We’re really excited that our (inaugural!) summer reading groups will be kicking off next week! We will be running four groups on a fortnightly basis, and the full set of reading lists for our first sessions are included below.
If you don’t end up managing to get around to all the core reading, please don’t feel like you can’t attend. Even if you only ended up reading one of the articles, we’d still love to have you!
Sessions are drop-in and we always love to see new faces but we ask that you pre-register if possible so that we have an indication of numbers. You can do that at the following link: forms.gle/foscFQn1bV5BARXs5.
P.S. If you have any difficulty accessing either the readings or the film for the sessions, just email us at hello@saintsandscholars.club and we can give you a hand.
P.P.S. The full schedule for our summer sessions is available if you’d like to add hanging out with us to your calendar xx
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Militarism and Neutrality
Tuesday 24 June 2025 / 7pm-8pm //
Connolly Books, 43 Essex Street East, Dublin 2
Irish Neutrality
Core Reading
- Colin Gannon, ‘Ireland Should Resist the Pressure to Join the Western Military Bloc’ (19 July 2023), available at: https://jacobin.com/2023/07/ireland-nonalignment-neutrality-nato-us-european-union-war-foreign-policy
- Karen Devine, ‘The Resilience of Irish Neutrality’ (9 July 2024), available at: https://www.e-ir.info/2024/07/09/the-resilience-of-irish-neutrality/
- Niamh Ní Bhriain, ‘Saving the Triple Lock: Neutrality Hawks v The Government of Ireland’ (August 2024), available at: https://www.tni.org/files/2024-08/Policy_Brief_Ireland_web.pdf
Further Reading (optional)
- Afri, ‘A Force for Good? Reflections on Irish Neutrality’ (2024), available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h00k3pFLofk
- Dennis Driscoll, ‘Is Ireland Really ‘Neutral’?’ (1982), available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30001725
- Irish Times, ‘Should Ireland revisit its neutrality?’ (4 February 2025), available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/02/04/should-ireland-revisit-its-neutrality-prof-ben-tonra-and-dr-raymond-murphy-debate/
- Report of the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy (10 October 2023), available at: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-foreign-affairs/campaigns/consultative-forum-on-international-security-policy/
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The Environment and Capitalism
Wednesday 25 June 2025 / 7pm-8pm //
Flux Studios, 4 Chatham Row, Dublin 2
Core reading
- Rebecca Vining and Criostóir King, The World Can Feed Itself (Rundale), available at: https://www.rundale.org/2024/05/30/the-world-can-feed-itself/
- Calo et al, Achieving Food Resilience Requires Challenging Dominant Land Property Regimes (Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems), available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.683544/full
- Rebecca May Johnson, I Dream of Canteens (Dinner Document), available at: https://dinnerdocument.com/2019/04/30/i-dream-of-canteens/
Further reading (optional)
Elise Wach, Market Dependency as Prohibitive of Agroecology and Food Sovereignty – A Case Study (Sustainability), available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1927
Care and Community
Thursday 26 June 2025 / 8pm-9pm //
Marrowbone Books, 78 The Coombe, Dublin 8
The Family
- Liza Featherstone, Don’t Be Afraid to Embrace the Utopian Spirit (Jacobin)
- Evan Calder Williams, What the Hell is the Family? (The New Inquiry)
- Laura Anne Roberston, Who Cares (The New Inquiry)
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Film Club
Wednesday 2 July 2025 / 7pm-8pm //
Venue to be confirmed!!
Bamboozled (dir. Spike Lee, 2000)
Frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea, producer Pierre Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of in an attempt to get fired: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.
Suggested reading: Patrick Nkang, Joe King and Paul Ugo, “Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy and Contemporary American Media: The Political Critique of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled”, available at https://www.ajol.info/index.php/gjh/article/view/79385/69682
Further viewing (optional): The Producers (dir. Mel Brooks, 1967); American Fiction (dir. Cord Jefferson, 2023)