I teach modern German literature and translation at Jesus College and Oriel College. At Faculty level, I provide survey lectures for Paper VIII (1945-present), lecture courses on Franz Kafka and Writing After Auschwitz, and a close-reading seminar on Ingeborg Bachmann's landmark novel Malina. I especially enjoy teaching on modernism, contemporary fiction, and anything related to questions of identity or to the environmental humanities.
Research
My current research interests are mostly in the area of environmental humanities, including animal studies, ideas of eco-aesthetics, and postcolonial responses to the climate and biodiversity crises. I am also interested in discussions of comparative literature and world literature more broadly; debates around translation, multilingualism, and identity; and the intersection between literature and philosophy. Many of the German-language authors I am especially drawn to are Austrian, including Bachmann, (arguably!) Kafka, Thomas Bernhard, Marlen Haushofer, and Ruth Klüger.
Education
My first degree was in English Literature and German at Trinity College Dublin, followed by an MSt in German at Oxford (Distinction) and a PhD in Comparative Literature at TCD, where I also taught courses on German literature and film and German-English translation. I grew up in Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, attending Irish-speaking state schools (Gaelscoileanna). I have spent various periods of time along the way researching and studying in Freiburg, Innsbruck, and Vienna.
Current teaching
- Prelims Papers III and IV (modern German literature and textual analysis)
- Final Honours School Papers II, VIII, and X (translation into English, German literature 1770-present, Special Authors Kafka; Rilke; Bernhard; Brecht; Bachmann)
- Lecture courses: Franz Kafka, Writing after Auschwitz
- Seminar teaching: Close Reading Malina
- Dissertation supervision for FHS and for MSt in German
Publications
‘Letters in the Web of Life: Towards an Ecological Philology’, co-authored with Caitríona Ní Dhúill, German Life and Letters 78.3 (2025)
‘From Todesarten to Artensterben: Re-reading Bachmann through an ecocritical lens’, Austrian Studies 32 (2024)
‘Fallmeister Franza: Journeys of Mastery in Ransmayr and Bachmann’, Austrian Studies 31 (2023)
‘An axe for the rising sea: Kafka’s Anthropocene afterlives’, Oxford German Studies 51 (2022)
‘In Echo’s Cave: Gendered Guilt and Anthropocene Repercussions in Texts by Christoph Ransmayr and Valerie Fritsch’, Austrian Studies 30 (2022)
‘Talking About Trees: The Paradox of the Environmental Humanities’, in Humanities Forward: Opportunity, Innovation, Policy in the 21st Century, ed. Stephan Nitu and Arlene Holmes-Henderson (Liverpool UP, forthcoming 2025)
‘“History will dub it the Day of the Water”: The Aswan High Dam and its legacy in Bachmann's The Book of Franza’, Journal of European Studies (in preparation for 2025)
Podcast episodes
Oxford Reads Kafka, 'Kafka and Ecology'
Oxford German Network, 'Ecocritical Perspectives on Rilke'
What's the Point podcast, 'Why science alone can't solve the climate crisis'
Behind the Headlines series, 'Waste Lands: Imagining Climate Catastrophe' (panel discussion; video recording here)
Hublic Sphere podcast, 'Looking East, Looking West: Should we change how we talk about Eastern Europe?'
Awards and distinctions
Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship, 2018-23
Ertegun Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities, 2017-18
TCD Foundation Scholarship, 2014-21
TCD Gold Medal, 2017
Carr-Jackson Dissertation Prize (German), 2017
Undergraduate Awards Global Winner in category Music, Film & Theatre, 2017
DAAD Jahresstipendium, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 2014-15
DAAD Sommerstipendium, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2013
Robert Wallace Henry Exhibition (English), 2013
Ernst Scheyer Prize I (German), 2013