Tina O'Toole


Contact Details

Associate Professor in English
School of English, Irish, and Communication
University of Limerick
Limerick
Ireland
T: 061 234269
E: tina.otoole@ul.ie
 
researcher

Biography

Dr Tina O'Toole is an associate professor at the School of English, Irish, and Communication, University of Limerick. Her scholarship focuses on British and Irish Literature; she is an expert on Irish women’s writing of the late nineteenth / early twentieth centuries, and on gender and sexuality studies. She has held research fellowships at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (UCLA), the W. B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies (University of São Paulo), the Centre for Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, the Women in Irish Society Project (University College Cork, as part of a three-year PRTLI-funded initiative), and the Centre for Feminist & Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa.  

To date, she has published two monographs and four edited collections including The Irish New Woman (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and Reading Gender and Space: Essays for Patricia Coughlan (Cork University Press, 2023; co-edited with Anne Fogarty). As guest editor, she has produced three journal special issues including one on Elizabeth Bowen (Irish University Review 2021, co-edited with Anna Teekell) and a multidisciplinary issue of Éire-Ireland on “New Approaches to Irish Migration” (2012, co-edited with Piaras Mac Éinrí). She has published chapters in peer-reviewed scholarly collections including The Irish Revival: A Complex Vision (Syracuse UP, 2023), Irish Literature in Transition 1880-1940 (Cambridge UP, 2020), A History of Irish Women's Writing (Cambridge UP, 2018), and Reconnecting Aestheticism and Modernism (Routledge, 2017), and articles in journals including Modernism/modernityÉtudes Irlandaises, Irish University Review, and New Hibernia Review.
 

As a lecturer and module leader, her course material addresses twentieth-century and contemporary Irish Literature; she offers a postgraduate module on Gender & Sexuality in Irish Writing on the MA English. In 2016, she won the University of Limerick Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2022, she was lead organiser for the annual conference of IASIL (International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures, the main professional association in our field), hosted by the University of Limerick. 

She served as an elected board member of the Royal Irish Academy Committee for Literatures in English (2009-2013) and as an executive member of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (2013-2017); she was IASIL Treasurer for four years, and served as an editorial board member of the Irish University Review (Edinburgh University Press) during the same period. At the University of Limerick, she was appointed Assistant Dean (Academic Affairs) at the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Science (2005-2008); she was Head of English (2006-2009 and again from 2014-2017), and served as Course Director for the BA New Media & English (2009-2012), the BA English & History (2014-2015), and the MA English (2016-2020).

Research Interests

Feminist, queer, social, and anticolonial representations in Irish literature and culture. Concentrating on late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Ireland, my scholarship focuses on frequently-occluded Irish writers, voices, and community activism, and I welcome doctoral research proposals on such subjects. My research consistently address Irish feminist and queer Irish interventions from my first publication, a book chapter for a Canadian scholarly edition titled “Moving into the Spaces Cleared by Our Sisters: Lesbian Community Activism in Ireland and Canada” (Sumach Press, 2003) to more publications on writers including George Egerton, Rosamond Jacob, Kate O’Brien, and Elizabeth Bowen. 

Books

  Year Publication
2013 The Irish New Woman.
O'Toole, T. (2013) The Irish New Woman. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [Details]
2005 Dictionary of Munster Women Writers 1800-2000.
O'Toole, T. (2005) Dictionary of Munster Women Writers 1800-2000. Cork: Cork University Press. [Details]
2005 Documenting Irish Feminisms: The Second Wave.
Connolly L., O'Toole, T. (2005) Documenting Irish Feminisms: The Second Wave. Dublin: Woodfield Press. [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
2016 'The New Woman Flaneuse or Streetwalker? George Egerton’s Urban Aestheticism'
O'Toole, T. (2016) 'The New Woman Flaneuse or Streetwalker? George Egerton’s Urban Aestheticism' In: Reconnecting Aestheticism and Modernism. Oxford: Routledge. [Details]
2013 'The Ireland That We Dreamed Of? William Trevor's 'The Ballroom of Romance''
O'Toole, T. (2013) 'The Ireland That We Dreamed Of? William Trevor's 'The Ballroom of Romance'' In: William Trevor: Critical Essays. Manchester: Manchester University Press. [ULIR Link] [Details]
2010 'Unregenerate Spirits: The Counter-Cultural Experiments of George Egerton and Elizabeth Bowen'
O'Toole, T. (2010) 'Unregenerate Spirits: The Counter-Cultural Experiments of George Egerton and Elizabeth Bowen' In: Irish Women Writers: New Critical Perspectives. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. [ULIR Link] [Details]
2010 'Adrienne Rich's 'On Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence''
O'Toole, T. (2010) 'Adrienne Rich's 'On Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence'' In: Mobilising Classics: Reading Radical Writing in Ireland. Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Details]
2009 'Angels and Monsters: Embodiment and Desire in Eva Trout'
O'Toole, T. (2009) 'Angels and Monsters: Embodiment and Desire in Eva Trout' In: Elizabeth Bowen (Irish Writers in their Time Series). Dublin: Irish Academic Press. [ULIR Link] [Details]
2008 '`Nomadic Subjects': Katherine Cecil Thurston's Max'
O'Toole, T. (2008) '`Nomadic Subjects': Katherine Cecil Thurston's Max' In: Irish Literature: Feminist Perspectives. Dublin: Carysfort Press. [ULIR Link] [Details]
2008 'Ireland: The 'Terra Incognita' of the New Woman Project'
O'Toole, T. (2008) 'Ireland: The 'Terra Incognita' of the New Woman Project' In: Out of Context: Irish Nineteenth-Century Women's Prose. Cork: Cork University Press. [Details]
2005 'Sarah Grand'
O'Toole, T. (2005) 'Sarah Grand' In: Irish Women Writers: An A-to-Z Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. [Details]
2005 'The New Woman and the Boy in fin de siècle Irish Fiction'
O'Toole, T. (2005) 'The New Woman and the Boy in fin de siècle Irish Fiction' In: New Voices in Irish Criticism 5. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
2003 'George Egerton, Katherine Cecil Thurston, and 'Iota' [Kathleen Mannington Caffyn] entries'
O'Toole, T. (2003) 'George Egerton, Katherine Cecil Thurston, and 'Iota' [Kathleen Mannington Caffyn] entries' In: Gill and Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. [Details]

Edited Books

  Year Publication
2016 Women Writing War: Ireland 1880-1922
O'Toole, T., McIntosh, G. and O'Cinneide, M (Ed.). (2016) Women Writing War: Ireland 1880-1922 Dublin: UCD Press. [Details]
2012 New Approaches to Irish Migration. Special issue, Éire-Ireland: Journal of Irish Studies
MacEinri, P., O'Toole, T (Ed.). (2012) New Approaches to Irish Migration. Special issue, Éire-Ireland: Journal of Irish Studies Morristown, NJ: Irish American Cultural Institute. [Details]
2012 Memoir, Memory, and Migration. Special issue, The Irish Review
King, J., O'Toole, T (Ed.). (2012) Memoir, Memory, and Migration. Special issue, The Irish Review Cork: Cork University Press. [Details]
2008 Irish Literature: Feminist Perspectives
Coughlan, P., O'Toole, T (Ed.). (2008) Irish Literature: Feminist Perspectives Dublin: Carysfort Press. [Details]

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
2014 'George Egerton's Translocational Subjects'
O'Toole, T. (2014) 'George Egerton's Translocational Subjects'. Modernism-Modernity, 21 :827-842 [DOI] [ULIR Link] [Details]
2013 'Ce Leis Tu? Queering Irish Migrant Literature'
O'Toole, T. (2013) 'Ce Leis Tu? Queering Irish Migrant Literature'. Irish University Review, 43 [DOI] [ULIR Link] [Details]
2003 ''Hermaphrodite by Force of Circumstances': The New Woman Project of the 1890s'
O'Toole, T. (2003) ''Hermaphrodite by Force of Circumstances': The New Woman Project of the 1890s'. Irish Journal Of Feminist Studies, 5 (1&2):111-124 [Details]
2000 'Keynotes from Millstreet, Co.Cork: George Egerton's Transgressive Fictions'
O'Toole, T. (2000) 'Keynotes from Millstreet, Co.Cork: George Egerton's Transgressive Fictions'. Colby Quarterly, 2 (Spec. issue: Irish W):145-156 [ULIR Link] [Details]

Book Review

  Year Publication
2014 Review of Lisa Fitzpatrick Performing Feminisms in Contemporary Ireland.
O'Toole, T. (2014) Review of Lisa Fitzpatrick Performing Feminisms in Contemporary Ireland. Book Review [Details]
2010 Review of Leanne McCormick Regulating Sexuality: Women in Twentieth-Century Northern Ireland.
O'Toole, T. (2010) Review of Leanne McCormick Regulating Sexuality: Women in Twentieth-Century Northern Ireland. Book Review [Details]
2009 Review of J.W. Foster Irish Novels 1890-1914.
O'Toole, T. (2009) Review of J.W. Foster Irish Novels 1890-1914. Book Review [Details]
2005 Review of Carmel Quinlan. Genteel Revolutionaries: Anna and Thomas Haslam and the Irish Women's Movement.
O'Toole, T. (2005) Review of Carmel Quinlan. Genteel Revolutionaries: Anna and Thomas Haslam and the Irish Women's Movement. Book Review [Details]
2004 Review of Jennifer Jeffers. The Irish Novel at the End of the Twentieth Century: Gender, Bodies and Power.
O'Toole, T (2004) Review of Jennifer Jeffers. The Irish Novel at the End of the Twentieth Century: Gender, Bodies and Power. Book Review [Details]

Honours and Awards

  Year Title Awarding Body
2016 University Teaching Award University of Limerick

Professional Associations

  Association Function From / To
International Association for the Study of Irish Literature Executive Member /
Society for the Study of Nineteenth Century Ireland Member /
European Society for the Study of English /
American Conference for Irish Studies /
European Journal of English Studies Editorial board member /
NUIG-UL Gender ARC Member /
GREP on Gender, Culture and Identity (UCD, QUB, UL) External board member /

Education

  Year Institution Qualification Subject
2001 NUI PhD English
1993 UCD M A
1991 UCD BA

Employment

  Employer Position From / To
HEA (PRTLI 1) at NUI Cork Project Researcher 01-OCT-99 / 30-SEP-02
University of Limerick Senior Lecturer 20-OCT-16 / 29-NOV-18
University of Limerick Lecturer 01-SEP-09 / 19-OCT-16
Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's Belfast Research Fellow in Irish Studies 01-OCT-03 / 31-AUG-04
University of Limerick Teaching Assistant 02-SEP-04 / 30-SEP-05
IRCHSS at NUI Cork IRCHSS Post-Doctoral Research Fellow 01-OCT-02 / 30-SEP-03
HEA (PRTLI 1) at NUI Cork Project Researcher 01-OCT-99 / 30-SEP-02
University of Limerick Junior Lecturer 01-OCT-05 / 30-DEC-99