Join us for a discussion of James Joyce: A Political Life (2026) by the late Frank Callanan, featuring Bridget Hourican, who edited the book, and Robert Spoo, who wrote the forward.

Spoo will also treat us to a presentation of some of his recent research into the legal history of and around Joyce’s work.

Bridget Hourican is a journalist and historian who has written for the Irish Times, Time Out and The Dubliner. She is editor of Straight from the Heart: Irish Love Letters and a contributor to the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Her biography of the Romantic poet, James Clarence Mangan, Finding Mangan, the Lives and Afterlives of Ireland’s National Poet, was published to critical acclaim in August 2024 and shortlisted for an Irish Book Award.

Robert Spoo is the Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters at Princeton University and (as of July 1, 2026) Chair of the English Department at Princeton University. Previously, he was the Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of English at the University of Tulsa, where he edited and (later) co-edited the James Joyce Quarterly. He earned his BA in English at Lawrence University and his MA and PhD in English at Princeton, where he held a Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities and later taught as a Lecturer. He received his JD from the Yale Law School; after graduating, he served as judicial clerk to the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor when she was a member of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. At Princeton, he is also co-director of the Fund for Irish Studies.

From Princeton UP:

The young James Joyce (1882–1941) was forged in the smithy of Irish political controversies, and he took into his European exile a depth of political insight unrivalled among his fellow modernists. In this biography of Joyce in his youth and early exile, acclaimed Irish historian and biographer Frank Callanan reveals a Joyce who is markedly more politically conscious, informed and complex than the Joyce of Richard Ellmann’s classic account. Written in a sparkling style and rich with historical insights, Callanan’s deeply researched biography is the first sustained account of how Joyce’s Irish and European political and cultural context shaped his life, thought, and writings.

NO RSVP REQUIRED. DOORS WILL OPEN AT 5:45. SEATING IS FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVED. ATTENDEES SHOULD BE PAID-UP MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY. (FREE FOR MEMBERS WHO ARE STUDENTS OR EARLY-CAREER CONTINGENT SCHOLARS.)