THE INTERNATIONAL
JAMES JOYCE FOUNDATION
Minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting
January 26, 2024
(via Zoom at 10:00am CST)
In Attendance: Ronan Crowley, Paul Fagan, Christine O’Neill, Cleo Hanaway-Oakley, Murray Beja, Scarlett Baron, Clare Hutton, Katherine Ebury, Jonathan Goldman, Anne Marie D’Arcy, Vicki Mahaffey, Dirk van Hulle, Sean Latham, Anne Fogarty, Vince Cheng, John McCourt, Finn Fordham, Matthew Creasy (representing Glasgow organizing committee)
This meeting of the Board of Trustees was called in response to a request from board members and convened by President McCourt. The only agenda item is a discussion of the anti-harassment policies that have been put in place for the Glasgow Symposium and ongoing efforts by the IJJF to address concerns about harassment.
President McCourt opened the meeting by emphasizing that allegations of harassment at symposia are an important issue that the Foundation has been working steadily to address in partnership with Glasgow organizing committee. He also noted that the Foundation is a voluntary organization that brings scholars together every two years and that while the board needs to address these serious matters it must also ensure they do not overwhelm other activities. He pointed out that the principal organizers of the Glasgow symposium were signatories of the 2018 letter denouncing cases of harassment and that they had worked very hard to put in place policies to guarantee the safety of all participants in a tolerant, open, and inclusive gathering.
Matthew Creasy, Katherine Ebury, and Paul Fagan made a detailed presentation about the policies and procedures put in place for the June Glasgow Symposium. These are detailed in a page now available on the symposium website and include:
- A clear and detailed statement on prohibited actions;
- Policies and procedures for reporting prohibited conduct;
- The creation of a Safety Team to whom reports can be made;
- Requiring all participants at the point of registration to affirm both that they have read the policy and that they will abide by it;
- Hiring an independent Ombudsperson (David Hayes) selected by the organizers from outside the Joyce community to whom both direct and anonymous complaints can be made during the Symposium and ten days after it concludes.
Board discussion of these policies followed and Creasy noted that suggestions for additional changes to the Glasgow policies would be welcome. Board members recommended revisions to acknowledge the importance of power differentials and to expand the policy to include photography and social media posts.
After further discussion, President McCourt summarized the gradual development of new policies and procedures since 2018 and noted that the Ombudsperson position by the Symposium organizers was a pilot project that the board would review following the Glasgow experiment. The Ombudsperson has been hired and his fee paid by the Glasgow Symposium. The president suggested that there should be substantial continuity between the approaches put in place for the Glasgow ’24 symposium and the New York ’26 event.
In additional discussion, board members noted that the contact link was broken on the IJJF website and that email addresses should be prominently provided on the site to facilitate reporting. The aim should be to increase avenues for reporting and make sure our attempts to address this issue are clear and readily available.
It was agreed that the Board meeting in Glasgow should be held towards the end of the week to allow an evaluation of the effectiveness of the measures put in place.
President McCourt concluded the meeting by inviting the Glasgow planning committee to provide an overview of the upcoming Symposium and the team described a number of keynotes, social events, and performances that have been released on the website.
The meeting concluded at 10:57am CST.