Dr Catherine Gander

    English, Diversifying Irish Poetry

    Associate Professor
    On Sabbatical for Semester 2 24-25

    Iontas Building
    Ground Floor
    Office 0.44
    (01) 708 7363

    Biography

    (She/her.)

    I came to Maynooth after 4.5 years lecturing at Queen's University Belfast, where I founded the Research Centre for the Americas, and designed and convened the MA pathway in American Literature and Culture. Before that, I held teaching posts at the University of Nottingham and UEA, after completing my PhD at King's College London in early 2009.

    I research and teach modern and contemporary American literature, specialising in the intersections between written and visual texts and modes. 

    Also a poet, my book publications include Matches (Verve Poetry Press, 2024), which was given long reviews in the leading poetry magazines of the UK and Ireland--Poetry Review and Poetry Ireland Review respectively--and Sea Between Us, co-authored with Georgia Hilton and Anna Kisby (Nine Pens Press, 2022).

    Poetry and inter- / transmediality

    In 2016, Sarah Garland and I published the first book of its kind, Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices (Manchester UP). This collection of essays broke new ground in word-image and intermediality studies by moving away from dominant European theoretical methodologies to develop fresh conceptual frameworks rooted in the context of the American philosophical tradition. 

    My transdisciplinary scholarship has garnered awards from a number of international associations, funding bodies, and institutions, including the IAAS, IAWIS, AHRC, IRC, PaCCS, BAAS, NYPL, and the Fulbright Commission. My essay 'Black and White Landscapes: Topographies of Disorientation in the Works of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine' was awarded the triennial 2023 Max Nänny Prize for Best Essay in Word and Image Studies.  In March 2025, I am delivering the inaugural Max Nänny Lecture at the University of Amsterdam (in person and online).

    My monograph-in-progress is Extending the Document: Contemporary Transmedial Poetics (under contract with Cambridge University Press). It takes as its starting point Muriel Rukeyser's dictum that 'poetry can extend the document' to consider contemporary poetry that works in a documentary vein to materialise (or dematerialise) language across media, often via visual, installation, and conceptual art. 

    Muriel Rukeyser 

    My first monograph, Muriel Rukeyser and Documentary: The Poetics of Connection (Edinburgh UP, 2013) won the biennial book award of the Irish Association for American Studies.  On Rukeyser, I am the author of several peer-reviewed articles, an essay in the LA Review of Books, and am the editor of a special issue of Textual Practice on Rukeyser's The Life of Poetry (2018). With Stefania Heim, I am the co-editor of the creative/critical hybrid book Beyond Ourselves: Contemporary Poets on Muriel Rukeyser (West Virginia UP, Spring 2026). This anthology responds to Rukeyser's lasting legacy, exploring the models she provides for living, thinking, writing, and resisting in our own social, political, and poetic moment. It is the subject of several public and research events, including an MLA 2025 panel.

    Don DeLillo

    I have authored several essays on DeLillo, focusing particularly on the form and function of poetry and the arts in his work, and their intersections with quantum theory. I edited The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts (Edinburgh UP, 2023), a 480-page compendium of original essays, and the first book to comprehensively examine Don DeLillo's deep and lasting engagement with the arts across the entirety of his career. 

    American Studies

    From 2019-2024, I was Chair of the all-island Irish Association for American Studies (IAAS), an association with a large, international membership and several annual events, bursaries, and prizes. In 2023-2024, I shared this role with Dr Kate Fama (UCD). 

    EDI

    From 2021-2023, I was co-Associate Dean of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) for the Faculty of Arts, Celtic Studies, and Philosophy at MU (now the Faculty of Arts and Humanities). I applied for this role jointly with Professor Moynagh Sullivan to model a gender-responsive and flexible method of collaborative leadership. The role involved co-chairing the Faculty Self-Assessment Team for the successful Athena SWAN Bronze Award application, and chairing the Implementation Group for the Gender Action Plan.

    I was PI on the Irish Research Council-funded New Foundations project, Diversifying Irish Poetry: Poetry Critics of Colour in Ireland (2021-22), which made real, measurable, positive change to Ireland's reviewing culture and broader literary landscape by 1) introducing and augmenting the voices of poetry critics of colour across multiple reviewing and related platforms, and 2) augmenting a culture of accountability and awareness in literary publishing, particularly in the region of reviewing cultures, by taking steps to ensure such platforms practise fairness and equity in commissioning and accepting poetry reviews.  
     
    Previously funded projects include the AHRC and PaCCS-funded project 'LGBTQ Visions of Peace in a Society Emerging from Conflict'. This project's creative outcomes, including a photography exhibition and theatre performance, were launched during Belfast's Queer Arts Festival, Outburst, in November 2017, at Belfast Exposed and TheatreofplucK.


    Twice the recipient of an Irish Research Council 'Research Ally' award (2021, 2024), I am currently mentor to two postdoctoral researchers: 

    - Dr Hilary White (IRC GOI 2023 fellow)

    - Dr Lily Ní Dhomhnaill (IRC GOI 2024 fellow)


    Supervision 

    I have supervised and mentored research projects at doctoral and postdoctoral level on the subjects of post-9/11 American literature, ecofeminist apocalyptic literature, modernist word-image texts, contemporary literature and neoliberalism, feminist and anti-racist poetry, Teju Cole, documentary poetry, poetry and extractivism, poetry and sleep.
    I would be happy to receive PhD/Postdoc proposals in the areas of:

    • documentary poetics
    • word-image intersections
    • modern & contemporary American poetry or fiction 
    • American visual culture / art
    • creative writing (poetry)
    • hybrid / non-generic texts
    • literary and artistic cultures and the Capitalocene

    Research Interests

    • Word-image studies
    • Modern and contemporary American poetry and poetics
    • American visual culture, photography, and art
    • Contemporary American fiction, autofiction, and creative non-fiction
    • Creative ethnography
    • Indigenous cultures of the Americas
    • Literatures of resistance
    • Feminist literature and culture
    • Radical forms and texts

    Post Doctoral Fellows / Research Team

    Researcher Name Project Funding Body
    Lily Ní Dhomhnaill "Live Poetic Historiography: Performance and Documentary Poetics" (IRC GOI Postdoctoral fellow 2024-2026)
    Hilary White “Forms of Sleep: Literary Experiments in Somnolence, 1920–the present.” (IRC GOI Postdoctoral Fellow 2023-2025)

    Research Projects

    Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
    IRC Ulysses. Relationality in the Capitalocene: developing a transdisciplinary approach to the ecopolitics of colonised land use through activism, social science, and the arts. PI Grounded on research evidencing the benefit of collaborative, multi-perspectival responses to the Capitalocene (our current epoch of human and natural history in which the capitalist mode of production has led to the destruction of our planet), this project develops an interdisciplinary methodology connecting arts, media, and social science scholarship, creative production, and ecological activism to deepen and transfer knowledge between communities, disciplines, and countries. The project examines cross-currents between disciplinary approaches to the eco-politics of land use in Ireland and America, specifically, land that’s been colonized, degraded, and extracted from, and from which indigenous peoples have often been violently expelled. Study of the ‘Anthropocene’ (the geologic era marked by humanity’s impact on earth) has produced research siloed within disciplinary boundaries; we argue that a more integrated approach is needed, both to advance an interactive ethics of understanding and care, and to decolonize scholarship on the subject. Preferring the term Capitalocene to Anthropocene for its suggestion of alternative ways of living and thinking, our research is guided by indigenous, ecological philosophies of relationality (all things are connected in reciprocity and obligation). The project models an interdisciplinary relational approach, whereby knowledge is not extracted but shared for the common social good. 01/01/2025 31/12/2026 10000
    IRC New Foundations PI There has never been a greater need to foster a literary culture that supports diversity of all kinds. While initiatives to support new writers and poets from underrepresented communities in Ireland are slowly emerging, there is no specific advocacy for new poetry critics from underrepresented ethnic communities. Through meaningful and lasting collaboration with Irish poets, critics, and poetry organisations, Dr Catherine Gander will work with Poetry Ireland, a registered charity and Ireland's premier organisation for the celebration and promotion of excellence in reading, writing, and performing poetry, to develop mentorship programme of emerging critics of colour in Ireland, where there is an urgent need for greater diversity in poetry reviewing, and in literary and cultural criticism more broadly. This mentorship programme will specifically focus on underrepresented ethnic groups whose access to critical culture might be hindered by factors like race, structural racism, and migration. The project’s ethos is that the role of the poetry critic and reviewer is a crucial point of access for literary culture and the on-going important discussion of the value society gives to the arts. Critical culture shapes and expands reading culture; hopefully, tis project can also invigorate the wider critical conversation about poetry and diversity. In sum, this project aims to 1) establish a mentoring scheme for poetry critics of colour in Ireland 2) establish lasting collaborations with publishers and editors to monitor the self-identified ethnicity of critics, and to work for change in overtly white critical practices 3) through (1) & (2), increase the publication of poetry criticism by critics of colour in Ireland 4) establish a wide-ranging dataset of poetry criticism published in Ireland in terms of ethnicity and gender 5) make measurable and lasting change to the culture of reviewing in Ireland 6) Work with Poetry Ireland, Ireland's premier organisation for the promotion and celebration of excellence in poetry, to undergo these researches and activities 01/03/2021 01/12/2021 11278.38
    Live Poetic Historiography: Performance and Documentary Poetics (Lily Ní Dhomhnaill) PI TBC 01/09/2024 31/08/2026 112986.5
    Hilary White PI 01/09/2023 31/08/2025 105604
    Andrew Clarke: “Describe the Problem Properly”: Hybridity and Ambiguity in the work of Teju Cole. PI andrew.clarke.2019@mumail.ie 01/09/2021 31/08/2024 85333.33
    LBGTQ+ Visions of Peace in a Society Emerging from Conflict Co-I During the Northern Irish peace process (1998 -) lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people have been excluded from participating in shaping visions of a peaceful future in both societal and political realms. The social, cultural and political import of this marginalisation remains under-examined, particularly within academic accounts of peace-building. This project seeks to redress the marginalisation of LGBTQ people in conflict transformation processes by providing them discursive and artistic fora to express their stories of political conflict, conflict transformation, and visions of peace. By analysing the processes, practices and outcomes of these expressions via the interdisciplinary application of methodologies across the arts, humanities and social sciences, the project seeks to address this critical gap in research and scholarship, at the same time generating an archive of reusable data and establishing transferable research models for use in other contexts wherein particular communities are marginalised in conflict transformation policies and processes. A core aim of the project is to investigate the potential effects on the wider public of the embodied and visualised articulation of these stories and visions in the creative forms of theatre and photography. Performative and photographic practices have recently been successfully employed in storytelling initiatives to enhance cross-community relations in societies emerging from conflict; this project extends these researches to explore how artistic, cultural interventions by a marginalised and silenced community can help shape imaginings of a shared peaceful and inclusive future. The twin objectives of the project are therefore recognition of the histories and visions of LGBTQ people by the wider public and by policy-makers, and participation of LGBTQ people in framing broader visions of peace. The project is unique in its cross-disciplinarity, bringing together experts and practitioners in the fields of literary and gender studies, politics and conflict transformation, visual culture, photography, curating, applied drama, social work and community-building to address these key concerns. The innovative and highly collaborative nature of the project aims to stimulate creative interventions in the Northern Irish peace-building context by piloting a co-designed methodology that challenges the dominant frameworks in conflict transformation processes and research. The project aims ultimately not only to effect public perceptions of the LGBTQ community and its role in envisioning a peaceful future, but to extend that impact to policy-makers in Northern Ireland. 01/08/2016 28/02/2018 117779

    Book

    Year Publication
    2013 Catherine Gander (2013) Muriel Rukeyser and Documentary: the Poetics of Connection. UK and US: Edinburgh University Press. [Link]

    Edited Book

    Year Publication
    2026 Catherine Gander and Stefania Heim (Ed.). (2026) Beyond Ourselves: Contemporary Poets on Muriel Rukeyser. USA: West Virginia University Press,
    2023 Catherine Gander (Ed.). (2023) The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts. UK and US: Edinburgh University Press, [Link]
    2016 Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (Ed.). (2016) Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices. UK and US: Manchester University Press, [Link]

    Pamphlet

    Year Publication
    2024 Catherine Gander (2024) Matches. [Pamphlet] [Link]
    2022 Catherine Gander, Georgia Hilton, Anna Kisby (2022) Sea Between Us. [Pamphlet] [Link]

    Peer Reviewed Journal

    Year Publication
    2020 Catherine Gander (2020) '‘Black and White Landscapes: Topographies of Disorientation in the Works of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine''. Journal of American Studies, 53 (3):517-540. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2018 Gander C. (2018) 'Poetry as embodied experience: the pragmatist aesthetics of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry'. Textual Practice, :1-25. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2018 Catherine Gander (2018) '‘Re-reading Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry’'. Textual Practice, 32 (7):1097-1102. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2013 Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2013) 'The American Imagetext Special Issue'. European Journal of American Culture, 32 (2). [Full-Text]
    2013 Catherine Gander (2013) '‘Facing the Fact: Word and Image in Muriel Rukeyser’s “Worlds Alongside”’'. JNT-Journal of Narrative Theory, 42 (3):288-328. [Link] [Full-Text]
    2013 Catherine Gander (2013) 'Review essay: Touching Photographs by Margaret Olin'. European Journal of American Culture, 32 (3):205-208.
    2011 Catherine Gander (2011) '‘The Senses of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead’'. European Journal of American Culture, 30 (3):175-194. [Full-Text]
    2010 Catherine Gander (2010) 'Muriel Rukeyser, America, and the “Melville Revival”'. Journal of American Studies, 44 (4):759-775. [Full-Text]
    2010 Catherine Gander (2010) 'Review essay: Peter Conn, The American 1930s, A Literary History'. Journal of American Studies, 44 (2):466-468.

    Book Chapter

    Year Publication
    2026 Catherine Gander and Stefania Heim (2026) 'Introduction: 'What Kind of a Book is This?'' In: Beyond Ourselves: Contemporary Poets on Muriel Rukeyser. USA : West Virginia University Press.
    2026 Catherine Gander and Stefania Heim (2026) 'Effort at Speech Between Two People' In: Beyond Ourselves: Contemporary Poets on Muriel Rukeyser. USA : West Virginia University Press.
    2026 Catherine Gander (2026) ''Something in Ourselves but not Discovered': Learning from Muriel Rukeyser in Ireland' In: Beyond Ourselves: Contemporary Poets on Muriel Rukeyser. USA : West Virginia University Press.
    2024 Catherine Gander (2024) 'The strength of the gesture to move like a poem: Layli Long Soldier’s poetics of relationality' In: Gestures: A Body of Work. Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press. [Link]
    2023 Catherine Gander (2023) 'Poetry' In: The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts. UK : Edinburgh University Press.
    2023 Catherine Gander (2023) 'Ways of Seeing / Don DeLillo and the Arts' In: The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts. UK : Edinburgh University Press.
    2022 Catherine Gander (2022) ''Time: Still Life'' In: Don DeLillo in Context. Cambridge and New York : Cambridge University Press.
    2018 Catherine Gander (2018) ''The Art of Being Out of Time in Don DeLillo's Point Omega'' In: Contemporary Critical Perspectives on Don DeLillo. UK and US : Bloomsbury Academic. [Link]
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) '‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’' In: Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices. UK and US : Manchester University Press.
    2016 Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2016) '‘To fasten words again to visible – and invisible – things’' In: Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices. UK and US : Manchester University Press.
    2016 Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2016) '‘The idea, the machine and the art: word and image in the twenty-first century’' In: Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices. UK and US : Manchester University Press.

    Edited Journal Issue

    Year Publication
    2018 Catherine Gander (2018) Textual Practice Special Issue: Muriel Rukeyser's THE LIFE OF POETRY. [Edited Journal Issue]

    Co-edited Journal Issue

    Year Publication
    2013 Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2013) The European Journal of American Culture. [Co-edited Journal Issue]

    Other Journal

    Year Publication
    2020 Catherine Gander (2020) 'Topographies of displacement' Poetry Ireland Review, (132) :106-110.
    2019 Catherine Gander (2019) 'Singing in Dark Times' Poetry Ireland Review, (129) .
    2014 Catherine Gander (2014) '‘Accords of Components Whose End is Truth’' Wolf Poetry Magazine, 30 .

    Invited Lectures

    Year Publication
    2022 Catherine Gander (2022) Extending the document: the transmedial poetics of Layli Long Soldier. University of Strasbourg, France: [Invited Lectures]
    2022 Catherine Gander (2022) Being a good relative: Layli Long Soldier’s transmedial poetics of relation. Uppsala University, Sweden: [Invited Lectures]
    2019 Catherine Gander (2019) An Aesthetics of Displacement: Lecture and Response to IMMA exhibition, Doris Salcedo, Acts of Mourning. [Invited Lectures] [Link]
    2019 Catherine Gander (2019) Topographies of disorientation in the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine (Trinity College Dublin). [Invited Lectures]
    2015 Catherine Gander (2015) ‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’. [Invited Lectures]

    Key Note Address

    Year Publication
    2025 Catherine Gander (2025) Extending the Document: Contemporary Transmedial Poetics. [Key Note Address]
    2017 Catherine Gander (2017) Between no longer and not yet, there's still life: art and time in Don DeLillo's late fiction. [Key Note Address]

    Invited papers

    Year Publication
    2025 Catherine Gander (2025) “What kind of a book is this?” Breaking barriers, breaking taboos, & learning from Muriel Rukeyser in Ireland. [Invited papers]
    2021 Catherine Gander (2021) Post45 conference, University of Edinburgh. [Invited papers]
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) ‘Using a public-facing blog for formative and summative assessment’: Presentation at ‘Teaching and Learning Conference: Harnessing Change to Improve Student Learning’, Queen's University Belfast. [Invited papers]
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) Post45 annual conference, University of York. [Invited papers]
    2015 Catherine Gander (2015) Post45 Annual Conference, University of Kent. [Invited papers]

    Conference Contribution

    Year Publication
    2025 Catherine Gander (2025) Max Nänny Prize lecture Extending the Document: Contemporary Transmedial Poetics University of Amsterdam and online, 28/03/2025-.
    2025 Catherine Gander and Stefania Heim (2025) MLA Beyond Ourselves New Orleans, 09/01/2025-12/01/2025.
    2022 Catherine Gander (2022) IAAS Annual Conference 2022 Rewilding, reciprocity and repair: Layli Long Soldier’s transmedial poetics DCU, Ireland, 29/04/2022-30/04/2022.
    2021 Catherine Gander (2021) ASAP/12: Reciprocity Panel: 'Imagining Relations and Mediating Crisis online, 27/10/2021-30/10/2021.
    2019 Catherine Gander (2019) Gestures: Writing that moves between ‘From there. To here. Gestures of orientation in the landscapes of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine' Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 15/02/2019-16/02/2019.
    2019 Catherine Gander (2019) Contemporary Literature: Politics and Aesthetics in Crisis Topographies of disorientation in the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine Queen's University Belfast, .
    2017 Catherine Gander (2017) MSA annual conference ‘Claudia Rankine’s curatorial poetics of witness’, part of a panel organised by Gander and Peat Amsterdam, 10/08/2017-13/08/2017.
    2017 Catherine Gander (2017) ALA annual convention ‘Seeing what happens from here: the ethics of (re)inscribing the visual in Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine’ Boston, USA, 25/05/2017-28/05/2017.
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) MLA Annual convention ‘(Re)Considering Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry Austin, Texas, 07/01/2016-10/01/2016.
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) ICLA annual conference The physiology of the nervous system and the processes of the imagination: ekphrasis and artful language in William Carlos Williams's Spring and All University of Vienna, 21/07/2016-27/07/2016.
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) Don DeLillo: Fiction Rescues History ‘Between “no longer and not yet”: art and time in Don DeLillo’s post-9/11 fiction’ Université Paris Diderot & Sorbonne, 18/02/2016-20/02/2016.
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) Special Relationships: American Artists and their Collaborators ‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’ Tate Britain museum, .
    2016 Catherine Gander (2016) EAAS Biennial conference ‘SAMOesthetics? Basquiat, the integrated body, and the extended mind’. Panel organiser and presenter: Negotiating the Seen and the Felt: where American Art meets American Writing Constanta, Romania, 22/04/2016-25/04/2016.
    2014 Catherine Gander (2014) Muriel Rukeyser and Other Writers Panel at American Literature Assoc. conference ALA, Washington DC, USA, 22/05/2014-.
    2013 Catherine Gander (2013) Aesthetics and Naturalism ‘“The physiology of the nervous system and the processes of the imagination”: ekphrasis and artful language in William Carlos Williams’ Spring and All’ UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico, 21/08/2013-23/08/2013.
    2012 Catherine Gander (2012) BAAS Annual conference ‘The still life and death of images: the ethical aesthetic in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man’ University of Manchester, 12/04/2012-15/04/2012.

    Article

    Year Publication
    2015 Catherine Gander (2015) ‘Michael Hanna: Short Films about Learning’. [Article] [Link]
    2024 Catherine Gander (2024) Is this a poem?. [Article] [Link] https://booksirelandmagazine.com/is-this-a-poem-pushing-the-boundaries-in-a-sensory-questioning-project/

    Book Review

    Year Publication
    2021 Catherine Gander (2021) Her Living Voice: On The Essential Muriel Rukeyser. Los Angeles: [Book Review] [Link]
    2020 Catherine Gander (2020) The Silence by Don DeLillo: Review in the Irish Times. [Book Review]

    Invited Seminars

    Year Publication
    2022 Catherine Gander (2022) Poetry reviewing and race. [Invited Seminars]

    Seminar

    Year Publication
    2019 Organiser and discussant: Catherine Gander (2019) Poetry in Times of Crisis: A reading and discussion with Erika Meitner and Wayne Miller. Boston College, Dublin: [Seminar]

    Film or Broadcast

    Year Publication
    2021 Catherine Gander (2021) #Poetrytown Naas: Interview with poet laureate Mary O'Donnell. [Film or Broadcast] [Link]

    Discussion

    Year Publication
    2019 Gavan Titley and Catherine Gander (2019) Racism and Media. Maynooth University: [Discussion]

    Poetry

    Year Publication
    2023 Catherine Gander (2023) 30+ poems in journals across UK, Ireland, US, Canada. 2020-to present. [Poetry]

    Media

    Year Publication
    2019 Catherine Gander (2019) An Aesthetics of Displacement. [Media] [Link]

    Blog

    Year Publication
    2023 Catherine Gander (2023) The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts: Q&A with the Author. UK: [Blog] [Link]
    2014 Catherine Gander (2014) Muriel Rukeyser and Other Writers. USA: [Blog] [Link]
    2013 Catherine Gander (2013) Crisis, hope, and the life of poetry. USA: [Blog] [Link]
    2013 Catherine Gander (2013) On the centenary of Muriel Rukeyser’s birth: the lives of a poet. USA: [Blog] [Link]

    Webinar

    Year Publication
    2021 Catherine Gander, Karl O'Hanlon (2021) Vahni Capildeo: A Poetry Reading and Discussion. [Webinar] [Link]
    2021 Catherine Gander, Karl O'Hanlon (2021) Ishion Hutchinson: A Poetry Reading and Discussion. [Webinar] [Link]
    2021 Catherine Gander, Karl O'Hanlon (2021) Sean Hewitt: A Poetry Reading and Discussion. [Webinar]
    2020 Catherine Gander, Karl O'Hanlon (2020) Philip Metres: A Poetry Reading and Discussion. [Webinar] [Link]
    2020 Catherine Gander, Karl O'Hanlon (2020) Carolyn Forché: A Poetry Reading and Discussion. [Webinar] [Link]
    Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2025) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

    Professional Associations

    Description Function From / To
    Irish Association for American Studies Chair 13/04/2019 - 03/05/2024
    Advance HE Fellow -
    Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive Board of Directors -
    Evental Aesthetics Editorial Board 01/08/2013 -
    British Association of American Studies Member -
    Modern Language Association Member -
    American Literature Association Member -
    Modernist Studies Association Member -

    Honors and Awards

    Date Title Awarding Body
    14/02/2025 Visiting Professor University of Liverpool
    17/01/2025 Research Ally Award Research Ireland (IRC Legacy)
    06/12/2024 IRC Ulysses Award. €10,000 IRC / Campus France
    15/05/2024 SPARK Teaching and Learning Awards Maynooth University Centre for Teaching and Learning
    09/09/2023 International Max Nänny Award for best article in word and image studies International Association for Word and Image Studies (IAWIS)
    22/05/2023 Research Fellow, New York Public Library NYPL
    01/08/2022 Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring Programme Award Arts Council & Irish Writers Centre
    01/12/2021 Research Ally Award Irish Research Council
    01/03/2021 IRC New Foundations Award, €11,278.38. Diversifying Irish Poetry: Poetry Critics of Colour in Ireland Irish Research Council
    01/01/2021 Impact Through Dissemination Funding Award MU
    01/01/2021 Affiliate Professor (Visiting Professor) Franklin University Switzerland
    01/11/2019 Conference fund: IAAS2020 Maynooth University research development
    01/09/2015 AHRC and PaCCS Innovation Award, £98,000: co-investigator on 'LGBTQ Visions of Peace in a Society Emerging from Conflict' AHRC and PaCCS
    01/04/2013 IAAS Book Prize Irish Association for American Studies

    Committees

    Committee Function From / To
    English Department Teaching and Learning Committee Chair 01/09/2018 - 23/09/2019
    Gender Action Plan Implementation Group Chair 01/04/2022 -
    English Dept PhD/Postdoc working group Chair 01/09/2020 -
    Gender Action Plan Implementation Group (Faculty) Chair 01/04/2022 -
    Athena Swan SAT Co-chair 02/03/2020 - 31/01/2022
    European Journal of American Studies Editorial board member 01/04/2021 - 30/04/2029
    Faculty Research Committee Secretary 16/10/2019 -
    IAAS 50th Anniversary conference Chair 01/03/2019 - 01/05/2020
    English Dept PGT working group Member 01/09/2020 -
    English Department Research Committee Member 23/09/2019 -
    Leonard Cohen: An Interdisciplinary conference Member 01/09/2018 - 31/07/2020
    IAAS Prizes committee Member 01/05/2013 - 30/04/2015
    Academic Council Member 01/12/2023 - 31/08/2025

    Employment

    Employer Position From / To
    Queen's University Belfast Lecturer 01/02/2013 - 01/09/2017

    Education

    Start date Institution Qualification Subject
    Queen's University Belfast Postgraduate Cert. Higher Education Teaching
    King's College London PhD English

    Languages

    Language Reading Writing Speaking
    Italian Fluent Fluent Fluent

    Consultancy

    Client Description
    Dublin Business School External examiner: Higher Certificate in Arts
    Dublin Business School External examiner for BA (Hons) Arts

    Editorial / Academic Reviews

    Amount Role From / To
    Mosaic Reviewer -
    Textual Practice Reviewer -
    Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature Reviewer -
    Poetry Ireland Review Reviewer -
    Modernism/Modernity Reviewer -
    THE IRISH TIMES Reviewer -
    European Journal of American Studies Member of the Editorial Board 30/04/2021 - 30/04/2029
    Comparative Critical Studies Reviewer -
    Journal of American Studies Reviewer -

    Outreach Activities

    Organisation Type Description
    Poetry Ireland Civic Society Talks at events: Poetry Ireland. Diversity in poetry and criticism publishing: consulting and facilitating: Poetry Ireland
    Irish Museum of Modern Art Civic Society Public talks alongside exhibitions: IMMA
    Norfolk Wildlife Trust Civic Society Ecopoetry in Schools was an outreach programme initiated by the American Studies and Literature and Creative Writing departments at the University of East Anglia, and supported by CUE East, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Norfolk County Council. Targeting primary school children (years 5 and 6), ecopoetry workshops were designed by Dr Catherine Gander in collaboration with David North to support children’s engagement with the natural landscape as a means to develop imaginative and creative thinking and writing, and to demonstrate how these skills can in turn develop a sustainable relationship with nature and the outdoors. [Link]

    Teaching Interests

    I teach modern and contemporary American literature and culture. 

    I convene the Stage 2 elective module: EN242: Introduction to American Literature

    I convene the Stage 2 core module: EN204: Literatures of Place 

    I convene the Stage 3 seminar: EN382: Picturing America: Shaping the States in Word and Image.

    I convene the Stage 3 seminar: EN362: Research Seminar. Poetry, Witness, Resistance (2019-)

    I convene the MA module 'The Political is Personal: Radical Contemporary Literatures'. 


    TEACHING AWARDS:

    SPARK Teaching and Learning Funding Award, 2024-2025.

    QUB student-nominated, 2016 awardee.

    MU student-nominated: 2021 finalist.


    Digital badges:

    Podcasting. All Aboard Digital Skills in Higher Education. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

    Design Thinking. All Aboard Digital Skills in Higher Education. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

    Flipped Classroom. All Aboard Digital Skills in Higher Education. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

    Disability 101: Awareness, Inclusion, and Equity. Digital accessibility course. AHEAD Ireland: Creating Inclusive Environments in Education and Employment for People with Disabilities. 

    Universal Design for Learning. Digital accessibility course. AHEAD Ireland: Creating Inclusive Environments in Education and Employment for People with Disabilities. 

    Designing Course Layouts for Learner Success. Digital accessibility course. AHEAD Ireland: Creating Inclusive Environments in Education and Employment for People with Disabilities. 


    Current Students

    Student Name Degree Supervision
    ANDREW CLARKE RESEARCH PH.D. (10)

    Recent Students

    Graduation date Name Degree
    2020 Kelsie Donnelly PhD
    2020 Elizabeth Byrne PhD
    2018 Sarah McBride PhD
    2017 Patricia Malone PhD

    External Collaborators

    Name Role Country
    University of Strasbourg Co-I France
    Poetry Ireland Strategic partner Ireland
    Ledbury Poetry Critics Strategic partner United Kingdom