Dr Stephanie Rains
Biography
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University, where I have worked since 2007. Prior to that, I worked at IADT Dun Laoghaire for four years, after completing my PhD in the School of Communications in Dublin City University in 2003.
I teach on the BA Media Studies and BA Media and Cultural Studies programmes, for which I am 3rd year Co-ordinator, as well as on the MA in Critical and Creative Media programme, for which I co-ordinate the dissertation work. I teach classes on podcasting, media history, advertising and the political economy of the media, and I am also the International Co-ordinator for the department.
I also supervise PhD projects, and welcome both formal and informal contacts to discuss potential projects – please see my Research profile on this page for more information on my own research and also my areas of research supervision. Consultations: students can contact me at [email protected] to arrange a consultation.
Research Interests
My main research interests are in Irish media and cultural history. My own PhD was on the 20thC Irish-American relationship to Ireland, especially as it was expressed through popular cultural forms such as film, television and tourism. This was then the basis of my first book, The Irish American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000 (Irish Academic Press, 2007).
My subsequent work has focused on Irish cultural history, specifically the intersection between popular culture and everyday life. My second book, Commodity Culture and Social Class in Dublin, 1850-1916 (Irish Academic Press, 2010) examined the development of department stores and consumer culture in 19thC Dublin. For several years after that, my research focused on the Irish popular press of the late 19thC and early 20thC, particularly women’s magazines and commercial periodicals publishing popular fiction, as well as on the political economy of Irish media in the period before Independence. I published several articles/chapters on this in journals such as in Irish Studies Review, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, Media History and the Irish University Review.
My most recent book Advertising and Consumer Culture in Ireland 1922-1962: Buy Irish (Liverpool University Press, 2022) continued that focus on Irish popular publishing, and examines the political economy of the Irish media of the 20thC. It explores the development of the modern advertising industry, the ways in which advertising revenue was central to the business model of Irish newspapers and magazines, and the broader implications of consumer culture in 20thC Ireland.
I am currently working towards a new book project on Irish holiday-making during the 20thC. Most studies of Irish tourism concentrate on Ireland as a site for foreign tourists, and holidays taken by Irish people (both at home and abroad) prior to the Celtic Tiger era are relatively overlooked by comparison. This project includes a wide range of Irish holiday-making, from seaside trips to pilgrimages, cruises and the early years of package holidays.
I also run the Irish Media and Cultural History blog at https://irishmediahistory.com/.
I would welcome enquiries from students interested in pursuing PhD research in any area of Irish popular culture, including those covering film, radio and television, newspaper history and digital culture, as well as cultural history topics such as shopping, tourism and other aspects of everyday life. I’m also available to supervise cultural studies projects with a UK or US focus, with a particular interest in popular culture and everyday life.
Book
Book Chapter
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | Stephanie Rains (2021) '“No irregularity or obstruction can resist them”: advertising of abortion pills in the Irish press, 1890–1930'. Irish Studies Review, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2020 | Rains, S (2020) 'The Kennedys of Castleross: Soap Opera and Sponsorship on Irish Radio'. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2017 | Rains, S (2017) 'Irish Women Freelance Writers and the Popular Press: An Army Beyond Literary Circles'. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, 60 :36-57. [Full-Text] | |
2016 | Rains S. (2016) 'City streets and the city edition: newsboys and newspapers in early twentieth-century Ireland'. Irish Studies Review, 24 (2):142-158. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2015 | Rains, S (2015) ''Nauseous Tides of Seductive Debauchery': Irish Story Papers and the Anti-Vice Campaigns of the Early Twentieth Century'. Irish University Review, 45 . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2015 | Dr Stephanie Rains (2015) 'Going in for Competitions Active readers and magazine culture, 1900–1910'. Media History, 21 :138-149. [Full-Text] | |
2014 | Dr Stephanie Rains (2014) '‘“Do You Ring? Or Are you Rung for?”: Mass Media, Class, and Social Aspiration in Edwardian Ireland’'. New Hibernia Review, 18 . [Full-Text] | |
2011 | Dr Stephanie Rains (2011) 'The Ideal Home (Rule) Exhibition: Ballymaclinton and the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition'. Field Day Review, 7 . [Full-Text] | |
2008 | Rains, S. (2008) 'Joyce’s ‘Araby’ and the Real Araby Bazaar of 1894'. Dublin James Joyce Journal, 1 :17-29. [Full-Text] | |
2008 | Rains, S. (2008) 'Here Be Monsters: the Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853 and the Growth of Dublin Department Stores'. Irish Studies Review, 16 :487-506. [Full-Text] | |
2007 | (2007) 'Modernity and Consumption in 19thC Ireland: The Araby Bazaar and 1890s Popular Visual Culture'. Early Popular Visual Culture, 5 :285-300. [Full-Text] | |
1999 | Rains, S. (1999) 'Touring Temple Bar: Cultural Tourism in Dublin’s ‘Cultural Quarter’'. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 6 :3-15. [Full-Text] |
Other Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2015 | Dr Stephanie Rains (2015) '‘Suburban Speculation: Dublin’s 19thC suburbs and the making of the middle-classes’' 2ha magazine, 10 . | |
2015 | Dr Stephanie Rains (2015) ''A Brief History of Clery's'' History Ireland, 23 . [Full-Text] | |
2013 | Dr Stephanie Rains (2013) 'Colleens, Cottages and Kraals: the politics of 'native' village exhibitions' History Ireland, 2 . [Full-Text] | |
2004 | Rains, S. (2004) 'Celtic Kitsch: Irish-America and Irish Material Culture' Circa Art Magazine, 107 :52-57. |
Conference Contribution
Book Review
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Stephanie Rains (2022) 'Advertising and the Transformation of Screen Cultures, by Bo Florin, Patrick Vonderau and Yvonne Zimmerman'. [Book Review] [DOI] | |
2023 | Stephanie Rains (2023) White Cottage, White House: Irish American Masculinities in Classical Hollywood Cinema / Tony Tracy. [Book Review] |
Media
Year | Publication | |
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2023 | Stephanie Rains (2023) The 'turkey lift': when Irish turkeys were posted in droves to Britain for Christmas. [Media] [Link] | |
2023 | Stephanie Rains (2023) How neon advertising signs lit up Dublin in the 1930s, RTE Brainstorm. [Media] [Link] | |
2018 | Stephanie Rains (2018) Tríd an Lionsa/ Through the Lens, TG4 television documentary appearance. [Media] | |
2016 | Stephanie Rains (2016) Ireland Before the Rising, RTE television documentary appearance. [Media] | |
2013 | Stephanie Rains (2013) The History Show, RTE Radio 22 December. [Media] | |
2011 | Stephanie Rains (2011) The History Show, RTE Radio 16 January. [Media] |
Podcast
Year | Publication | |
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2024 | Stephanie Rains (2024) Cultural Studies Podcast: Stephanie Rains on consumerism, gender, and Irish cultural history and studies. [Podcast] [Link] |