Dr Ellen McWilliams
Lecturer
Extension: 4274
Telephone: 01392 724274
Ellen’s research interests are in the fields of Irish literature, North American literature, women’s writing, and writing and diasporic identity.
She has received a number of awards for research, including an AHRC Fellowship (2011-2012) and a Fulbright Scholar Award (2012).
Her AHRC Fellowship funded a series of linked projects, including research towards the monograph Women and Exile in Contemporary Irish Fiction, and a conference on ‘New Perspectives on Women and the Irish Diaspora’ (March 2012), proceedings of which were published as a special issue of Irish Studies Review in spring 2013. The Fellowship also provided funding for a seminar series on ‘Women and Exile in Irish Literature and Culture’ that she developed in collaboration with the London Irish Women’s Centre in autumn-winter 2011.
The ‘New Perspectives on Women and the Irish Diaspora’ conference website can be accessed via the following link: http://womenandtheirishdiaspora.wordpress.com/
For further information about the ‘Women and Exile in Irish Literature and Culture’ seminar series and follow-on projects arising from the same at the London Irish Women’s Centre, please visit: http://womenandexileseminarseries.wordpress.com/
In February 2012, Ellen was granted a Fulbright Scholar Award for a semester-long visit (September 2012-January 2013) to the Institute of Irish Studies at Fordham University in New York, where she lectured on the undergraduate programme, developed a lifelong learning reading group project in collaboration with the Aisling Irish Community Centre, and carried out research towards a new book, Transatlantic Relations: Constructions of Irishness in North American Women's Writing.
