About the Consortium for Higher Education Abroad

The Consortium for Higher Education Abroad is committed to promoting affordable and challenging higher education opportunities in Ireland and Scotland. The organization, different from other study-abroad organizations, is a genuine academic partnership, involving teaching faculty from member institutions and organized and run by respected scholars in Irish and Scottish Studies who are well networked abroad.

The Consortium sponsors short-term courses and internships and is dedicated to serving the intellectual and cultural interests of faculty and students. It is comprised of two institutes -- The Institute for Irish Studies and The Institute for Scottish Studies. Under the aegis of the Institutes, the Consortium provides a wide spectrum of excellent programs specifically geared to students' academic majors and interests. These programs, courses, and internships are among the most secure and the most sought after in study abroad.

Intersession Short Courses and Summer Courses

Participating host universities in Ireland and Scotland are approved and accredited. Instructors and supervisors are credentialed scholars, many with extensive publishing records, as well as an adjunct faculty of writers, artists, actors, and business and entrepreneurial leaders familiar with Institute programs and the courses on offer.

The Consortium for Higher Education not only insures highly qualified professionals/academics and a high standard of instruction, it provides excellent housing, meals, transportation, and essential supervision through instructors and on-site contact people. Accreditation is through the home college or university or the host institute or university.

Staff

Paul Pelan, B.A., M.A. (Director/Tutor) has a B.A. from the University of Ulster and an M.A. from Queens University, Belfast. He has organized and developed Irish programs for Marymount College/Fordham University, Boston University, and Arcadia University; and lectured extensively in International and Irish Studies. Paul is on the faculty of Metropolitan College at Boston University and teaches courses in Irish History/Politics, Irish Literature, Philosophy, and Great Works of Art and Literature. He is a faculty member of the English Department at Curry College and teaches a Level I and Level II Writing Workshop, and also teaches a course on "War and Literature" at Lasell College.

Dan Casey, B.A., M.S., M.A., Ph.D. (Head Tutor) has served as a professor, chair, dean, vice president, and president of colleges in the U.S. and abroad. An award-winning scholar, he has, since 1974, organized more than 40 programs in Ireland and Scotland serving more than 1,600 students. He has published more than 150 books, articles, and reviews on Irish and Irish-American subjects, as well as fiction and poetry.

Darah Whelihan, B.A., M.Phil. (Program Manager) has a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and an M.Phil from Trinity College Dublin. She has studied abroad both as a semester student at University College Galway and as a graduate student at Trinity. She has spent the last seven years living and working abroad in Ireland (both North and South) and in London, and has travelled extensively throughout Europe.

Una Murphy, B.A., M.A. (Tutor) is an experienced television producer and journalist who has worked in news, current affairs and factual programmes for BBC, UTV and RTE. She has also worked as a journalist for The Irish Times and The Irish News. In addition to starting up a media business (NUA Media), Una also lectures in journalism at Skerry's College and Colaiste Stiofain Naofa, College of Further Education, Cork and has also lectured at the University of Ulster, Belfast.

Brian Pelan, BA, (Tutor) is a journalist, with specialised skills in feature writing, sub editing and design and has also written extensively on film critique. He has worked for several national newspapers in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including The Western Mail in Cardiff, The Evening Echo in Cork and the Guardian in London. He has also lectured on journalism at the University College Cork and in the past has given talks to American students on Irish current affairs.