Kate Costello-Sullivan, Ph.D.

  • Professor of Modern Irish Literature English
  • Program Director Irish Studies

Contact

email
sullivkp@lemoyne.edu

Location

Reilly Hall 303

Professor Costello-Sullivan is a Professor of Modern Irish literature and the former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Le Moyne (2014-2019). She teaches courses in 19th-21st-century English and Irish literature, post-colonial literature, and writing. She began at Le Moyne in 2004, after earning a B.A. in English and Spanish at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English/Irish Studies from Boston College (2004). She is the author of the monographs Mother/Country: Politics of the Personal in the Fiction of Colm Tóibín (Reimaging Ireland series, Peter Lang 2012) and, most recently, of Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-first-Century Irish Novel, (Syracuse UP, March 2018). Kate has also edited two critical editions, J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella Carmilla (2013, Syracuse UP) and Norah Hoult’s Poor Women! (2016, Anthem Press). Kate is a recent former President of the American Conference for Irish Studies—the largest academic Irish organization in the world—and has served since summer 2018 as the (first female) Series Editor of the Syracuse University Press’s prestigious Irish line, the oldest line of its kind in North America. She is currently researching representations of the nurturing parental body in Irish literature for her next monograph; she has an edited collection on the Irish in America forthcoming (summer 2024) with Routledge (co-edited with Dr. Cian McMahon) and multiple articles pending publication.

Education

  • Ph.D. (English Dept., Irish Studies Program), Boston College
  • M.A. (English Dept., Irish Studies Program), Boston College
  • B.A. (English and Spanish), Rutgers College

Areas of Specialization

  • 20th-21st Century Irish Literature
  • Irish Cultural Studies
  • 19th Century Irish and British Literature
  • Trauma Theory
  • Feminist Theory & Literature
  • Anglo-Irish Women’s Fiction

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Le Moyne College Rev. Richard M. McKeon S.J. Scholar of the Year (April 2022).
  • Keough-Naughton Library Research Award, U Notre Dame. October 2021 .
  • Friend of Gender and Women’s studies award, GWSS program (April 2019).
  • Moore Institute Research Fellow, National U of Ireland-Galway (€1140) (June 2014).
  • Rev. Msgr. A. Robert Casey Teacher of the Year. (*Nominated by student). (April 2007).

Selected Publications

  • The Routledge History of Irish America. Ed. with Cian T. McMahon. (NY: Routledge). Forthcoming June 2024.
  • Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-first-Century Irish Novel. (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, May 2018).
  • Poor Women! by Norah Hoult. A Critical Edition. Editor, Introduction author. (London: Anthem Press, December 2016.)
  • Carmilla: A Critical Edition by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Editor, Introduction author. (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, March 2013).
  • Mother Country: Politics of the Personal in the Fiction of Colm Tóibín. “Reimagining Ireland” series. Series ed. Eamon Maher. (England: Peter Lang, March 2012).

Selected Presentations

  • “‘Puppeting it Back to Life’: Corpses, Motherhood, and Authorship in Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat.” American Conference for Irish Studies National conference. San Jose, CA. June 6-9, 2023. A version of this paper was also given at the Mid Atlantic Regional ACIS conference, Sacred Heart U., Fairfield, CT. Oct 2022.
  • “Bedrooms and Dishwashers: Reclaiming the Domestic and the Maternal in The Gathering and The Green Road.” Panel discussion on Anne Enright before Keynote. NEMLA conference. March 23, 2023.
  • “I still consider myself a lucky person”: Intersectionality and Entitlement in The Wych Elm and Bad Day in Blackrock.” International Association for Study of Irish Literature (IASIL). University of Limerick, Ireland. 25-29 July 2022.
  • “Reading Trauma in The Dark.” Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference. Sacred Heart U, Fairfield CT. 29-30 October, 2021.
  • “Embodiment and Healing in Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells.” ACIS National Conference. Derry, Northern Ireland. 5 June 2021. Versions of this paper were also presented virtually at the Southern regional conference in Georgia (April 2021) and at the International Association for the Study of Irish Literature conference (July 2021) at the University of Łódź, Poland.