Munira Hamud Mutran
The growth of Irish Studies as an academic discipline in recent decades hasn’t come about by chance.
It has been the product of hard-working, passionate scholars and academics from all over the world, many of whom feel a particular connection to or interest in Ireland.
Irish studies in Brazil
Professor Munira Hamud Mutran is one of these academics. Based at University of São Paulo where she has been a professor of English-language literature since the 1960s, she was the co-founder of ABEI, the Brazilian Association of Irish Studies, in 1989.
Since then, ABEI has gone on to publish a journal in English which is read in Brazil and around the world, and has organised conferences, symposia and seminars. “It is surprising how Irish Studies in Brazil have bloomed throughout the decades,” she says looking back over her career.
Connection with author Seán Ó Faoláin
Mutran began reading contemporary Irish fiction during her doctoral work, which led her to the short stories of Seán Ó Faoláin. A correspondence between the two began, one that would last 15 years.
“My interest in Ó Faoláin’s short stories and my writing him a letter in 1973 determined the moment that would mark the beginning of my academic life,” she says.
On defending her thesis, Mutran began teaching Irish fiction and drama in Brazil, coming to Ireland for summer schools at UCD and visiting Ó Faoláin himself, along with his wife Eileen.
Ó Faoláin’s collected letters were published posthumously in 2005, and Mutran received the title of Dr. Honoris Causa at NUI Maynooth in 2008.
She donated her correspondence with the author to the university’s library, where it is today.
Bringing Irish literature to a wider audience
Throughout her career, she has been a passionate supporter of Irish Studies in Brazil, including attending and presenting papers at many of the major international Irish Studies conferences every year until 2022, and publishing widely on Irish literature. Her work has helped bring Irish literature to a wider audience in Brazil.
“The Bloomsday celebrations organised by the Brazilian poet Haroldo de Campos with me, from 1989 until 2002, helped publicise the work of James Joyce but also that of Yeats, Beckett, and many other Irish writers, among a larger public,” she says.
“The productions of ‘At the Hawk´s Well’ and ‘Rockaby’ by Brazilian actors during Bloomsday celebrations are still memorable.”
Presidential Distinguished Service Award
To this end, she received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 2018, something she sees as “a formal recognition of an academic life dedicated to Irish culture.”
Supporting Irish Studies at universities around the world is not just an academic matter. It’s also a way of fostering connections and friendship between Ireland and other countries. Mutran notes that the ABEI has been helped by the presence of Irish priests and nuns in São Paulo over the years.
“They first established contact by attending events organised at USP — Bloomsday celebrations, lectures by visiting Irish scholars, exhibitions…” she says.
“I suppose they missed Ireland and were glad to meet and talk about the country. With the help of relatives back home, they enlarged our incipient library. We also had the opportunity to meet Irish musicians, writers and artists living in Brazil. They provided material — illustrations or short articles — for the ABEI Journal.”
Passing knowledge to younger generations
As Irish Studies continues to bloom in this way, Mutran notes that each generation passes on their knowledge and passion for the subject to the next.
“Many of those who received a degree of Irish Studies at USP now teach at various Brazilian universities; each one of these young scholars has found his or her way to a different field of research. And they will, in turn, form new candidates to continue to enlarge the study of Irish history, literature or the arts.”