Stephen O'Neill

Dr Stephen O’Neill is Associate Professor in English and Shakespeare Studies and was formerly Head of Department. Stephen previously lectured in University College Dublin, where he completed his PhD, before joining English at Maynooth University.   

His current research is focused on eco-critical approaches to literature that build from his Irish Research Council funded project LIT: Literature and Ireland's Trees. This led to the establishment of an arboreal research network, a series of guest lectures, and a digital exhibition featuring submissions from the general public. 

He is the author of two monographs, Shakespeare and YouTube (London and New York: Arden Shakespeare / Bloomsbury 2014), which explores digital productions of Shakespeare on the social media platform through a variety of critical lenses including gender and race; and Staging Ireland: Representations in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama (Dublin: Four Courts, 2007), the defining study of Ireland as a recurrent text and context in early modern drama. He has edited the collection Broadcast Your Shakespeare: Continuity and Change Across Media (London and New York: Arden Shakespeare / Bloomsbury 2018); and co-edited The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Adaptation (Arden Shakespeare 2022), recently reviewed in Shakespeare Bulletin, and available in a paperback edition soon. 

Stephen has also co-edited a special issue of the Shakespearean International Yearbook on "Shakespeare and Refugees" (2021), and Shakespeare and the Irish Writer (Dublin: UCD Press 2010). He has contributed to the broadening of Shakespeare studies into fan studies, through work on Coriolanus fanfic in The Shakespeare Geek; and TV culture and adaptation through articles on Shakespearean intertexts in HBO’s Westworld and maternal memories in Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet. He is also co-editor with Maria Pramaggiore of Kylie Minogue: Critical Insights into Pop Music and Media Celebrity (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024), for which he wrote a chapter on Minogue's affective fandoms. 

He is the recipient of a Maynooth University Teaching Award (2023) and, in 2022, led the team that received a Maynooth University CTL Teaching Fellowship for the project “Eco-Journaling: Climate-Engaged Learning through Literature” for EN342: Lost Worlds. 

He is a regular contributor to the conferences of the Shakespeare Association of America and the European Shakespeare Research Association. He's also a member of the Irish Renaissance Seminar. He has supervised PhD and research dissertations in Shakespeare studies and adaptation and very much welcomes applications from PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers in the following areas: Shakespeare studies; adaptation and digital cultures; arboreal humanities; early modern literature; and eco-criticism.