Rural Futures Conference

Rural Futures/Todhchaí na Tuaithe: 
Social and Environmental Justice in Ireland 
Sacred Heart University, Dingle, Ireland 
June 8-10, 2026 

The inaugural three-day Rural Futures conference at Sacred Heart University’s campus in Dingle, Ireland, will feature keynote speaker Nessa Cronin (University of Galway), and a plenary conversation on the future of rural Irish literature with authors Belinda McKeon (Maynooth University) and Mike McCormack (University of Galway).

The conference theme—Rural Futures/ Todhchaí na Tuaithe: Social and Environmental Justice in Ireland—invites considerations of rural experiences in Irish politics, social history, culture and arts, as well as attention to the history of rural life in Ireland: the intersections of past and present; critical discoveries in ecology, archeology and history; political, cultural and demographic change, and other transformations (and continuities) of landscape and place.

Call for Papers

We welcome proposals for papers and presentations across all disciplines, as well as the creative and practical arts, in order to come together to explore the multiple futures of rural Ireland. Proposals for roundtable proposals that address any aspect of rural experience in Ireland are also encouraged. As with our previous Sea, Land and Spirit conference in Dingle, held in 2017, we welcome practitioners working in rural contexts, as well as scholars, artists and writers.

Proposals may address the following:

  • Rural Irish diversities, including new demographics, identities and intersectionalities
  • Writing about rural Ireland, past and future Irish literary traditions and Irish publishing
  • Rural studies and globalization; comparative rural studies
  • Irish language futures
  • Sustainability, conservation, tourism and heritage
  • Social justice and rural activism
  • Environmental futures for rural Ireland
  • Initiatives and challenges in physical and mental health and safety
  • Food and well-being
  • Rural economies
  • Fishing and coastal communities
  • Tourism, cultural heritage sites, and deep mapping
  • Rural music, theatre and film
  • Recent political transformations, including Brexit
  • Rural engagements with the medical humanities, disability and neurodiversity
  • Ecocritical and environmental humanities
  • Politics of technologies in rural communities
  • Voices of marginalized and minority communities in rural Ireland
  • Visual representations: film, photography, art and digital video

Submit Proposal

The deadline for submissions is January 10, 2026.

Accommodations

Accommodation will be available at the Dingle Skellig Hotel at a special rate for registered participants. Dingle—the village and peninsula—is rich in history, natural beauty and cultural energy. We look forward to sharing updates about music, film screenings and optional excursions.

Organizing Committee

  • Ciara Barrett, Ph.D., SHU Dingle
  • Abby Bender, Ph.D., Director, Center for Irish Studies, Sacred Heart University
  • Gary Delaney, Executive Director and Company Secretary, SHU Dingle
  • Dáithí de Mórdha, Ph.D., SHU Dingle
  • Ross Fitzgerald, SHU Dingle
  • Grace Flannery, Ph.D., SHU Dingle
  • Billy Mag Fhloin, Ph.D., SHU Dingle
  • John B. Roney, Ph.D., Sacred Heart University

Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Nessa CroninNessa Cronin, Ph.D.
Head of Irish Studies, University of Galway

Dr. Nessa Cronin is head of Irish studies at the Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, University of Galway, Ireland. As an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in continental philosophy and literature, her recent work in environmental humanities has critically examined the role of humanities research and arts practice in addressing the existential challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. She has published widely on various aspects of environmental humanities, Irish literature, cultural geography and socially engaged arts practices and has won many awards for her teaching and research in these areas. Her writings have been discussed at international public forums and have contributed to national government policy on the critical role that the arts and humanities can play in bridging the gap between climate ambition and climate action.

Plenary Conversation: The Future of Rural Irish Literature

Belinda McKeonBelinda McKeon
Maynooth University

Belinda McKeon is a novelist and playwright. She is the author of Solace (Picador, 2011), which won the Geoffrey Faber Prize and was named Irish Book of the Year, and Tender (2015), a finalist for the Encore Award. She is also the editor of A Kind of Compass: Stories on Distance (Tramp Press, 2015). She has had fiction and nonfiction published in The Paris Review, Granta, A Public Space, The Stinging Fly and elsewhere. Since 2022, when she returned to Ireland after many years in the United States, she has served as associate professor of creative writing at Maynooth University, where she directs the MA in creative writing.

Mike McCormackMike McCormack
University of Galway

Mike McCormack comes from the west of Ireland and is the author of two collections of short stories, Getting it in the Head and Forensic Songs. He also wrote four novels, Crowe’s Requiem, Notes from a Coma, Solar Bones and This Plague of Souls. In 1996, he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature, and Getting it in the Head was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In 2006, Notes from a Coma was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award. In 2016, Solar Bones was awarded the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year and Book of the Year; it was also long-listed for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. In 2018, it was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award. He is a member of Aosdána.

Registration

Coming Soon!

More Information

For additional information, email Abby Bender at bendera5@sacredheart.edu.

Photo credit: “Dusk or Dawn?” by John Roney, Ph.D., SHU Professor Emeritus (Dingle, Ireland, 2020)