• Mark Gibbard (University of Toronto): Demons, Monsters, Idols, and Mathematicians: Demonological Interpretations of Myth in Medieval Ireland and Beyond

4:15pm-5:30pm – CSANA annual meeting

6:00pm: Conference Dinner - Markin Global Complex (Conference Banquet is in the Marjorie Desmond Oval (room 110))  #37 on campus map

Sunday, 10 May 2026

8:30am-9:00am: Coffee, tea, fruit & pastries

9:00am-10:30am: Session 12
Chair: Emmet Taylor (University College Cork)

• Kit Treadwell (University of Cambridge): ‘A widowed countess owns the castle’ — Positions of Widows in Medieval Romance Literature
• Hannah Zdansky (Belmont Abbey College, NC): The Irish Resonances of Beathadh Sir Gyi o Bharbhuic.
• Mairéad Finnegan (Maynooth University): The Significance and Symbolism of the Late Medieval Irish Mantle c. 1100–1550

10:30am-10:45am Coffee Break

10:45am-11:45pm: Session 13
Chair: Michael Linkletter (St Francis Xavier University)

• Samuel Puopolo (Harvard University): Narrative in Brut y Tywysogion
• Ethan Sabatella (Independent Scholar): Dogs, Ghosts, and One-eyed Warriors: A Comparison of Irish Heroic Tales and Berserk’s Protagonist