Irish Studies at Boston College

08/27/2026

The Irish Studies Program at Boston College invites applications for the newly created role of Assistant Professor of the Practice / Assistant Director of Irish Studies. The successful candidate will be appointed to a full-time, non-tenure-track, three-year renewable contract faculty position in the interdisciplinary Irish Studies Program. The salary range is $90-100k The position includes a pathway to promotion to the ranks of Associate and full Professor of the Practice (without tenure).

The Boston College Irish Studies program is a vibrant academic community with a distinguished international reputation. In addition to offering an undergraduate minor in Irish Studies and supporting graduate and faculty research, it runs an intensive program of events, including conferences, lectures, seminars, workshops, panel discussions, literary readings, traditional music concerts, film screenings, and exhibitions, all of which bring notable scholars, authors, artists and public figures to Boston College.

The primary responsibilities of this position involve working with the director of Irish Studies and the program’s faculty to plan, organize and promote academic programming that enriches the experience of undergraduate and graduate students at Boston College, and also engages with the wider interested public in the greater Boston area.

In addition to the substantial organizational and programming responsibilities as Assistant Director of the Irish Studies Program, the position carries an annual teaching load of 1-1 in the program (a reduction from the typical 3-3 teaching load for a full-time, non-tenure track faculty member in a humanities or social sciences department at Boston College). The successful candidate will teach electives on subjects that significantly contribute to broadening the Irish Studies curriculum, with a preference for specialization in disciplines other than literature.

Teaching duties begin on the first day of classes for the fall semester, which in the Fall 2027 semester will be August 30, 2027.

Apply here:

08/10/2026

hosted our Burns Visiting Summer Fellow, Christina Morin, from the University of Limerick.

Here's what she had to say about her visit to Boston:

"The 2026 Burns Summer Visiting Fellowship in Irish Studies allowed me a wonderful opportunity to advance my current monograph project, Irish Gothic in the Global Nineteenth Century. This study explores the impact of Romantic-era Irish gothic fiction in the nineteenth-century global literary marketplace, focusing on Irish-authored novels published by London’s Minerva Press, c. 1780-1830. While at BC, I concentrated on completing the research for and drafting the book’s fourth chapter, which investigates the circulation and dissemination of Irish Minerva works in the early American republic, paying special attention to American reprints and circulating library holdings of these works in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Irish-born printer and bookseller Mathew Carey was a particular point of focus, and the holdings at the Burns Library and other area archives, the American Antiquarian Society Library especially, were essential in nuancing my assessment of the prominence of Minerva Press publications in the early American literary marketplace. Thanks to these resources, I was able to compile a spreadsheet of known American reprints of Irish Minerva works as well as the holdings of these works in nearly fifty circulating libraries along the east coast in the period from 1799 to 1829. This turned up some surprising findings, which I am now detailing in full as I make sense of all my notes and files from Boston and finish the chapter."

08/03/2026

Professor Seán Cahill helped organize a third annual course for advanced learners, 'Blaiseadh na Gaeltachta,' 'Taste of the Gaeltachta,' in Rann na Feirste, Co. Donegal. Among the teachers were Máiread Ní Dhomhnaill from the band Skara Brae, Tory Island singer Colm Joe Mac Ruairí, film producer Sonia Nic Giolla Easpaig, and storyteller Aela Ni Ghaoithín. The group visited Raidió na Gaeltachta and many of the students, organizers and teachers spoke with Aodh Máirtín Ó Fearraigh about the highlights of their week in the Gaeltacht.

Bhí an cúrsa, Blaiseadh na Gaeltachta ar siúl i Rann na Feirste le gairid agus d’fhreastal scór duine as ar fad fud na cruinne ar an chúrsa a bhí ar siúl don tríú bliain as a chéile. Thug siad cuairt orainn anseo agus labhair cuid de na rannpháirtithe agus na teagascóirí linn.

07/28/2026

PhD candidate Cassidy Allen has a chapter in the recently published Sally Rooney: Perspectives & Approaches (Bucknell University Press, 2026).

Titled "The Gothic Gaze: Technology, Surveillance, and Female Subjectivity in Sally Rooney's Fiction," Allen's chapter argues that Rooney's work reimagines the Gothic subject through digital forms of self-exposure and surveillance, producing what she terms a Gothicized self. The Gothicized self is fragmented, hyper-visible, and perpetually aware of imaginary spectators - lovers, peers, algorithms, and even readers - who shape and constrain the subject's sense of autonomy.

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.36019/9781684486045/html?srsltid=AfmBOopZglkbzmPZoGharFd8_M2i4kYguqp9SitkiEe2hwaMbm3fKqtP

07/16/2026

Next Wednesday, July 22, the Burns Library is hosting an event titled "The Story of US" at 5:30 pm

Learn about the newly released 1926 Irish Census database, search for family histories, view the National Archives of Ireland's special exhibition, and have some refreshments!

07/06/2026

The Supreme Court cited graduate Hidetake Hirota in their landmark birthright citizenship decision.

The justices referenced Hirota's 2017 book, "Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States & 19th C. Origins of American Immigration Policy."

The U.S. Supreme Court this week reaffirmed the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s attempt to end the longstanding practice of granting citizenship to nearly all children born on U.S. soil. In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that Trump's executive...

07/06/2026

Congrats to our former student Rachel Brody on her appointment to Washington and Jefferson College!

06/24/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Theodore Lehre!

Dr. Lehre defended their dissertation, titled "The Othered Mother: Q***r & Alternative Motherhoods in 20th Century Irish Literature," with their committee this past weekend.

could not be more proud!

06/19/2026

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglass

06/18/2026

Professor Joe Nugent celebrated Bloomsday this week by launching his new app JoyceWays at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow!