I am working on two projects at the moment: first, a historical study of so-called “Celtic fantasy” in dominant languages, alongside fantasy in Celtic languages, from Ossian to the present; second, a study of the relationships between speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and horror) and linguistic marginalization, drawing in Celtic- and Indigenous-language texts as well as texts in English and French by Black and Indigenous writers.
my doctoral dissertation, “Reading (in) Speculative Fiction”, analyzes representations of reading in 20th- and 21st-century fantasy in English and Scottish Gaelic and real-world reading practices for fantasy and science fiction in English and Gaelic, in conversation with the work of the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. my focus is on the relationship between “literature” and “literary theory”.
my undergraduate senior essay at Yale was a study of Gaelic identity in 20th- and 21st-century Gaelic literature from Nova Scotia, including prose, drama, and poetry, drawing on critical insights from postcolonial theory alongside sociolinguistic and historical scholarship.
in summer 2020 I was a research assistant for Dr. Máirtín Coilféir, assisting him with a broader project examining translation and publishing practices and ideologies at An Gúm, the state Irish-language publishing house, primarily during the Irish Free State. my work involved cataloguing and analyzing archival materials in Irish and English and collecting metadata as the basis for a database of Irish-language translations.
see the academic writing and creative writing pages on this site.
[ri teachd]
my current research looks at materials in English, Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Anishinaabemowin, and French.