According to Ford, the University of Notre Dame just received “an enormous grant” to start an Irish language-based program, while schools such as UCLA and the Catholic University of America have resident Celticists but no official programs.

“There are many ‘concentrations in’ although not official ‘departments,’” Africa says.

She believes it is now easier to study Celtic topics because the humanities have become more interdisciplinary and inclusive.

“The humanities have collapsed inward.  It used to be there was a department of this and a department of that, but now there is a loosening of the old rigid department ties,” she says.

Deane says that seeing an increase in young Celtic scholars is heartening to people who have been in the field for years.

“There are so many young presenters [at the Colloquium], either studying here or immediately qualified. Just the youth, it’s very elevating to me,” Deane says.

The department at Harvard is small, with only two full faculty members, 14 graduate students and no undergraduate program.

In the United States only Berkeley offers an undergraduate major in Celtic studies.  

Harvard undergraduates may however enroll in most of the department’s courses, and can petition to pursue Celtic Languages and Literatures as a Special Concentration.

Celtic 107, “Early Irish History” and Celtic 132, “Introduction to Modern Irish,” each have nine undergraduates enrolled this semester, while Celtic 114, “Early Irish Historical Tales,” has 13 students.

The department also offers Core courses that Ford says are consistently popular. When it was last offered in the spring of 2002, 173 students enrolled in Literature and Arts C-20, “The Hero of Irish Myth and Saga.”

Bettina Kimpton, a graduate student in the department who helps teach “Introduction to Modern Irish,” says many but not all students are attracted to the courses by familial ties to Celtic countries.

“Many have Irish heritage, but also they come because they want to learn a completely new language,” she says, describing her students as “highly motivated.”

Kimpton says most students are Folklore and Mythology concentrators who can choose Celtic as their specialization, along with a few English, comparative literature, history and linguistics concentrators interested in the subject.

The more advanced language classes such as “Old Irish,” in which students read texts dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, however, tend to be reserved for graduate students.