Postgraduate Student Handbook
The postgraduate student handbook is available here.
Postgraduate Representatives
A number of registered postgraduate research students serve as representatives for the broader graduate community in the School of English every year (excluding MPhil students, who have their own class representatives for each taught programme). The Graduate Students’ Union oversees the election of these representatives, which usually takes place in September. Teaching Assistants in the School also have a representative.
The current PGR and TA (Teaching Assistant) representatives in the School are Casey Lawrence and Adrian Howlett. Casey and Adrian attend School committee meetings, liaise with individual TAs and postgraduates, and host occasional TA and PG meetings. They also maintain the TA office in room 316, 3-4 Foster Place. Casey and Adrian can be contacted directly at: Clawrenc@tcd.ie and ahowlett@tcd.ie respectively.
Current Research Students
Halila Bayramova
Name:
Halila Bayramova
Email:
bayramoh@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Sam Slote
Dissertation Title:
Towards a Digital Genetic Edition of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake Chapter II.2
Projected Completion:
September 2020
Funding:
Trinity College Dublin Postgraduate Studentship 1252
Background:
BA (Hons) in English Philology from the Azerbaijan University of Languages; MA in English Linguistics & Literature from the University of Antwerp
Research keywords:
manuscript genetics, digital textual editing, Irish modernism, TEI, genetic criticism
Eva Burke
Name:
Eva Burke
Email:
burkeev@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Clare Clarke
Dissertation Title:
Safer to be feared than loved: The Domestic Noir Fiction of Gillian Flynn
Projected Completion:
August 2020
Funding:
Irish Research Council
Background:
B.A. (Hons) in Humanities from St. Patrick’s College, Carlow. MPhil in Popular Literature, Trinity College Dublin (2014-15).
Research keywords:
Gillian Flynn, Popular literature, crime fiction, feminism
Alicia Byrne Keane
Name:
Alicia Byrne Keane
Email:
byrnekea@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Samuel Slote
Dissertation Title:
Beckett and Murakami's 'Vaguened' Worlds
Projected Completion:
September 2021
Funding:
Irish Research Council
Background:
BA (English Literature and French), Trinity College Dublin. MSt (English Literature 1900-Present), Oxford University
Research keywords:
Beckett Studies, Translation Studies, Spatial Theory, Japanese Studies, World Literature
Siobhán Callaghan
Name:
Siobhán Callaghan
Email:
callagsi@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Pádraic Whyte
Dissertation Title:
The displaced children of the Second World War in historical fiction for children
Projected Completion:
2022
Funding:
Irish Research Council
Background:
BA in English and Drama, M.Phil. in Children’s Literature
Research keywords:
children's literature, historical fiction, displacement, war
Sarah Cullen
Name:
Sarah Cullen
Email:
scullen5@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Prof Stephen Matterson
Dissertation Title:
Laying in the Dark: The Literary Night in Nineteenth-Century American Prose
Projected Completion:
September 2019
Funding:
Irish Research Council
Background:
Postgraduate Fellow at the Eccles Centre for American Studies (2017-18)
Research keywords:
Night Studies, American Literature, Nocturnal Gothic, Race & Gender
Orlaith Darling
Name:
Orlaith Darling
Email:
darlingo@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Paul Delaney
Dissertation Title:
'Something familiar about the shape': association and alienation in contemporary Irish women's short fiction
Projected Completion:
September 2023
Funding:
Irish Research Council
Background:
BA TSM English Literature and History Trinity College Dublin (2014-18); MSc Literature and Modernity 1900-present University of Edinburgh (2018-19)
Research keywords:
Short fiction; Irish writing; women's writing
Janice Deitner
Name:
Janice Deitner
Email:
deitnerj@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Bernice Murphy
Dissertation Title:
"You Know": Bodies of Knowledge in Shirley Jackson's America
Projected Completion:
September 2023
Funding:
TCD Provost’s PhD Project Award
Background:
BA in English Studies, TCD
Research keywords:
American Literature, American Gothic, Horror Studies, Popular Literature, Shirley Jackson
Martina Devlin
Name:
Martina Devlin
Email:
devlinm1@tcd.ie
Supervisor(s):
Dr Paul Delaney and Dr Carlo Gébler
Dissertation Title:
‘Signals From The Other Side: How the Somerville and Ross canon was shaped’
Projected Completion:
September 2021
Funding:
Pyle Postgraduate Bursary (2019-20)
Background:
BA, University of London (1995), MPhil in Anglo-Irish Literature, Trinity College Dublin (1997)
Research keywords:
Irish Women Writers, Spiritualism, Feminism, Identity, Hybridity, Somerville and Ross
Orla Donnelly
Name:
Orla Donnelly
Email:
ordonnel@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Clare Clarke
Dissertation Title:
'Sherlock Holmes, "Dark Tourism" and the Late Victorian Periodical Press'
Projected Completion:
August 2024
Funding:
Provost Research Project Award
Background:
B.A. (Hons) in English, Media and Cultural Studies, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (I.A.D.T.) M.Phil in Popular Literature, Trinity College Dublin (2014-15).
Research Keywords:
Nineteenth-century Literature, Crime and Detective Fiction, 'Dark Tourism', Slum Journalism
Anna Donovan
Name:
Anna Donovan
Email:
donovaa1@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Prof Aileen Douglas
Dissertation Title:
Frances Burney: Sympathy, Sincerity, and National Identity, 1778-1814
Projected Completion:
September 2020
Background:
BA in New Media and English, University of Limerick (2015); MA in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick (2017)
Research keywords:
Eighteenth-century literature; National Identity; Frances Burney; British theatre of the eighteenth-century
Rebecca Easler
Name:
Rebecca Easler
Email:
easlerr@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Jarlath Killeen
Dissertation Title:
Cultural Anxieties and Child Death in the Victorian Novel
Projected Completion:
September 2023
Background:
BA English Literature and History, Concordia College Moorhead (2014); MSc in Literature and Society, University of Edinburgh (2017)
Research keywords:
child studies, Victorian literature, fairy tales, social criticism, nineteenth-century concepts of death
Moonyoung Hong
Name:
Moonyoung Hong
Email:
hongm@tcd.ie
Supervisor(s):
Prof Chris Morash & Prof Nicholas Grene
Dissertation Title:
Tom Murphy’s Theatre of Everyday Space
Projected Completion:
September 2021
Funding:
Ussher Fellowship
Background:
BA in English Language and Literature, Hanyang University, Seoul (2014); MPhil in Irish Writing, Trinity College Dublin (2016)
Research keywords:
Modern Drama; Contemporary Theatre; Irish Literature; Tom Murphy; Everyday Space
Dearbhaile Houston
Name:
Dearbhaile Houston
Email:
dhouston@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Philip Coleman
Dissertation Title:
Hauntologies of Domestic Space in Contemporary Women’s Fiction, 1980-Present
Projected Completion:
August 2021
Funding:
TCD Postgraduate Research Studentship (1252)
Background:
BA in English and New Media, University of Limerick (2015), MPhil in Gender and Women’s Studies, Trinity College Dublin (2017)
Research keywords:
Contemporary fiction; women's writing; domestic space; feminism; hauntology; Alice Munro; Anne Enright; Lorrie Moore
Adrian Howlett
Name:
Adrian Howlett
Email:
ahowlett@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Sam Slote
Dissertation Title:
The Hibernian Cosmopolis
Projected Completion:
August 2021
Funding:
SUSI (partial); Trinity Travel Grant
Background:
BA (Hons) English, Liverpool John Moores University; M.Phil Irish Writing, Trinity College Dublin
Research keywords:
James Joyce; Don DeLillo; technology; modernity; postmodernity; finance; time
Alexander Jones
Name:
Alexander Jones
Email:
jonesa5@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Tom Walker
Dissertation Title:
Louis MacNeice and Writing of the Mind
Projected Completion:
August 2020
Funding:
Ussher Fellowship (2016-2019); IRC (2019-2020)
Background:
MA in English, University of Aberdeen (2014); MPhil in Irish Writing, Trinity College Dublin (2015)
Research keywords:
Irish literature; Louis MacNeice; Psychoanalysis; Philosophy of mind; modernism
Marion Kelly
Name:
Marion Kelly
Email:
kellym63@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Paul Delaney
Dissertation Title:
‘Conor Cruise O’Brien: The Pre-eminence of the Poetic’
Projected Completion:
December 2019
Funding:
Irish Research Council
Background:
MA in Art in the Contemporary World (National College of Art and Design, Dublin); BA in History and Sociology, Maynooth University
Research keywords:
Conor Cruise O’Brien, Irish Studies, Intellectual and cultural History, Society and Literature
Nuria de Cos Lara
Name:
Nuria de Cos Lara
Email:
Supervisor(s):
Dr Tom Walker and Dr Ciara O'Hagan (Hispanic Studies)
Dissertation Title:
Religious attitudes in the poetry of W. B. Yeats and Juan Ramón Jiménez
Projected Completion:
September 2020
Funding:
Peter Irons, A. J. Leventhal Travel Scholarship, La Caixa Foundation Scholarship
Background:
BA in English Studies, Complutense University of Madrid, MPhil in Irish Writing, Trinity College Dublin
Research keywords:
Modernism/Modernity, Comparative Literature, W.B. Yeats, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Religion
Casey Lawrence
Name:
Casey Lawrence
Email:
clawrenc@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Sam Slote
Dissertation Title:
‘The New Womanly Man’: Crossdressing and gender inversion in Joyce and his contemporaries
Projected Completion:
September 2022
Funding:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Background:
MA, Brock University (Canada)
Research keywords:
James Joyce; Modernism; crossdressing; gender; queer
Ziyun Liu
Name:
Ziyun Liu
Email:
Supervisor(s):
Professor Andy Murphy
Dissertation Title:
'The Dissemination and Reception of Works from the Irish Literary Revival in Republican China'
Projected Completion:
September 2024
Background:
BA in Editing and Publishing, BIGC (Beijing), MPhil in Textual and Visual Studies, TCD (Dublin)
Amelia McConville
Name:
Amelia McConville
Email:
amcconv@tcd.ie
Supervisor(s):
Dr Philip Coleman & Prof Mani Ramaswami (Genetics)
Dissertation Title:
Poetry Studies and Neurohumanities: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Projected Completion:
September 2021
Funding:
1252 Student Scholarship
Background:
BA English and Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin
Research keywords:
Poetry Studies, Visual Poetry, Neurohumanities
Margaret Masterson
Name:
Margaret Masterson
Email:
Supervisor:
Dr Jane Suzanne Carroll
Dissertation Title:
Maria Edgeworth, Mary Pollard, and the Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: constructing, collecting and conserving girlhood in the children’s literature archive
Projected Completion:
September 2023
Background:
Loyola University New Orleans, USA, Bachelor of Music Therapy, 1991
Dominican University, USA, Master of Library and Information Science, 2006
Trinity College Dublin, Master of Philosophy in Children's Literature, 2019
Constantia Maxwell Scholarship, Trinity College Dublin, 2018
Pollard Fellowship in Irish Bibliography, Trinity College Dublin, 2019
Research keywords:
children's literature; Maria Edgeworth; Irish bibliography; book history; print culture; book collection; girlhood studies; childhood studies
Hannah Elizabeth Mathew
Name:
Hannah Elizabeth Mathew
Email:
mathewh@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Professor Darryl Jones
Dissertation Title:
'Ten Thousand Imaginary Fires: Biopolitics, Immunity, and the Intellectual in Cold-War Western Dystopias'
Projected Completion:
August 2024
Funding:
TCD Postgraduate Research Studentship (1252)
Background:
B.A. (Hons.) in English from Patna Women's College; M.A. in English from Ambedkar University Delhi
Research keywords: dystopias, biopolitics, cold-war, intellectual outlier, personhood
Elliott Mills
Name:
Elliott Mills
Email:
elmills@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Tom Walker and Dr Sam Slote
Dissertation Title:
Flann O'Brien and the Technologies of Communication
Projected Completion:
August 2022
Funding:
Irish Research Council
Background:
BA(Hons) and MA, University of Manchester
Research keywords:
Modernism, Irish Studies, New Media, Flann O’Brien
Caitlin Moon
Name:
Caitlin Moon
Email:
moonc@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Brendan O’Connell
Dissertation Title:
The Loathly Lady: Dynamic and Didactic Phases of Gender & Disability in Medieval Literature
Projected Completion:
Spring 2021
Background:
BA, University of Delaware (2015); MA in English, Villanova University (2017), MA Certificate in Women and Gender Studies, Villanova University (2017)
Research keywords:
Medieval Literature, Women, Disability, Gender, Loathly Lady
Joshua Newman
Name:
Joshua Newman
Email:
newmanj1@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Samuel Slote
Dissertation Title:
On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Ireland: James Joyce and Nationalist Historiography
Projected Completion:
December 2019
Funding:
Trinity College Dublin Postgraduate Studentship 1252
Background:
BA and MA, University Buffalo
Research keywords:
James Joyce, history, historiography
James Michael O'Brien
Name:
James Michael O'Brien
Email:
obriej47@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Philip Coleman
Dissertation Title:
‘The Going to What Lasts’: A critical and contextual reading of Raymond Carver’s poetry.
Projected Completion:
2025
Background:
I am currently a teacher (secondary) in the UK. My undergraduate degree was from The University of Edinburgh.
Research keywords:
Carver, Poetry, Alcohol, Cure, Transcendental
Mary O'Byrne
Name:
Mary O'Byrne
Email:
obyrnem1@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Professor Chris Morash
Dissertation Title:
'The Phenomenology of Death and the Inner-workings of Time in the stage plays of Samuel Beckett.'
Projected Completion:
March 2020
Background:
BA (Hons) in Social Science from University College Dublin; Master of Public Administration from University College Dublin; Diploma in Arts (Drama) from National University of Ireland Maynooth; Master of Drama and Performance from University College Dublin.
Research keywords:
Phenomenology, Beckett studies, Theatre studies
Julia O’Connell
Name:
Julia O’Connell
Email:
oconnej5@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr. Brendan O’Connell
Dissertation Title:
‘Conflicted Emotions: Grief, Emotional Communities and Anglo-French Rivalry in Late Medieval Literature’
Projected Completion:
September 2020
Funding:
MA in Literature, University of Glasgow (2014); MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Durham University (2015)
Background:
1252 Studentship (2016-19), IRC Postgraduate Scholarship (2019-20)
Research keywords:
medieval literature, History of Emotions, grief, medieval poetry, multilingual
Claire Poynton-Smith
Name:
Claire Poynton-Smith
Email:
poyntonc@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Mark Faulkner
Dissertation Title:
Working title: ‘Continuity and Change in the Vernacular Vocabulary of Sainthood, c. 950 — c. 1250’
Projected Completion:
September 2024
Funding:
Provost's PhD Project Award
Background:
BA Hons English Language and Literature, University of Oxford (2012-2015); Postgraduate Certificate in Secondary Education with Distinction, University of Leicester (2015-2016); MA Viking and Anglo-Saxon Studies, University of Nottingham (2018-2019)
Research keywords:
Medieval literature; late Old English; early Middle English; twelfth-century English; Saints' Lives; gender; historical linguistics
Esther Reilly
Name:
Esther Reilly
Email:
Supervisor:
Dr Jarlath Killeen
Dissertation Title:
'The Physical and Mental Disabilities of Freakish Bodied Characters in 19th-Century Fiction'
Projected Completion:
September 2023
Background:
BA in English Literature, University of Pittsburgh (2018), MPhil in Children's Literature, Trinity College Dublin (2019)
Research keywords:
Freakery; Disability Studies; Victorian Cultural Studies; Critical Body Studies; Victorian Freak Shows
Stefano Rosignoli
Name:
Stefano Rosignoli
Email:
Supervisor:
Dr Sam Slote
Dissertation Title:
A Comparative Textual Analysis of the Ethics of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.
Projected Completion:
30 September 2020
Background:
Modern Literature (2006) and Publishing Studies (2008), University of Bologna
Research keywords:
James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, textual scholarship, moral philosophy.
Eric Swartz
Name:
Eric Swartz
Email:
swartze@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr. Julie Bates
Dissertation Title:
Sewers, Oil Rigs, and Other Messy, Misbehaving Infrastructure in Contemporary Fiction
Projected Completion:
September 2024
Funding:
1252 Studentship
Background:
BA in English, Belmont Abbey College (2018). MPhil in Irish Writing, Trinity College Dublin (2019).
Research keywords:
world literature, literature in translation, infrastructure, networks, engineering, Flann O'Brien
Amudha Mathur Vinayagamoorthy
Name:
Amudha Mathur Vinayagamoorthy
Email:
mathurva@tcd.ie
Supervisor:
Dr Pádraic Whyte
Dissertation Title:
The Politics of Trauma in the Disintegration of Childhood and Nationhood as Observed in Young Adult Literature of South Asia
Projected Completion:
September 2024
Background:
MA in English, Stella Maris College, University of Madras (2017)
Research keywords:
Children's Literature; Young Adult Fiction; South Asian Literature; Trauma Studies
Bowen Wang
Name:
Bowen Wang
Email:
Supervisor:
Dr Philip Coleman
Dissertation Title:
Loy, cummings, Barnes: Painter-Poets and Modernist Ut Pictura Poesis
Projected Completion:
September 2023
Funding:
TCD-CSC (China Scholarship Council) Joint Scholarship Programme
Background:
BA English Language and Literature, Sun Yat-sen University (2016), MSc Literature and Modernity, University of Edinburgh (2018)
Research keywords:
Modernism and postmodernism; intermediality (between literature and art); ut pictura poesis; experimental poetics; visual aesthetics