A new lecture series in Irish Studies has been named in honor of Mary Power, Professor Emerita of English who taught at UNM from 1969 to 2011.
The inaugural Power Lecture in Irish Studies will be delivered on Thursday, February 22, 2018 by Matthew Spangler, an internationally acclaimed playwright, director, and Professor of Communication Studies at San José State University. The event will take place at 7 pm in the Waters Room (Center for Southwest Research, Zimmerman Library). The lecture is free and open to the public. Former students of Mary Power are especially encouraged to attend this celebratory event.
Professor Mary Power received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and enjoyed a prolific 42-year career at UNM, establishing herself as an outstanding teacher, mentor, and colleague. She is an expert in Irish literature, especially the work of James Joyce, and is currently working on a project about contemporary Irish detective novels.
Professor Matthew Spangler’s scholarship, teaching, and theater work focuses on immigration and asylum seeking in Ireland, the United States, and the Middle East. His award-winning plays, which include stage adaptations of T.C. Boyle’s novel Tortilla Curtain and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, have been staged in North America, Ireland, Pakistan, and the UK, including on London’s West End. He also co-directs a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute titled “The California Immigration Experience through Literature and Theatre.” His lecture at UNM will focus on recent initiatives in the performing arts that aim to represent the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland and the U.S.
