S5E18: Marybeth Shea - Montana Irish Translator of the Technical

Irish Stew Podcast

Join us in a westward journey to the Irish enclaves of Butte, Montana and on to a chicken coop on Maryland’s Eastern Shore as Marybeth Shea guides us along little-known paths of Irish migration and through little understood profession of technical communications.
She describes herself as a humanist and cites her Catholic education, specifically with the Jesuits, as foundational to her worldview and her career.
She’s now a professor of English in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Maryland and a technical writer who draws on the Irish storytelling tradition to bridge the gap between scientific specialists and the rest of us.
It was Marybeth’s research for a technical writing project that took her into that chicken coop as part of her hands-on research to develop the storytelling needed to get buy-in from poultry farmers on ways to decrease their ammonia output.
It’s a wide-ranging conversation that adds to our understanding of the complexity of Irish immigration and the growing importance of effective technical communications.
Links

• University of Maryland Professional Writing Program
• Seamus Plug: Ethnicity and Family Therapy

अध्यायों

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. High Plains or Cheasapeake Bay (00:02:54)

3. Montana Origins (00:04:11)

4. Genealogy and Immigrant Roots (00:05:33)

5. Family Name Conventions (00:09:23)

6. Migration Routes (00:12:01)

7. Great Falls to Butte and then St Paul (00:18:18)

8. Scratchy Irish Records and Dancing (00:21:45)

9. Educational Experience in Montana (00:23:40)

10. Bridging Science and the Humanities (00:28:11)

11. Technical Writing and Storytelling (00:30:47)

12. Eastern Shore Chicken Farmers (00:36:48)

13. Families, Politics and Trust (00:43:59)

14. Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence (00:46:58)

15. Stepping Away From Religion (00:52:40)

16. Global English (00:57:34)

17. Seamus Plug (00:59:58)

18. John and Martin Recap (01:03:01)

19. Credits (01:05:02)