Sean T. O’Brien, Ph.D.
Curriculum Vitae
SUNY Canton
508 Faculty Office Building
Canton, NY 13617
POSITIONS
Assistant Professor, Humanities Department, SUNY Canton, 2012-Present.
Assistant Director, Keough Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2008-2012.
Faculty Fellow, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame 2005-2012.
Faculty Fellow,Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2011-2012.
Summer Director, Dublin Summer Abroad, IES/Office of International Studies, University of Notre Dame, Summer 2009.
Program Coordinator/Student Advisor, Keough Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2005-2008.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in English, University of Notre Dame, 2008.
Dissertation: “Irish Prison Writing and the Victorian Penitentiary.”
Directors: Seamus Deane, Chris Vanden Bossche.
Committee: Mary Burgess-Smyth, Joseph Buttigieg, Luke Gibbons.
B.A.U. Magna Cum Laude with Honors in English; Minors: History, Peace Studies, Xavier University, 1997.
GRANTS, HONORS AND AWARDS
Exploratory Seminar Grant, Digital Humanities Working Group, Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, University of Notre Dame, $4,583, March 2011.
“Design Concerns for Informational Visuals for Discovery and Communication,” Provost’s Initiative on Building Intellectual Communities, University of Notre Dame, $8,750, June 2010.
Intramural Grant from the Kellogg Institute for International Studies to fund “Race and Immigration in the New Ireland,” Spring 2007.
Richard C. Sweetman Research Travel Grant, University of Notre Dame, Summer 2003.
Graduate Student Teaching Award (presented annually to one graduate instructor)
English Department, University of Notre Dame, Spring 2003.
Center for Social Concerns Course Development Grant (awarded to design the first Notre Dame class incorporating student community service into the First Year Writing Curriculum), University of Notre Dame, Spring 1998.
PUBLICATIONS
Edwards, Heather, Sean T. O’Brien, and Julianne Ulin, eds. Race and Immigration in the New Ireland (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013).
“The Prison Writing of Michael Davitt.” New Hibernia Review 14.3 (2010): 16-32.
Rev. of Michael Davitt: Freelance Radical and Frondeur by Laurence Marley. History Ireland 15.5 (2007): 61-62.
Rev. of Irish Political Prisoners, 1848-1922: Theatres of War by Seán McConville. Field Day Review 1 (2005): 271-72.
“Anglo-Irish Literature in the Nineteenth Century.” Encyclopedia of IrishHistory and Culture Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 2004. 391-393.
“The Byrne-Perry Summer School.” History Ireland 7.3 (1999): 10.
INVITED LECTURES
“Getting to Know a Text: Using Technology to Explore New Dimensions of Popular Culture,” SUNY Potsdam Academic Festival, April 2013.
“Prison Literature and Penal Reform: Oscar Wilde, Michael Davitt and the Prison Act of 1898,” Irish-American Human Rights Exchange, Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, October 2010.
“Passive Resistance: Michael Davitt and the Positivist School of Criminology,” Keough Institute Public Lectures and Seminars, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, February 2005.
“Public Aesthetics: Nineteenth-Century Irish Prison Narratives,” Keough Institute Public Lectures and Seminars, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, November 2002.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Digital Irish Identity and the Catholic Youth Literature Project,” American Conference for Irish Studies – Midwest Conference, North Dakota State University and Minnesota State University, Moorehead, Fargo, ND, October 2011.
“Father Francis Finn, S.J.: Nineteenth-Century Catholic Boys Literature and Irish America,” American Conference for Irish Studies – Midwest Conference, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, October 2010.
“Wilde’s Epistola: in Carcere et Vinculis and the Victorian Penitentiary,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, Penn State University, College Station, PA, May 2010.
“Literary Fenianism,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA, April 2008.
“Michael Davitt and the Irish Republican Brotherhood,” The American Conference for Irish Studies – Southern Regional Conference Georgia Southern University, Savannah, GA, March 2008.
“The Prison Works of Michael Davitt,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, CUNY, New York, NY, April 2007.
“In the Aftermath of Infernal Machines: Tom Clarke, the IRB and the Modern Penitentiary,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, April 2005.
“Transforming Imprisonment into Resistance: Thomas Clarke’s Prison Narratives,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN, June 2003.
“Public and Political Aesthetics: Oscar Wilde and the Nineteenth-Century Irish Political Prisoner,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, June 2002.
“Prisoners of Empire: the Development of the Nineteenth-Century Irish Prisoner,” GRIAN Conference, New York University, New York, NY, March 2001.
“Radicalism and Empire in the Works of Speranza,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland, June/July 2000.
“Translating Mangan: the Author as Colonizer and Colonized,” The Annual Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, June 1999.
“Speranza, National Politics and Expressive Poetics,” GRIAN Conference, New York University, New York, NY, March 1999.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
“Adirondack Life and Literature,” Humanities Department, SUNY Canton, Spring 2013-Present.
“Approaches to Literature,” Humanities Department, SUNY Canton, Fall 2012-Present.
“Expository Writing,” Humanities Department, SUNY Canton, Fall 2012-Present.
“Introduction to Irish Studies,” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, Spring 2010.
“Migration and Identity in the New Ireland,” Dublin Study Abroad Program, Spring 20009 and Summer 2009.
“Irish Prison Literature,” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Fall 2010.
“Victorian Irish Literature,” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, Spring 2006.
“Culture and Politics in Northern Ireland” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, Fall 2005.
“Twentieth-Century Irish Literature,” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, Fall 2004, Fall 2007.
“Crime and Progress in the Nineteenth-Century British and Irish Novel,” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, 2003-2004.
“Crime and Violence in the Nineteenth-Century Novel,” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, 2002-2003.
“Imprisonment in Irish Literature: 1842-1922,” Department of English, University of Notre Dame, 2001-2002.
“First Year Composition – Community-Based Learning Section,” First Year Writing Program, University of Notre Dame, 1999-2001.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Member, Awards and Recognition Committee, SUNY Canton, 2012-Present.
Member, American Conference for Irish Studies Adele Dalsimer Prize Committee, 2012.
Director, Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant Orientation, Sponsored by Institute of International Education, Department of State, University of Notre Dame, 2012.
Secretary/Treasurer, Midwest American Conference for Irish Studies, 2011-2013.
Co-Organizer, GreatLakesTHATCamp, April 30-May 1, 2011.
Reader Reviewer, Teaching with Technology Volume 2: The Stories Continue, ltcessays.wordpress.com, 2011.
Reader Reviewer, University of Notre Dame Press, 2011.
Co-Organizer, Digital Humanities Working Group, University of Notre Dame
Organizer, TEDxND Conference, April 15, 2011.
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Orientation Workshop – “Challenges Faced by International Students in America,” August 2010.
Case Review Board, Office of Residence Life and Housing, University of Notre Dame, 2010-Present.
Faculty Advisory Board, http://hub.nd.edu, online academic networking site, University of Notre Dame, 2010-Present.
Selection Committee, National Endowment for the Humanities/Keough- Naughton Fellowship, Spring 2007.
Research Assistant, National Endowment for the Humanities/Keough Institute Summer Research Fellowship Program in Eighteenth-Century Irish Literature – Research Assistant, Summer 2003.
Editorial Assistant, Boundary II – Irish Studies special issue, edited by Professor Seamus Deane, Fall 2002.
Production Manager, Bullán: an Irish Studies Journal, 1998-1999.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Director, Social Concerns Seminar: Digital Education in Northern Ireland, funded by educational grants, students will travel with director to Lurgan/Portadown to work with both Protestant and Catholic high school students to create a web-based project during spring break, 2012.
Computer Tutor, LOGAN Resources and Opportunities for People with Disabilities, 2004-2005.
Adult Literacy Training Certification, Literacy Council of St. Joseph County, 2004.
GED Writing Teacher, St. Joseph County Jail, 2002-2003.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature
Irish Studies
Digital Humanities
Service Learning
Prison Literature
Postcolonial Studies
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Conference for Irish Studies
REFERENCES
Available upon request.
