UMass Boston

Area of Expertise

Global literatures in English; twentieth and twenty-first century British and Irish literature; transnational modernism; postcolonial theory, especially theories on human rights, humanitarian intervention, and citizenship; critical theory; film studies

Degrees

PhD, University of Wisconsin

Professional Publications & Contributions
  • “The Trials of Patrick Kavanagh.” New Hibernia Review (forthcoming)
  • “Cities under Watch: Urban Northern Ireland on Film.” Éire-Ireland (forthcoming)
  • “Strange Associations: Elizabeth Bowen and the Language of Exclusion.” Irish Studies Review.
  • “Reading the Difficult Text.” Radical Teacher 82 (2008): 8-12. Included in special issue, “Teaching Post-Colonial Literatures in the Age of Empire,” edited by Linda Dittmar and Pepi Leistyna.
  • “In/Outside Scotland: Race and Citizenship in the Work of Jackie Kay.” The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature. Ed. Berthold Schoene. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. 219-227.
  • “Is There Anything ‘Post-’ about Postnationalist Ireland?” The Irish Review 34.1 (2006): 91-107.
  • “Darwin at Church: John Tyndall’s Belfast Address.” Evangelicals and Catholics in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Ed. James Murphy. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005. 235-246.

Additional Information

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

  • Modern British Fiction
  • Postcolonial Literary Studies
  • Terrorism and the Novel
  • Contemporary British Fiction and Film
  • Cosmopolitanism and World Literature
  • On Violence
  • Travel and the Imagination
  • Five British Writers
  • The Modern Period

Graduate

  • Literary Theory Today
  • “Weird” English and the “New” Cosmopolitanism
  • Studies in Modern British Fiction
  • Global Literatures in English

Co-faculty sponsor (with Professor Scott Maisano): Literary Theory Reading Group. Previous seminar topics: “Fascination-Community” (2006-2007); “Whither the Human?” (2007-2008); “Politics and Literature” (2008-2009); “Allegory” (2009-2010)

Research and Teaching Interests

  • Global literatures in English
  • Twentieth and twenty-first century British and Irish literature
  • Transnational modernism
  • Postcolonial theory, especially theories on human rights, humanitarian intervention, and citizenship; critical theory
  • Film studies

Current Projects

Fascinating States: Violence, Modernity, and the Novel (book manuscript in preparation)

Review Essays, Book Reviews, and Encyclopedia Entries:

  • “The Atlantic Ocean, Andrew O’Hagan; Day, A.L. Kennedy; Girl Meets Boy, Ali Smith,” (review essay). Harvard Review 36 (2009): 235-237.
  • “Knots, Nuruddin Farah,” (review). Harvard Review 34 (2008): 203-205.
  • “Dualisms, Ricardo Quinones,” (review). Canadian Review of Comparative Literature (forthcoming).
  • “The Sea, John Banville,” (review). E-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies. 1.4 (2006): 17-20.
  • “Education,” (entry). Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Sean Duffy. New York: Routledge Press, 2004. 150-153.