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Dr. Julie Bates
Associate Professor, English

Biography

I completed a BA in the School of English in 2006, in the course of which I was elected a Scholar. I went on to write my PhD in the School, under the supervision of Professor Nicholas Grene. My dissertation was the starting point of my book Beckett's Art of Salvage (Cambridge University Press, 2017; paperback, 2020).

Since completing my PhD, I have held teaching positions in universities in Mexico and Bosnia, and given lectures in America, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, and Turkey.

I took up a two-year post in the School of English as a Teaching Fellow in September 2015, became an Assistant Professor in 2017, an Associate Professor in 2023, and I was elected a Fellow of the College in 2024.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Julie Bates, Beckett's art of salvage: writing and material imagination, 1932-1987, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017, 350pp Book, 2017

Word & Image, 38, 2, (2022), 1-71p, Julie Bates and Lea Vuong, [Editors and Authors] Journal, 2022 URL

Julie Bates, "I do, I undo, I redo": Louise Bourgeois and Samuel Beckett, Journal of Beckett Studies, 32, (1), 2023, p1-16 Journal Article, 2023

Julie Bates, 'Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift': Radical intimacy with insects, plants, and mud in texts by Beckett and Clarice Lispector, Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, 2025, p10 Journal Article, 2025

Materiality/Animality/Humanity, or The Uses of a Hedgehog in, editor(s)Mark Nixon and Dirk Van Hulle , The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Beckett, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2025, pp1-18 , [Julie Bates] Book Chapter, 2025

Julie Bates, Erica Van Horn's creative exercises, Irish Studies Review, 31, (1), 2023, p1-29 Journal Article, 2023

Julie Bates, Beckett, Brian O'Doherty and Brian Dillon: intermediality and the future anterior, Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, 32, (1), 2020, p129 - 143 Journal Article, 2020

Beckett at the Gate in, editor(s)Nicholas Grene and Christopher Morash , The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp478 - 493, [Julie Bates] Book Chapter, 2016

Julie Bates, The political and aesthetic power of the everyday in Beckett's Happy Days, Journal of Beckett Studies, 28, (1), 2019, p52 - 66 Journal Article, 2019

Essayism in contemporary Ireland in, editor(s)Paige Reynolds , The New Irish Studies: Twenty-First-Century Critical Revisions, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp228 - 243, [Julie Bates] Book Chapter, 2020

Writing with air in The Third Policeman in, editor(s)Paul Fagan, Katherine Ebury, John Greaney , Flann O'Brien and the Nonhuman: Animals, Environments, Machines, Cork, Cork University Press, 2024, pp1-21 , [Julie Bates] Book Chapter, 2024

Julie Bates and Lea Vuong, Interview with Maggie Wright, Louise Bourgeois Archive, The Easton Foundation, Word and Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry, 38, (1), 2022, p11 - 18 Journal Article, 2022

Julie Bates and Lea Vuong, At Home with the Artist: Exploring the Louise Bourgeois Archive, Word and Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry, 38, (1), 2022, p1 - 10 Journal Article, 2022

Julie Bates, 'I do, I undo, I redo': Samuel Beckett and Louise Bourgeois, Journal of Beckett Studies, 31, (1), 2023, p64 - 82 Journal Article, 2023

Julie Bates, Chasing floating heads from Beckett's fiction to drama and film (Keynote Lecture), International Beckett Conference, University of Guanajuato, Mexico, November, 2014, University of Guanajuato Invited Talk, 2014

Writing homelessness: the fugitive literature of Samuel Beckett and W.G Sebald in, editor(s)Dorothea Depner and Guy Woodward , Irish Culture and Wartime Europe 1938-48, Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2015, pp150 - 175, [Julie Bates] Book Chapter, 2015

Beckett's Maternal Miscellany in, editor(s)Claudia Reese and Yvonne O'Keeffe , New Voices: Inherited Lines, New York, Peter Lang, 2013, pp20 , [Julie Bates] Book Chapter, 2013

Julie Bates, Staging Beckett , Review of Staging Beckett in Ireland and Northern Ireland & Staging Beckett in Great Britain (Bloomsbury Methuen, 2016) , by Trish McTighe and David Tucker , Irish University Review, 48, (1), 2018 Review, 2018

Julie Bates, Beckett's Political Imagination, Review of Beckett's Political Imagination, by Emilie Morin , Textual Practice, 32, (6), 2018, p1027-1029 Review, 2018 URL

Julie Bates, F for Françoise? Delayed Justice and Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesnil's Writing, 2024 Journal Article, 2024

Julie Bates, 'Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift': radical intimacy with environments in Beckett's writing, Beckett's Environments, University of Exeter (online), 1-2 December 2023, 2023 Conference Paper, 2023

Julie Bates, Beckett's Birds, 2019, - Miscellaneous, 2019

Julie Bates, From Beckett's sedulous fiction to Brian Dillon's essayism, 2018, - Miscellaneous, 2018

Julie Bates, Ruined Time: Samuel Beckett and Brian Dillon, 2017, - Miscellaneous, 2017

Julie Bates, Louise Bourgeois's fabric works: time-charged materials and radical family portraits, 2017, - Miscellaneous, 2017

Julie Bates, '"The boldest jump-cut - the most daring time-shift, the most outrageous deduction - ever": Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, 2018, - Miscellaneous, 2018

Humble Relics: Beckett and van Gogh's old boots in, editor(s)Rui Carvalho Homem , Relational Designs in Literature and the Arts: Page and Stage, Canvas and Screen, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2012, pp20 , [Julie Bates] Book Chapter, 2012

Julie Bates, Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo and New Orleans, 2013, - 10 Miscellaneous, 2013

Julie Bates, A menace to hedgehogs: Larkin and Beckett, 2012, - 10 Miscellaneous, 2012

Julie Bates and Aliye F. Mataracı, Costume as a Manifestation of European Fascination with the Ottomans, Don Juan Archiv Wien International Symposium: Ottoman Empire & European Theatre VIII, Pera Museum, Istanbul, May 2015, 2015 Conference Paper, 2015

Julie Bates, Protestant middle class values embedded in Beckett's bowler hats, Class and Culture in Twentieth-Century Ireland, St John's College, University of Cambridge, April 2015, 2015 Conference Paper, 2015

Julie Bates, Greatcoats in Beckett and André Kertész: paternal heirloom and costume staple, Autobiography in Context, University of Rijeka, Croatia, November 2014, 2014 Conference Paper, 2014

Julie Bates, Writing homelessness: Beckett's creative response to the Second World War, Writing Home: Irish Culture and Wartime Europe 1938-48, Trinity Long Room Hub, TCD, June 2013, edited by Dorothea Depner and Guy Woodward , 2013 Conference Paper, 2013

Julie Bates, Comic cripples and beggars: Beckett, Adam and Paul and Hieronymus Bosch, Samuel Beckett and the 'State' of Ireland, Humanities Institute, UCD, July 2012, edited by UCD , 2012 Conference Paper, 2012

Julie Bates, Beckett's Greatcoats: Paternal Museums, Samuel Beckett: Out of the Archive, Humanities Research Centre, University of York, England, June 2011, 2011 Conference Paper, 2011

Julie Bates, Beckett and van Gogh's Old Boots, Relational Forms I: An International Conference on Literature and the Arts, Faculdade de Letras de Universidade do Porto, Portugal, November 2010, 2010 Conference Paper, 2010

Julie Bates, Beckett's rough treatment of the bowler hat, Ireland and Modernity: An Interdisciplinary Conference, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 2010, 2010 Conference Paper, 2010

Julie Bates, Beckett's Maternal Miscellany, Irish Literatures and Culture: New and Old Knowledges: IASIL Annual Conference, NUI Maynooth, Ireland, July 2010, 2010 Conference Paper, 2010

Julie Bates, Peephole Art: Beckett and Video Art, Electronic Information and the Visual Arts: EVA Annual Conference, Covent Garden, London, England, July 2010, 2010 Conference Paper, 2010

Julie Bates, Hats and Beds: Beckett's Maternal Objects, New Voices: Inherited Lines, University of Limerick, Ireland, May 2010, 2010 Conference Paper, 2010

Julie Bates, But Is It Still Theatre, Eh Joe?, ISTR Annual Conference, School of Drama, TCD, April 2010, 2010 Conference Paper, 2010

Julie Bates, Elizabeth Bowen's charged materials: clothing & the fabric of time, International Conference on Elizabeth Bowen, Warsaw, Poland, 5 July 2016, edited by Interdisciplinary Research Foundation , 2016 Conference Paper, 2016

Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications

Julie Bates, Samuel Beckett's miscellaneous rubbish, 2017, - Miscellaneous, 2017 URL

Julie Bates, "Every man for himself, assuming bees to be capable of such notions": Beckett's bioaesthetics, Beckett and the Nonhuman International Conference, Free University of Brussels, VUB, Belgium, 7-8 February 2019, 2019, Free University of Brussels and University of Antwerp Invited Talk, 2019

Julie Bates, Beckett and Pierre Huyghe: challenges to human exceptionalism, Neurohumanities panel, TLRH Coffee Morning, Trinity Long Room Hub, 23 January 2019, 2019, TLRH Invited Talk, 2019

Julie Bates, Stylish failure: traces of Beckett in contemporary Irish writing, Beckett International Foundation 30th Anniversary Research Seminar, Beckett International Foundation, University of Reading, UK, 24 November 2018, 2018 Invited Talk, 2018

Julie Bates, Tim Robinson: Affective Geographies, 10th Anniversary of the International Flann O'Brien Society, University of Gdansk, Poland, 26-28 July 2021, edited by Paul Fagan, Katherine Ebury, John Greaney , 38, (1), Between.Pomiendzy Festival, University of Gdańsk, 2019, pp1 - 10 Conference Paper, 2019

Julie Bates, Husbanded hypochondria: illness and creativity in Beckett's fiction, Samuel Beckett Summer School, TCD, TLRH, 2 August 2018, 2018, Samuel Beckett Summer School, TCD Invited Talk, 2018

Julie Bates, Samuel Beckett and Louise Bourgeois: floating heads and creative imaginations, 2016, - Miscellaneous, 2016

Julie Bates, Plenary Discussion: Beckett and Disability, Samuel Beckett Summer School, TCD, Trinity Long Room Hub, 1 August 2018, 2018, Samuel Beckett Summer School, TCD Invited Talk, 2018

Julie Bates, Panel debate: Irish writers on writing, Innovation and Experiment in Contemporary Irish Fiction. International Conference: KU Leuven, Leuven Centre for Irish Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium, 1 December 2018, 2018 Invited Talk, 2018

Julie Bates. co-author: Rosie Lavan, A literary treasure map of Trinity College Dublin, 2017, - Miscellaneous, 2017 URL

Julie Bates. Public Interview with the author Kevin Breathnach, Kevin Breathnach in conversation with Julie Bates, 2018, - Miscellaneous, 2018

Author: Julie Bates. Translator: Emina Jeleskovic, Otisci u Prostoru (Prints in Space), Review of Otisci u Prostoru, by D enita Huseinović , Oslobodenje, 2014 Review, 2014

Julie Bates, D enite Huseinović: conjuring identity, Review of Otisci u Prostoru: 'Prints in Space', by D enite Huseinović , Oslobodenje, 2014, 2014, p1 Review, 2014

Julie Bates, Dragana Juri ić's YU: The Lost Country, DU Hist Herstory salon, Hist conversation room, GMB, TCD, 11 March 2019, 2019, DU Hist Invited Talk, 2019

Julie Bates, 'Coups, Haircuts and Cockroaches', Sarajevo, Embassy of Ireland, Ljubljana, 2015, - 100 Fiction and creative prose, 2015

Julie Bates, 'Book launch, public reading & exhibition', Galerija Mak, Sarajevo, Embassy of Ireland, Ljubljana, 2015, - Exhibition, 2015

Julie Bates, 'Creative Responses to Samuel Beckett's Writing', 2015, - Exhibition, 2015

Julie Bates, Public interview with academics from UNAM and TCD to introduce performance of Beckett, A Night of Samuel Beckett, La Ciudadela library, Mexico City, November , 2014, Embassy of Ireland in Mexico City Invited Talk, 2014

Julie Bates, 'A Day to Remember', 2015, - 50 Fiction and creative prose, 2015

Julie Bates, D enita Huseinović: conjuring identity, Talk to open Prints in Space exhibition by D enita Huseinović, Gallery at the International University of Sarajevo, October, 2014, Gallery at the International University of Sarajevo Invited Talk, 2014

Julie Bates, The material imagination of Orhan Pamuk, University of Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey, July , 2014, Department of English Literature, University of Bilkent Invited Talk, 2014

Julie Bates, "Tears and laughter, they are so much Gaelic to me": Beckett in the Irish imagination, Talk to open Irish Embassy exhibition on Beckett, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia, March , 2014, Embassy of Ireland in Mexico City Invited Talk, 2014

Julie Bates, Roundtable on Irish literature, Roundtable on Irish literature with French, German, Colombian and Irish academics, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia, March , 2014, Embassy of Ireland in Mexico City Invited Talk, 2014

Julie Bates, Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo and New Orleans, Dublintellectual Conversations on Culture Series, Ormond Wine Bar, Dublin, March , 2012, Dublintellectual Invited Talk, 2012

Julie Bates, Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence, Literature and Memory: A roundtable discussion with invited guests on the theme of literature and memory, Trinity Long Room Hub, TCD, 13 April, 2016 Invited Talk, 2016

Julie Bates, The personal essay in Ireland today, 2019, - Miscellaneous, 2019

Julie Bates, Marina Carr: By the Bog of Cats, 2018, - Miscellaneous, 2018

Julie Bates, Samuel Beckett in Paris: arriving from Dublin "like coming out of gaol in April", 2018, - Miscellaneous, 2018

Julie Bates, Animals and Ethics in Kafka and Beckett, 2017, - Miscellaneous, 2017

Julie Bates, Ibsen's A Doll's House, Evening Lecture Series, School of English, TCD, 2016, 2016 Oral Presentation, 2016

Julie Bates, Gallery@50 Exhibition in Long Room, 2020, - Miscellaneous, 2020

Julie Bates, Bloomsday Lecture on the relationship between museums and literature, Annual Bloomsday Lecture, Collins Barracks, National Museum of Ireland, June, 2017, National Museum of Ireland Invited Talk, 2017

Julie Bates, Louise Bourgeois's fabric books and Leanne Shapton's Important Artifacts, Monthly Discussion Group on affinities between literature and visual arts, Douglas Hyde Gallery, TCD, 2017, Douglas Hyde Gallery Invited Talk, 2017

Julie Bates and Feargal Whelan, A Stain Upon the Silence, Awkward Silences in Literature, Beckett Theatre, TCD, edited by Trinity Week 2019: Silence , 2019 Oral Presentation, 2019

Julie Bates, Writing with air in The Third Policeman (Keynote Lecture), 110 Myles: Flann O'Brien at a Distance, Vienna (online), July 2021, 2021 Conference Paper, 2021

Julie Bates and Jane Maxwell, A Stain Upon the Silence, 2019, - Miscellaneous, 2019

Research Expertise

Description

RESEARCH My research interests include Samuel Beckett, contemporary Irish writing, modernist literature and visual art, small press publishing, material culture, and the creative use of archives. My first book, 'Beckett's Art of Salvage', was published by Cambridge University Press in 2017 (paperback edition in 2020), and explored the material imagination of Beckett's writing. My current research aims to disrupt the masculinist heritage in which Beckett has been inscribed. I am working on a project with Dúnlaith Bird focused on the writing of Suzanne Dumesnil, who was married to Beckett. My current book project has the preliminary title 'Blow-In: Erica Van Horn in Ballybeg'. It is a study of the American writer and artist Erica Van Horn who has been living in rural Tipperary since 1996, where she runs Coracle Press with the poet Simon Cutts. Van Horn is a book artist who often takes as her subject matter her immediate daily environment. In 2022 I co-edited a bilingual special issue of 'Word & Image' focused on the archives of the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois. SUPERVISION I welcome expressions of interest from prospective PhD students or postdoctoral researchers whose research interests align with mine.

Projects

  • Title
    • Exploring Heritage Collections (HCI:C5-WP3 CPD Heritage Collection)
  • Summary
    • Exploring Heritage Collections is a 5-year project funded by the HEA's Human Capital Initiative grant led by Dr Julie Bates and Dr Jane Carroll. The project is a collaboration between the School of English and 10 partners: The Library of Trinity College Dublin: Manuscripts and Early Printed Books; The National Library of Ireland; The Irish Film Institute; Dublin City Library and Archive; The Irish Museum of Modern Art; The National Archives; Marsh's Library; The Hugh Lane Gallery; The National Visual Arts Library at NCAD; The Digital Repository of Ireland.
  • Funding Agency
    • Higher Education Authority
  • Date From
    • 2021
  • Date To
    • 2025
  • Title
    • Animating the Archive: Creative Legacies from Samuel Beckett Collections
  • Summary
    • This was seed funding for a collaboration between the Samuel Beckett Research Centre at the University of Reading (Prof Steven Matthews), and the School of English and Library at Trinity College Dublin, to establish Beckett Creative Fellowships at Trinity.
  • Funding Agency
    • Trinity College Philanthropy
  • Date From
    • 2022
  • Title
    • RIA Charlemont Grant - Research trip to Beinecke Library, Yale University
  • Funding Agency
    • Royal Irish Academy
  • Date From
    • 20 October 2019
  • Date To
    • 27 October 2019
  • Title
    • IRC New Foundations - Residency in Louise Bourgeois Foundation, New York, U.S
  • Funding Agency
    • Irish Research Council
  • Date From
    • 5 November 2017
  • Date To
    • 12 November 2017

Keywords

contemporary Irish literature; creative use of archives; Modernism; Samuel Beckett; small press publishing

Recognition

Representations

Co-Director of the Early Career Scholars Network in Beckett Studies 2023-24

Member of Royal Irish Academy Early Career Focus Group 2018

Awards and Honours

Royal Irish Academy Charlemont grant, for research visit to Beinecke library, Yale University 2019

Faculty of Arts Benefaction Fund, TCD, for Word & Image special issue 2019

Irish Research Council New Foundations Fellowship 2016

Charlemont Scholar, Royal Irish Academy 2016

Faculty of Arts Benefactions Fund for Cambridge University Press monograph 2016

Irish Research Council Humanities and Social Sciences PhD Award 2011

School of Humanities Postgraduate Research Studentship 2010

Trinity Foundation Scholarship 2004

Memberships

Executive Board member of the Samuel Beckett Society 2023 – 2027

Books Editor and Board member of the Irish University Review 2022 – 2025

Editorial Board of Short Fiction in Theory & Practice 2021 – ongoing