Co-founders and co-directors of NEICN:- Alison O'Malley- Younger

Dr Alison O'Malley- Younger

BA, MA, PhD (Sunderland), joined the University in 2005, after having worked as a visiting lecturer at Sunderland and the Open University. She has published in the fields of Contemporary Irish Drama, Contemporary Critical Theory, and Women's Writing in Ireland . She has recently completed a monograph entitled Brian Friel's Liminal Drama (Mellen), and a selection of essays entitled, Representing Ireland: Past Present and Future (University of Sunderland Press), and has recently completed a book for Edinburgh University Press entitled Drama: Text and Performance for the Elements of Literature series.

She is currently co-editing a selection of essays entitled Essays in Modern Irish Literature with Professor John Strachan and working on a selection of articles on the contemporary Irish playwright, Brian Friel and the nineteenth century playwright Dion Boucicault. She is also involved in a research project entitled Shopping with James Joyce: The Cultural History of Advertising in Nineteenth-Century Ireland with Professor John Strachan (University of Sunderland), Professor Stephen Regan (University of Durham) and Dr John Nash, (University of Durham).

Her research is reflected in her teaching and she currently runs modules on Irish literature at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels: these are, ‘The State of Play: Contemporary Irish Drama’; ‘The Living Stream: Contemporary Irish Poetry’, and ‘Strange Country: Irish Literature from 1790 – 1831’. She has also been centrally involved in the coordination and organisation of the five international Irish Studies conference hosted at the University of Sunderland, and is a member of Member of BAIS (British Association for Irish Studies); Member of IASIL (International Association for the study of Irish Literatures); NISN – Nordic Irish Studies Network; ACIS – American Conference for Irish Studies.