Lectures, seminars and poetry at the prestigious Yeats Summer School

Kerrville, TX – Nine Schreiner students recently returned from the 60th Annual W. B. Yeats Summer School in Sligo, Ireland, where they studied the life and work of Ireland’s greatest poet. The Yeats Summer School took place between July 25 and Aug 2. These students were among a select group of undergraduates at the ten-day conference, which included lectures and seminars by renowned Yeats scholars, excursions through the beautiful countryside of the poet’s youth, and poetry readings—including a lecture and reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon.

“This is the kind of transformative learning experience that happens at Schreiner,” said class organizer Dr. Martin Lockerd, Assistant Professor of English at Schreiner University. “Because we teach at a school that prioritizes student learning and innovative teaching,” Lockerd went on, “our students have opportunities that aren’t available at big research universities.”

Program directors – Professor Matthew Campbell and Professor Lauren Arrington – presented a unique learning experience through the sharing of ideas and opinions, during both the formal and informal events of the program. An impressive list of lecturers made up the ten-day conference.

Campbell is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of York, England. His most recent book was “Irish Poetry Under the Union,” and he is currently writing a “History of Irish Poetry.” He was Associate Director of the Yeats International Summer School from 2013-2015 and became Director of the School for 2018 and 2019.

Arrington is Professor of English at Maynooth University. Her most recent publications were “Revolutionary Lives: Constance and Casimir Markievicz” and “W.B. Yeats, the Abbey Theatre, Censorship, and the Irish State: Adding the Half-Pence to the Pence.” She is currently writing “Yeats, Pound, and Late Modernism in Mussolini’s Italy” for Oxford University Press. Arrington will be the Co-Director of the Yeats International Summer School from 2018-2021.

Lockerd intends to repeat the trip in the summer of 2021 and is actively looking for donors willing to make small contributions in order to help more students attend.