Organising Committee
Maria Rita Drumond Viana (Coordinator and Vice-President of IYS) is a professor in the Letters Department at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), a permanent member of the Graduate Programs in English: Linguistic and Literary Studies (PPGI, since 2017) and Translation Studies (PGET, since 2018) at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), and in Letters: Language Studies (Posletras, since 2022) at UFOP. Co-founded the Center for Irish Studies (NEI) in 2016 while being a professor in the Department of Languages and Literatures at UFSC, organizing seven NEI conferences since then. She also participated as deputy coordinator in the organizing committee of the 13th Annual Irish Theatrical Diaspora: Irish Theatre and Latin America held in November 2017 at UFSC, an annual and itinerant international event supported by PAEP/Capes and CNPq. In 2023, she chaired the organizing committee of the XVIII Symposium of Irish Studies in South America: Consecration, held in October at UFOP, with speakers from Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris, France), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), UNAM (Mexico City, Mexico), Universidad de Burgos (Burgos, Spain), and the Irish novelist, poet, and short story writer Mary O’Donnell. Maria Rita is serving her second term on the board of the International Yeats Society (IYS), acting as Vice-President since 2022. She is responsible for submitting proposals to edicts, contacting guests, producing calls for widespread distribution, contacting authorities, and delegating the management of other areas.
Larissa Ceres Rodrigues Lagos (Local Deputy Coordinator) has a degree in Portuguese/English Letters and a specialization in Literary Studies from the State College of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters of União da Vitória, a master’s degree in Translation Studies from Federal University of Santa Catarina (2016), and a doctorate in the same program and institution (2019). She is part of the “Studies on Samuel Beckett” (USP) and “Joycean Studies in Brazil” (UFF) research groups. She is a professor at the DELET/UFOP and conducts research in the areas of Translation Studies, Theatre, and Irish Studies. She was Vice-President of the XVIII Symposium of Irish Studies in South America: Consecration, hosted by UFOP in October 2024. Larissa has also coordinated, since 2022, the Banished – Reading Club extension project, that will integrate the event preparations with a meeting on Yeats and censorship, to be held in the month prior to the main program and as a strategy to disseminate and promote the author (and the event) to a wider audience. Larissa is also responsible for managing students and the event spaces.
Alessandra Cristina Rigonato (ABEI Deputy Coordinator) has a PhD (2020) and a Master’s degree (2015) in Linguistic and Literary Studies in English from the University of São Paulo, researching Irish drama and the reception of classical Greek theater. Holds a bachelor’s degree in Portuguese/Greek Letters from the University of São Paulo (2004) and a teaching license in English from Paulistana Educational College (2021). She has worked as a substitute professor at the Federal University of Tocantins, Porto Nacional campus, and is currently an adjunct professor at the Federal University of Northern Tocantins, Araguaína campus. She is developing a project on teaching English language through English literature. She is the administrative director of the Brazilian Association for Irish Studies (ABEI) and, since 2020, has participated in organizing all Symposiums of Irish Studies in South America and all ABEI Conferences, serving as deputy coordinator for the events at UFBA and UnB. Alessandra will develop a postdoctoral project under Maria Rita’s supervision at UFOP, and, as part of her work plan, she will be a part of the organizing committee of the Yeats event. Alessandra is responsible for the administrative and financial aspects of the event.
Charles Ivan Armstrong (Foreign Deputy Coordinator and President of IYS) is a professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation at the Universitetet I Agder (Kristiansand, Norway). He is the author of Reframing Yeats: Genre, Allusion and History (Bloomsbury, 2013) and Figures of Memory: Poetry, Space and the Past (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), among others, and wrote contributing chapters for The Oxford Handbook of W. B. Yeats (Oxford University Press, 2023) and Routledge Companion to Literature and Trauma (2020). His articles have appeared in Nordic Irish Studies (2023), Memory Studies (2021), International Yeats Studies (2021) and more. He is the current President of IYS and has served as Director of the International Yeats Summer School in Sligo from 2020 to 2023. He is also part of the board of the Nordic Irish Studies Network and was elected a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. For the 2024 event, Charles will be responsible for ensuring that the standards of previous events are being followed, including inclusion policies, notably with special attention to gender equity, geographic dispersion and career stages, defined as priorities during his management.
Rob Doggett (Foreign Deputy Coordinator and Editor-in-Chief of International Yeats Studies) has been a professor at the State University of New York College at Geneseo (NY, USA) since 2002, serving as department chair from 2016 to 2021. He earned his degree in English Literature from Gettysburg College in 1991 and received both his master’s (1994) and PhD (2002) from the University of Maryland. Author of the book “Deep-Rooted Things”: Empire and Nation in the Poetry and Drama of William Butler Yeats (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), he published articles in International Yeats Studies (2020), Eire/Ireland (2011), Journal of Modern Literature (2010), as well as a chapter in Yeats in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2010). He also is responsible for the “Yeats Conversations” project, a series of medium-length videos where experts from around the world choose a Yeats poem and present it to a broad audience using accessible language. Both his expertise in scientific disclosure and his role as the current Editor-in-Chief of IYJ will be essential for the event organization, which aims to produce a video on Yeats (recorded in Portuguese) as well as a dossier of about six articles to be published in the IYJ itself. With his presence at the event, Rob will be able to extend specific invitations for communicators to submit their manuscripts to the journal, going through the entire submission process (with blind peer review, etc.).
Local Organising Committee
Soélis Teixeira do Prado Mendes (contact with local services)
Amanda Casemiro de Freitas (social media communications)
Danúsia Natália Monteiro (webmaster and photographer)
Kaio Moreira Veloso (translation coordinator)
Maria Eduarda dos Anjos Linhares (translator)
Mariana Gonçalves Coelho (translator)