Converting Ireland: Education, language and colonialism | Ass.Prof. Dr. Karina Bénazech Wendling (Université de Lorraine, Frankreich)
Evening Lecture on Religion & Culture des Akzentbereichs "Theologie(n), Diversität, Gesellschaft"International Fellow@FCMH Program
- https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns/veranstaltungen/vortraege/converting-ireland-education-language-and-colonialism
- Converting Ireland: Education, language and colonialism | Ass.Prof. Dr. Karina Bénazech Wendling (Université de Lorraine, Frankreich)
- 2024-12-10T18:00:00+01:00
- 2024-12-10T20:00:00+01:00
- Evening Lecture on Religion & Culture des Akzentbereichs "Theologie(n), Diversität, Gesellschaft"International Fellow@FCMH Program
10.12.2024 von 18:00 bis 20:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC100)
Philosophikum II Haus H Raum 205 (Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21)
Zum Vortrag: At the turn of the 18th century, the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society appealed to “Liberal individuals” to allow all people to get access to the Holy Scriptures in their native language. While Protestant missions acted within the scope of the British Empire, sometimes relying on its administration, their main interest remained the circulation of the Bible and its corollary, the education of all classes. In Ireland, Protestants were the first to open vernacular schools, with the support of the BFBS and of William Wilberforce, and to encourage the education of the poor. Yet, this enterprise met with resistance from Catholic elite and clergy who denounced an attempt at colonizing Ireland further. Though previous work on Protestant missions in Ireland have tackled both the issue of the Bible controversy and imperialism, the question of the Irish language – intrinsically linked to Irish national identity – has nonetheless been overlooked. Hence, the “Second Reformation” and its attempts at converting Catholics have been studied as English enterprises of colonisation, thus overlooking the different paradoxes of the use of the Irish language by Irish protestant societies long before the Great Irish Famine and the controversy of Souperism. Indeed, the use of the Irish language has always raised controversy, but quite paradoxically, the fears it aroused were not solely protestant, they were shared by Catholics too. However, the society they founded, The Irish Society for promoting the education of the native Irish through the means of their own language, presented a multifaceted paradox. First, they advocated the use of the King James’ Bible in schools while adopting a form of linguistic dissent. Second, their use of Irish language provoked Daniel O’Connell and his movement’s opposition and strengthened their alliance with the priests. Finally, contrary to the nationalist narrative, it was their development of Irish schools that initiated the controversy of souperism long before the Famine, and not the distribution of soup. Relying on a large corpus of sources, this seminar invites to explore this paradox and its social implications regarding subaltern groups in a context of imperial expansion.
Zur Referentin: Dr Karina Bénazech Wendling is a historian of religion and politics and holds an Associate Professorship at the Université de Lorraine. She is International Fellow@FCMH Program in December 2024.
Her PhD dissertation, prepared at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL, focused on the development of Irish education and Bible societies in 19th-century Ireland, and on the religious competition that ensued. Her current project entitled “Emancipation et Education in the transatlantic world: circulations of ideas and power struggles in the late 18th and early 19th centuries” expands this study to Haiti and transatlantic exchanges. More broadly, she is interested in religious minorities's relations to states in the long 19th century and is coeditor of the Minority Protestants network. Beside the publication of several articles, she has contributed to an edited volume, is editing two others and has two forthcoming monographs.
Ort des Vortrags: Die Veranstaltung am 10. Dezember 2024 um 18 Uhr c.t. im Philosophikum II Haus H Raum 205 (Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21) findet im Rahmen der Evening Lecture on Religion & Culture: Vortragsreihe „Anthropologische Wende(n) – interreligiös“ statt. Veranstalter ist der „Akzentbereich „Theologie(n), Diversität, Gesellschaft“.