Since 1991, the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies program has brought to Boston College a long and distinguished series of academics, writers, artists, journalists, librarians, and notable public figures who have made significant contributions to Irish cultural and intellectual life. Burns Visiting Scholars teach courses, offer public lectures, and engage with the rich resources of the John J. Burns Library in their ongoing research, writing, and creative endeavors.
The Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies program is a cooperative venture between Boston College's interdisciplinary Irish Studies program and the Boston College Libraries. It was established by and receives continuing support from the family and friends of the Honorable John J. Burns (Class of 1921), who also generously contributed to the creation of the John J. Burns Library and support the growth of its extraordinary collections pertaining to Irish history, literature, music, and culture. The Burns Visiting Scholar program has also benefited from support from the Office of the Provost.
In recognition of its 25th anniversary, Boston College Communications profiled the Burns Visiting Scholar program in a November 7, 2016 article. In October 2016, Irish America magazine also published a special supplement in celebration of this milestone. Read the article or download a copy.
Burns Visiting Scholar lectures since 2017 have been videorecorded and add the to the Burns Library Lectures playlist on the Boston College Libraries YouTube channel.
Eve Watson (PhD, MICP) is involved in psychoanalytic practice, training, education, and research in Dublin, Ireland. She is a co-director of a busy Dublin city centre clinic, and is a psychoanalytic practitioner and clinical supervisor. She has published dozens of essays on psychoanalysis, sexuality, film, culture, and literature. She lectures on various programs in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and health and oversees a variety of research projects at graduate and undergraduate levels. Her co-edited books are Freud's Principal Case Studies Revisited: Freudian-Lacanian Psychoanalysts Reconsider the Legacy (2025, Routledge), Critical Essays on the Drive: Lacanian Theory and Practice (2024, Routledge), Clinical Encounters in Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory (2017, Punctum), and in 2026 a forthcoming collection on James Joyce's writing and her own authored book on psychoanalysis and film. She is the academic director of the Freud Lacan Institute (FLi), and was the Editor of Lacunae, the International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis from 2016-2024. She is a member of the Editorial Boards of Lacunae, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, and the European Journal of Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy. In 2022, she was the Erik Erikson Scholar-in-Residence at the Austen Riggs Centre in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She is the Burns Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College in the Fall of 2025.
Course:
Philosophical and Psychoanalytic Explorations of Irish Culture and Psyche
PHIL5434
Tuesdays 1:30pm - 04:00pm
Higgins 275
Enrollment limited to 20
Description: This course offers a phenomenological and psychoanalytic study of Irish culture and psychology. It draws from the work of Freud, Merleau-Ponty, Lacan and others to consider a radical engagement with the nature of being and subjectivity, and debate paradoxes of freedom, desire, morality, knowledge, sexuality, and culture. Critically informed analyses of Irish films and Irish literature locate these debates within the Irish context, and organise the application of psychoanalytic and philosophical concepts around cultural artefacts and phenomena.
Public Lecture:
More information to come
Wednesday, November 12, 5:00pm reception, 6:00pm lecture; free and open to the public
Burns Library
| Ray Cashman | Spring 2026 |
| Senia Paseta | Fall 2026 |
| Mathew Campbell | Spring 2027 |
| Gary Murphy | Fall 2027 |
| Alan Gilsenan | Spring 2028 |
| Freya McClements | Fall 2028 |
Follow the link below to read about each of the more than forty Burns Visiting Scholars whom we have welcomed to campus since the program began in 1991. For several of our more recent scholars, you will find links to streaming recordings of their public lectures.
