Claire Healy, originally from Limerick, has also worked extensively with people seeking asylum, refugees and immigrants in Hamburg, Galway and Dublin, and as a translator and interpreter for State services in Dublin and for the Roma and Sinti Union in Hamburg. Claire was invited to speak at the EU High Level Dialogue on Legal Immigration in Lisbon in September 2007. Also in 2007, her research publications On Speaking Terms: Language and Introductory Programmes for Migrants in Ireland and Coordinating Immigration and Integration: Learning from the International Experience were launched by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, together with a report for the CADIC Coalition, co-authored with Liam Coakley, entitled Looking Forward, Looking Back: Experiences of Irish Citizen Child Families. Claire has a BA (International) in History and Germany, and undertook Masters research at the Department of Latin American History at the University of Hamburg. For her doctoral studies as a Government of Ireland Scholar, Claire undertook research in Buenos Aires, San Antonio de Areco, Hamburg, London, Liverpool, Dublin, Galway, Westmeath and Wexford. She was awarded a doctorate in history from NUI, Galway in June 2006 for her dissertation Migration from Ireland to Buenos Aires, 1776-1890. She is currently working in Lisbon as an Advisor at the Office for Studies and International Relations of the Portuguese Government's High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue.

of Ennis, Co Clare, John is currently based in London. He is an economist specialising in area of utility regulation, and holds a BA in Economics and History from NUI Galway and a Masters in Economic Science from UCD. John has travelled extensively throughout South America - his travels, in particular in Argentina, led him to appreciate more, the huge contribution the Irish have made in all walks of life, prompting him to develop a keen interest in the history of the Irish diaspora in Latin America. He was guest editor of the IMSLA volume on ‘Sporting Traditions in Ireland and Latin America’. His other research interests include agricultural and commercial history and the development of human capital. John is the current Auditor of SILAS and in August 2007 was appointed SILAS's Fundraising Officer.

My vision for SILAS is “to be recognised as a centre of excellence in the field of migration studies.”

My goals up to mid-2012 are:
* Prioritising the delivery of a robust Business Plan – this is essential for SILAS and will give us the necessary armoury to access various funding sources.
*To support initiatives’ to market SILAS to a wider audience both in Ireland and further a field, particularly the USA, for example through the syndication of articles to newspapers.
*To look at ways of better engaging our members by understanding their needs and requirement and motivation for being a member of SILAS. We have many members but it is just the same few that make contributions to our work.

Born in Valencia, Spain, Andrés Romera is studying a PhD research degree in Hispanic Studies (Reflections of Ireland through the Eyes of Contemporary Irish-Argentinean Writers descendant from Irish emigrants), supervised by Dr. Nuala Finnegan at UCC. He currently works as a Spanish lecturer at WIT, teaching both full-time students and in Adult Education. He is an economist and also has more than twenty years experience working for other companies in the private sector, both in Spain and Ireland, as Head of Customer Service, Investment Analyst or Acting Transport Manager. He is a researcher of Hispanic Literature (Cervantes) and also Irish-Argentine literature, in addition to SILAS's Administration Officer. Andrés enjoys life, music, strategy games, meeting new people, and of course spending time with his wife and their two sons in their home in Waterford."

A native of Dublin, Gera Burton is a graduate of both University College Dublin (UCD) and the University of Missouri, where she earned a Ph.D in Latin American and Afro-Hispanic Literature. As Associate Director for the Center for Distance and Independent Study, she oversees curriculum development for over 20,000 students from 44 countries, with the assistance of more than 40 faculty and staff. She is a former President of the American Association for Collegiate Independent Study (AACIS) and serves on the Executive Board of the International Society for Educational Biography (ISEB). She has been a Peer Evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission’s North Central Accrediting Association since 2006. Her scholarly endeavours include research, writing, and presentations on the slave trade, activities that have taken her to Cuba, Mexico, Ghana, Ireland, the U.K ., and many places around the U.S. In August 2007, she received a Research Council grant for research on the illegal slave trade in West Africa in the post-emancipation period. She is the author of Ambivalence and the Postcolonial Subject: The Strategic Alliance of Juan Francisco Manzano and Richard Robert Madden (New York: Peter Lang, 2004). Her current project is a biography of the Irish abolitionist, Richard Robert Madden.

For the period 2009-2012, she hopes to see the organization expand its membership base and attract young scholars from a variety of disciplines.

Actually she’s working as History Professor in the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the CONICET. She lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina Degrees: Universidad de Buenos Aires (Profesora de Historia) and University of London (Ph. D. in History). Research: Initially, on topics related to the history of the formation of capitalism and social modernization in nineteenth-century Argentina: the development of the export sector and the productive structure in the areas of agricultural expansion, the shaping of the labor market, and the history of immigration (including Irish immigration). Presently, on political history, with a focus on the relationship between civil society and the state in Latin America in the second half of the nineteenth-century (citizenship, political representation, political violence and revolutions, the formation of the public sphere).

In the next three years, I would like to see SILAS continue in the successful path that has led the association to become an active, solid, and prestigious institution. During the three-year period that now comes to an end, it has improved greatly its institutional organization, developed its initial programs, and started new ones. Among the former, I wish to stress the success achieved with the website, and particularly with the journal Irish Migration Studies in Latin America, which has evolved to become a key academic space for the publication of research work on Irish studies. The grants programme has also been successful, and should be strengthened. Fund-raising for that program should become a priority for the next three years. Among the more recent efforts, the conferences have become a major aspect of SILAS activities, which have greatly contributed to academic exchange and scholarship improvement in the field. As a former scholar in Irish studies, who is no longer actively involved in the field, I would like to contribute to establish a more fluent dialogue and exchange between SILAS and scholars in neighbouring academic areas. Also, a stronger liaison with universities in Latin America would help to publicize the Society and hopefully attract students and researchers to the study of the Irish in the region.

Sharon is a senior journalist with well-known regional newspaper the Westmeath Examiner, and the Westmeath Weekend, and is a regular contributor to other national and regional publications. Author of a number of articles about the Irish diaspora and the emigration history from Westmeath and Longford, Sharon's interest in Irish-Argentine history began after discovering, through an article she was writing, that her own relatives had emigrated to Rosario, Santa Fe, during the height of emigration from Ireland in the nineteenth century. The Westmeath Examiner itself has its own links with Argentina, sending copies to the Irish there after its establishment in 1882.

Born in Temperley, a district of Great Buenos Aires, Juan Pablo Alvarez (32) works as product manager for a leading Argentine company where he is responsible for promotion and trade marketing. He researches the "Dresden Affair" of 1889, including the migration scheme managed by Argentine agents in Ireland, the journey of the _Dresden_ steamer and her passengers, and the settlers of the Irish Colony of Napostá. Since 2007, Juan Pablo has been cooperating with SILAS to improve the quality of its online publications.

"I wish to position SILAS as the referent for Irish-Latin American cultural studies. SILAS inspires people to undertake research projects at all levels. I expect the Society to provide knowledge and support, to foster relations among our peoples, and to connect cultures and generations through the present and past in Ireland and Latin America."

Born in Cork and educated at University College Cork and Cambridge University, Mary Harris is now senior lecturer in History at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She teaches modern Irish history and has research interests in Irish political, cultural and religious history, and Ireland and the wider world. She is a member of a thematic work group on Europe and the wider world in CLIOHRES.net (“Creating Links and Innovative Overviews for a New History Research Agenda for the Citizens of a Growing Europe”). In 2008 she chaired the selection committee of the Irish Latin American Research Fund. Her publications include ‘Irish Historiography of Latin America and Irish Links with Latin America’ in Csaba Lévai (ed.) Europe and the World in European Historiography (Pisa: PLUS, 2006), pp. 243-266, ‘Irish images of religious conflict in Mexico it the 1920s’ in Mary N. Harris ed. Sights and Insights: interactive images of Europe and the wider world (Pisa: PLUS, 2007), pp. 205-226 and a review of SILAS websites for History Ireland (July 2008).

I hope SILAS will discover and highlight new aspects of Irish Latin American contacts, raise awareness of its research resources for Irish Latin American Studies, and continue to function as a contact point for researchers in this field.

Born in Temperley, a district of Great Buenos Aires, Juan Pablo Alvarez (32) works as product manager for a leading Argentine company where he is responsible for promotion and trade marketing. He researches the "Dresden Affair" of 1889, including the migration scheme managed by Argentine agents in Ireland, the journey of the _Dresden_ steamer and her passengers, and the settlers of the Irish Colony of Napostá. Since 2007, Juan Pablo has been cooperating with SILAS to improve the quality of its online publications. "I wish to position SILAS as the referent for Irish-Latin American cultural studies. SILAS inspires people to undertake research projects at all levels. I expect the Society to provide knowledge and support, to foster relations among our peoples, and to connect cultures and generations through the present and past in Ireland and Latin America."

Born and raised in La Plata and a graduate from its National University, María Graciela Eliggi (Mariela) works at present as full-time professor of English Language and Literature and also as a translator at the College of Human Sciences, National University of La Pampa, Argentina. She holds an MA degree in Anglo American literature on Space, Place and Identity in Chicana and Canadian Literature from the National University of Río Cuarto, Córdoba. Mariela has carried out research in the field of post-colonialism since 1994. She has written, presented and published articles related to her field of studies. Co-editor and co-author of Estudios Literarios sobre la Cultura Chicana (2001) and Cultural Critical Perspectives on Recent Literatures in English. Towards and ever expanding Canon (2006). Since 2007 she is the director of a research project related to the socio-cultural aspects of Irish Immigration to Argentina: “Irlandeses en Argentina: recuperación de fuentes, traducción y crtica” As part of this new endeavor she has become a member of SILAS and IASIL and is planning to carry out her doctoral studies within the scope of Irish Studies. She has helped organize the Second Symposium of Irish Studies in South America (Buenos Aires, 2007) and is ready to do her best for the Fourth Symposium to be held in Santa Rosa (LP) in September 2009. She also believes that founding the Argentine Association of Irish Studies in Argentina should be a future step to be taken and promoted by SILAS.