
Biography
I primarily teach courses in modern and contemporary Irish literature, modernism, drama and performance, and academic writing. In these classes, we develop the skills to read and analyze challenging texts such as Joyce鈥檚 Ulysses (1922) or Claire-Louise Bennett鈥檚 Pond (2015). I ask students to say something new and interesting about our readings, and to use 鈥渢he words on the page鈥 to prove their claims in discussion and in papers. In our lively and provocative class discussions, you鈥檒l learn to take intellectual risks and to embrace the fun of thinking critically about literature and the arts.
We also work together to produce clear and persuasive writing that conveys original insights about literature and performance. To help in this endeavor, I demonstrate for students the pleasures and challenges of being a 鈥渢eacher-scholar,鈥 a professor who integrates her classroom practice and scholarly research. In my 鈥淢odernist Afterlives鈥 seminar, for example, we examine how and why the innovative tactics of high modernism, an early twentieth-century cultural movement, continue to appear in contemporary drama, poetry, and fiction 鈥 a concern that inspired my recent monograph, , as well as my edited collection, . My research and teaching have informed opinion pieces I鈥檝e published in venues including the , , and , as well as in podcasts for and .
Thanks to the Edward Callahan Support Fund for Irish Studies, students have the opportunity to meet and talk with Irish writers whom we read in class, such as Kevin Barry, Anne Enright, Eimear McBride, Mary Morrissy, Paul Muldoon, and Colm T贸ib铆n, and to discuss Irish literature and culture with visiting scholars in Irish Studies. We also support the Writers Room at the in Dublin, where we are building rich partnerships with Irish cultural institutions and contemporary writers to enable exciting cross-cultural opportunities for the 换妻论坛 community. My classes have travelled to Boston, Providence, New Haven, and New York to see productions of plays, and you might just find us at a local pub discussing poetry or at my house screening a film relevant to our class.
Sample Courses
Introductory Courses
- Critical Reading and Writing: Drama
- Critical Reading and Writing: Fiction
- Critical Reading and Writing: Poetry
- Critical Reading and Writing: Multi-genre
- Introduction to Academic Writing
Touchstones, Readings, Masterpieces, and Seminars
- Touchstones II: British Romanticism to the Present
- Readings in Twentieth-Century British Literature
- Masterpieces of British Literature: Audiences and Actors
- Seminar: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Things (with Sarah Stanbury)
- Seminar: Modernist Afterlives
Irish Studies Courses
- Modernism and the Irish Literary Revival
- Contemporary Irish Literature
- Irish Sex
- Irish Drama
- Irish Literary Activism
- The Irish Short Story
- James Joyce
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock 鈥榥 Roll in Irish Literature (non-majors)
- Modern Irish Literature (non-majors)
- Seminar: Joyce's Ulysses and Critical Theory
- Seminar: Irish Women's Writing
- Seminar: Catholicism in Irish Literature and Culture
- Tutorial: Gender in Contemporary Irish Literature and Culture
- College Honors: Irish Experience (with Suzanne Kirschner)
Selected publications
Books
(Oxford University Press, 2024)
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Paperback, 2010. Honorable Mention, Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book, American Conference for Irish Studies, 2007
Edited Volumes
- Editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
- Co-Editor (with Eric Falci). Irish Literature in Transition, Volume 6 (1980-2020). Series Editors, Claire Connolly and Marjorie Howes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
- Invited Guest Editor. 48:1 (Summer 2018).
- Editor. Anthem Irish Studies Series. London: Anthem Press, 2016. Paperback, 2019.
- Invited Guest Editor. 64:1 & 2 (Spring/Summer 2011).
Recent Articles and Book Chapters
- 鈥淏ird Girls: Modernism and Sexual Ethics in Eimear McBride鈥檚 A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing.鈥&苍产蝉辫;. Ed. David James. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
- 鈥淭heatrical Ireland: New Routes from the Abbey Theatre to the Gate Theatre.鈥&苍产蝉辫; (1880-1940). Ed. Marjorie Howes. Series eds. Claire Connolly and Marjorie Howes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 55-72.
- 鈥淐ontemporary Irish Drama and Media.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Irish Literature in Transition vol. 6(1980-2020). Eds. Eric Falci and Paige Reynolds. Series eds. Claire Connolly and Marjorie Howes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 81-95.
- 鈥淭he Irish Times and Tramp Press.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Irish Literature in Transition, vol. 6 (1980-2020). Eds. Eric Falci and Paige Reynolds. Series eds. Claire Connolly and Marjorie Howes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 392-400.
- 鈥淪ean O鈥機asey鈥檚 Late Modernism: Gender, Race, and Disabled Bodies on the Irish Expressionist Stage.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Eds. Patrick Bixby and Gregory Castle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 227-242.
- 鈥淧rose, Drama, and Poetry, 1891-1920,鈥 . Eds. Heather Ingman and Cl铆ona 脫 Gallchoir. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 131-148.
- 鈥淪pectacular Nostalgia: Modernism and Dramatic Form in Kate O鈥橞rien鈥檚 Pray for the Wanderer,鈥 48:1 (Summer 2018). 54-67.
- 鈥溾橮ublish Little, and Publish Well鈥: An Interview with the Founders of Tramp Press.鈥52:1 & 2 (Spring/Summer 2017). 372-390.
- 鈥淭he Avant-Garde Doyenne: Mary Manning, the Poets鈥 Theatre, and the Staging of Finnegans Wake鈥39:2 (Winter 2017). 109-133.
- 鈥淒irection and Design to 1960.鈥&苍产蝉辫;. Eds. Nicholas Grene and Christopher Morash. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 201-216.
- 鈥淢odernist Periodicals.鈥. Eds. Alex Davis and Lee Jenkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 118-138.
- 鈥溾橝 Theatre of the Head鈥: Material Culture, Severed Heads, and the Late Drama of W. B. Yeats.鈥&苍产蝉辫; 58:4 (Winter 2015). 437-460.