Dr Oona Frawley

    English

    Associate Professor
    First Year Co-ordinator

    Iontas Building
    0.42 Iontas
    (01) 708 4645

    Biography

    Born in NYC to Irish-actor parents, Oona moved permanently to Ireland after completing her Ph.D. at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. She held post-doctoral fellowships at Queen's University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin, and has lectured in the Department of English at Maynooth University since 2008. Oona's research interests lie in Irish Studies, particularly of the late 19th and 20th centuries; in Memory and Trauma Studies; in ecocriticism; and in writings of New Zealand and Australia. Oona is currently editing a book postcolonial ecocriticism, Extractivist Narratives, that examines Australian novels' representations of land development, waste, and the environment.

    She has supervised students working on transnational literature, trauma studies, and ecocriticism, and is currently supervising projects on trauma, identity and ethics in mid-20th century Irish writing; on contemporary Irish fiction; and on e-waste in literature. She also supervises creative writing PhDs (fiction and creative non-fiction) and would welcome proposals in her academic research fields and in creative writing.

    Oona is also a creative writer. A Hennessy Award nominee, her first novel, Flight (2014), was the first publication of the acclaimed Tramp Press and was nominated for an Irish Book Award and a Literary Fiction Award. A new book of creative non-fiction, This Interim Time, is at press and will be published in early 2025. She is represented by Lucy Luck at C&W (http://cwagency.co.uk/client/oona-frawley).


    Research Interests

    I work in several areas: Irish Studies, Memory Studies, ecocriticism, and 'global' fiction, with a particular interest in fiction of Australia and New Zealand. 

    My work in Irish Studies has examined Irish literature's representation of 'nature' and place, tracing the ways in which that representation has been linked to nostalgia for a perceived lost past; this nostalgia has regularly been linked to periods of cultural and social upheaval. Irish Pastoral considered the 'nostalgic mode' in medieval and early modern literature before turning to the literature of the Irish Revival and beyond. Authors examined include Spenser, Yeats, Synge, Joyce, Heaney, and Boland.

    My work on nostalgia as a form of memory led to the Memory Ireland series, a four-volume project that brought together over 60 contributors to define the field of Memory Studies in an Irish context, looking at the relationship between history, memory and modernity (Volume 1); diaspora and memory practice (Volume 2); what I term two 'cruxes of memory', the Famine and the Troubles (Volume 3); and James Joyce's representation of the Irish past as well as his position in Irish cultural memory (Volume 4).

    Recent work turned specifically to the issue of gender in relation to memory, with the volume Women and the Decade of Commemorations analysing the representation of women in the revolutionary period and their subsequent remembrance or forgetting. 

    My current research project looks at literature of Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United States for the ways in which land has been commodified and/ or treated as 'waste' as a result of colonial practice. Drawing together my interests in ecocriticism and memory, the project seeks to provide a comparative take on 'post-colonial ecocriticism' in English-speaking countries. A monograph entitled Extractivist Narratives focusing on Australia is fully drafted. 

    As a creative writer, I am working on three projects. Deathbeds and Birthdays (at press) is a book of creative non-fiction on grief, loss and love. The Fabric Store and Other Shops, another work of creative non-fiction, seeks to narrate 1980s and '90s New York from the perspective of a series of commercial spaces. All the Places I Was Not Born is a fictional version of my parents' lives as immigrants in the United States prior to my birth. 



    Book

    Year Publication
    2025 Frawley (2025) This Interim Time. Dublin: The Lilliput Press.
    2014 Dr Oona Frawley (2014) Flight. : Tramp Press.
    2005 Dr Oona Frawley (2005) Irish Pastoral. : Irish Academic Press.

    Edited Book

    Year Publication
    2021 Oona Frawley (Ed.). (2021) Women and the Decade of Commemorations. Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press,
    2018 Marguerite Corporaal, Oona Frawley, Emily Mark-Fitzgerald (Ed.). (2018) The Great Irish Famine: Visual and Material Culture. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, [Link]
    2014 Oona Frawley and Katherine O'Callaghan (Ed.). (2014) Memory Ireland Volume 4: James Joyce and cultural memory. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,
    2012 Oona Frawley (Ed.). (2012) Memory Ireland Volume 2: Diaspora and Memory Practices. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,
    2011 Oona Frawley (Ed.). (2011) New Dubliners (Chinese translation ). Taipei, Taiwan: Bookman Books, Ltd,
    2010 Oona Frawley (Ed.). (2010) Memory Ireland Volume 1: History and Modernity. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press,
    2005 Oona Frawley (Ed.). (2005) Selected Essays of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Dublin: New Island Books,
    2005 Oona Frawley (Ed.). (2005) New Dubliners. Dublin: New Island Books,
    2004 Oona Frawley (Ed.). (2004) A New & Complex Sensation: Essays on Joyce's Dubliners. Dublin: The Lilliput Press,

    Book Chapter

    Year Publication
    2024 Frawley (2024) 'Split Selves and Double Consciousness in Recent Irish Fiction' In: Race in Irish Literature and Culture. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009071802.015
    2022 Frawley (2022) ''Heatwave'' In: A Little Unsteadily Into the Light. Dublin : New Island Books.
    2018 Oona Frawley (2018) 'Ireland and Memory Studies' In: Oxford Bibliographies in British and Irish Literature. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press. [Link]
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) 'Cow Tipping' In: The Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction 2005-2015. Dublin : New Island.
    2014 Frawley O. (2014) 'Cruxes in Irish Cultural Memory: The Famine and the Troubles' In: Memory Ireland Volume 3: The Famine and the Troubles. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press.
    2014 Oona Frawley (2014) 'The Boarding House' In: Dubliners 100. Dublin : Tramp Press.
    2014 Frawley O. (2014) 'James Joyce, Cultural Memory, and Irish Studies' In: Memory Ireland Volume 4: James Joyce and Cultural Memory. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press.
    2012 Frawley O. (2012) 'Memory Practices' In: Memory Ireland Volume 2: Diaspora and Memory Practices. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press.
    2012 Oona Frawley (2012) 'Diaspora' In: Memory Ireland Volume 2: Diaspora and Memory Practices. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press.
    2011 Dr Oona Frawley (2011) '‘Irish and Australian Historical Fiction: National Narration in Global Postcolonial Contexts’' In: Katie Holmes, Stuart Ward and Mark Finnane(Eds.). Exhuming Passions: the Pressures of the Past in Ireland and Australia. Dublin : Irish Academic Press.
    2010 Frawley O. (2010) 'Toward a theory of cultural memory in an Irish postcolonial context' In: Memory Ireland Volume 1: History and Modernity. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press.
    2010 Oona Frawley (2010) 'Introduction' In: Memory Ireland Volume 1: History and Modernity. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press.
    2009 Frawley, Oona (2009) 'The Shadow of the Glen and Riders to the Sea' In: PJ Mathews(Eds.). The Cambridge Companion to JM Synge. Cambridge : Cambridge UP.
    2008 Dr Oona Frawley (2008) '‘Kavanagh and the Irish Pastoral Tradition’' In: Stan Smith(Eds.). Patrick Kavanagh. Dublin : Irish Academic Press.
    2008 Dr Oona Frawley (2008) 'Colm Toíbin and Cultural Memory' In: Paul Delaney(Eds.). Colm Toíbin: Reading Ambiguities. Dublin : Liffey Press.
    2002 Dr Oona Frawley (2002) '‘Yeats, Synge, and the Inheritance of Nostalgia’' In: Karen Vandevelde(Eds.). New Voices in Irish Criticism 3. Dublin : Four Courts.

    Peer Reviewed Journal

    Year Publication
    2017 Frawley, O (2017) 'Edmund Spenser and Transhistorical Memory in Ireland'. Irish University Review, 47 . [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2013 Frawley, O (2013) 'Global civil war and post-9/11 discourse in The Wasted Vigil'. Textual Practice, 27 :439-457. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2013 Dr Oona Frawley (2013) '‘Global Civil War, Colonialism and Terrorist Discourse in The Wasted Vigil’'. Textual Practice, 46 . [Full-Text]
    2008 Dr Oona Frawley (2008) 'Spensers Trace'. New Hibernia Review, 12 . [Full-Text]
    2007 Dr Oona Frawley (2007) '‘Possession: Imagining Landscapes’'. Irish Journal of Anthropology, Special Issue .

    Other Journal

    Year Publication
    2021 Frawley (2021) ''Fragments on Houses'' Banshee Lit, 12 (Autumn/Winter) .
    2002 Oona Frawley (2002) '‘Nature, Nostalgia, and Nation’' Foilsiu: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies, .
    2002 Oona Frawley (2002) '‘Dubliners: Sketches on Immigration I’' Foilsiu: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies, .

    Conference Publication

    Year Publication
    2007 Oona Frawley (2007) 19th Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium The Irish Literary Landscape and Nostalgia’
    2002 Oona Frawley (2002) New Voices in Irish Criticism 3 . In: Karen Vandevelde eds. ‘Yeats, Synge, and the Inheritance of Nostalgia’

    Conference Contribution

    Year Publication
    2023 Frawley (2023) Elite Sport Performance Conference ‘Talent Development Environments in Competition Climbing’ Dublin City University, .
    2020 Oona Frawley (2020) Borders of Memory: Remembrance, Resilience and Reconciliation Canada Ireland University Foundation and Institute of Irish Studies, QUB Belfast, 13/02/2020-14/02/2020.
    2018 Oona Frawley (2018) ISAANZ 23rd ISAANZ Conference Sydney, 25/11/2018-28/11/2018.
    2018 Oona Frawley (2018) Common Ground ‘‘Me I have to say’: Split Selves and Double Consciousness in Recent Irish Fiction’ Queen's University Belfast, 26/10/2018-27/10/2018.
    2016 Oona Frawley (2016) 1916Home2016 ‘Women and the Decade of Commemorations’ University College Dublin, 26/10/2016-27/10/2016.
    2016 Oona Frawley (2016) Women and the Decade of Commemorations: An All-Island Perspective Year-long series organised on behalf of MU Commemorations Committee Maynooth University, 19/01/2016-24/10/2016.
    2016 Oona Frawley (2016) Globalising the Rising ‘The Terrible Beauty of Memory’ University College Dublin, 04/02/2016-05/02/2016.
    2016 Oona Frawley (2016) James Joyce Seminar Series ‘Cultural Memory in 2016’ James Joyce Centre, Dublin, 05/09/2016-05/09/2016.
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) Oscar Wilde Centre seminar series On Writing Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College Dublin, 23/01/2015-23/01/2015.
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) Irish Studies and the Dynamics of Memory Plenary Roundtable Nijmegan, the Netherlands, 31/03/2015-02/04/2015.
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) AHRC-funded network event on memory Discussion of commemorative events in Ireland Queen's University Belfast, 04/06/2015-04/06/2015.
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) 21st Annual ISAANZ Conference Irish Studies Association of Australiasia and New Zealand Maynooth University, 18/06/2015-20/06/2015.
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) Commemoration in Northern Ireland AHRC-funded network event on commemoration Queen's University Belfast, 03/03/2015-03/03/2015.
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) ISAANZ Comparative Ecocriticisms Maynooth University, 18/06/2015-20/06/2015.
    2015 Oona Frawley (2015) Making Ireland Lecture Series Waste Water Flood Trinity College Dublin, Long Room Hub, 27/01/2015-27/01/2015.
    2014 Oona Frawley (2014) ACIS ‘The Memory of Place in Joyce’, Joyce and Cultural Memory Panel University College Dublin, 11/06/2014-14/06/2014.
    2014 Oona Frawley, Emilie Pine, Fionnuala Dillane (2014) Commemoration: Contexts and Concepts, President of Ireland’s Ethics Initiative Roundtable on Irish Memory Studies University College Cork, 10/10/2014-10/10/2014.
    2014 Oona Frawley (2014) Ecocriticism and Literature ‘On Development, Waste, and Ghosts’ University College Cork, 19/06/2014-21/06/2014.
    2014 Oona Frawley (2014) New Voices in Irish Criticism 'Colonial American, Australian and Irish Attitudes Towards Land Development’ University College Galway, 05/06/2014-07/06/2014.
    2014 Oona Frawley, Emilie Pine, Margaret Kelleher (2014) ACIS Roundtable on Irish Memory Studies University College Dublin, 11/06/2014-14/06/2014.
    2013 Oona Frawley (2013) Global Legacies of the Irish Famine Plenary Roundtable on Memory of the Famine Radboud University, Nijmegan, The Netherlands, 25/03/2013-28/03/2013.
    2013 Oona Frawley (2013) Irish Memory Studies Network Lecture Series Memory Studies and Ireland: opening lecture of the IMSN University College Dublin, 29/01/2013-29/01/2013.
    2013 Oona Frawley (2013) James Joyce Summer School 'Location, Location, Location: Place and Property in Ulysses' James Joyce Summer School, Dublin, 11/07/2013-11/07/2013.
    2013 Oona Frawley (2013) Modernism, Memory and Media: Ireland 1913-1916 Multidisciplinary conference Maynooth University, 21/06/2013-22/06/2013.
    2013 Oona Frawley (2013) Christopher Newport University Summer School ‘The Irish Literary Revival and Cultural Memory’ Trinity College Dublin, Long Room Hub, 10/07/2013-10/07/2013.
    2012 Oona Frawley (2012) James Joyce Seminar Series Joyce and Ecocriticism James Joyce Centre, Dublin, 12/11/2012-12/11/2012.
    2012 Oona Frawley (2012) Teaching and Learning Seminar Series Peer Tutoring in the English Department Maynooth University, 23/11/2012-23/11/2012.
    2012 Oona Frawley (2012) James Joyce Symposisum ‘Ulysses, Semi- and Postcolonial Ecologies’ Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, 10/06/2012-16/06/2012.
    2010 Oona Frawley (2010) Australian-Irish Memory Studies initiative ‘Irish and Australian Historical Fiction’ University College Dublin, 27/06/2010-01/07/2010.
    2009 Oona Frawley (2009) Australian-Irish Memory Studies initiative Irish Literature and Memory Sydney and Canberra, 04/12/2009-11/12/2009.
    2009 Oona Frawley (2009) University College Dublin Dept of English Lecture Series Where is the Global in Irish Fiction? University College Dublin, 11/02/2009-11/02/2009.
    2008 Oona Frawley (2008) Princeton Fund for Irish Studies Lecture Series Irish Memory Princeton University, 17/10/2008-17/10/2008.
    2007 Oona Frawley (2007) IASIL Annual Conference ‘Cultural Memory in Roddy Doyle and Joseph O’Connor’ University College Dublin, 17/07/2007-20/07/2007.
    2007 Oona Frawley (2007) ACIS Annual Conference Irish Cultural Memory Graduate School and University Center, New York, 18/04/2007-21/04/2007.
    2006 Oona Frawley (2006) Affecting Irishness ‘‘Who’s he when he’s at home?’ – Spenser and Irishness’ Trinity College Dublin, 13/01/2006-14/01/2006.
    2006 Oona Frawley (2006) Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Seminar Series ‘Spenser and Irish Cultural Memory’ Trinity College Dublin, 08/03/2006-08/03/2006.
    2005 Oona Frawley (2005) Institute of Irish Studies Seminar Series ‘Cultural Memory, Cultural Narratives’ Queen's University Belfast, 15/02/2005-15/02/2005.
    2005 Oona Frawley (2005) Parnell Summer School Dubliners Panel Avondale estate, County Wicklow, 16/08/2005-16/08/2005.
    2005 Oona Frawley (2005) Betwixt and Between: Place and Cultural Translation Spenser's Castle Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, QUB, 08/04/2005-10/04/2005.
    2005 Oona Frawley (2005) IASIL Annual Conference ‘Spenser’s Trace: Cultural Memory and Cognition’ Charles University, Prague, 25/07/2005-28/07/2005.
    2005 Oona Frawley (2005) Memory Day Interdisciplinary event Institute of Irish Studies, QUB, 22/05/2005-.
    2004 Oona Frawley (2004) James Joyce Symposium: Bloomsday 100 Celebrations ‘Beyond the Pale: Representations of Palestine and Gibraltar in Ulysses’ NUI Dublin, 06/06/2004-18/06/2004.
    2003 Oona Frawley (2003) Engaging Imagination, Anthropological Association of Ireland Conference ‘Possession: The Twin Towers and Nelson’s Pillar in American and Irish Imagination’ University College Dublin, 19/06/2003-21/06/2003.
    2001 Oona Frawley (2001) New Voices in Irish Criticism ‘Yeats, Synge & Nature’ NUI Galway, 02/02/2001-04/02/2001.
    2001 Oona Frawley (2001) Landscapes of Memory and Desire, Anthropological Association of Ireland ‘Nature and Nostalgia’ Maynooth University, 11/05/2001-13/05/2001.
    2000 Oona Frawley (2000) ‘Visions of the Medieval World’: Fourth Borderlines Conference ‘The Frenzy of Sweeney in Medieval Irish Literature’ University College Dublin, 24/03/2000-26/03/2000.
    1999 Oona Frawley (1999) Archipelagic Identities ‘Mutabilitie: The Changing Place of Nature in Irish Literature’ Oxford University, 09/04/1999-10/04/1999.
    1999 Oona Frawley (1999) 3rd Annual Conference on Colonialism ‘Edmund Spenser’s Verbal Mapping and Colonial Control' NUI Galway, 17/06/2009-20/06/1999.
    1999 Oona Frawley (1999) Irish Identities Postgraduate conference Glucksman Ireland House, New York Univesity, 06/03/1999-07/03/1999.
    1999 Oona Frawley (1999) Irish Identities Nature and Nation Glucksman Ireland House, New York University, 06/03/1999-07/03/1999.

    Article

    Year Publication
    2006 Oona Frawley (2006) ‘Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’. New Jersey: [Article]

    Book Review

    Year Publication
    2013 Frawley, O (2013) BETWEEN SHADOWS: MODERN IRISH WRITING AND CULTURE. TULSA: [Book Review]
    2013 Frawley, O (2013) JOURNEY WESTWARD: JOYCE, DUBLINERS, AND THE LITERARY REVIVAL. TULSA: [Book Review]
    2008 Frawley, O (2008) NATION STATES: THE CULTURES OF IRISH NATIONALISM. TULSA: [Book Review]

    Encyclopedia Entry

    Year Publication
    2010 Oona Frawley (2010) ‘Irish Fiction’. London: [Encyclopedia Entry]

    Newspaper Articles

    Year Publication
    2016 Oona Frawley (2016) Legoland by Gerard Woodward review – revelling in the possibilities of the short story. Guardian Newspaper: [Newspaper Articles]
    2016 Oona Frawley (2016) Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan by Ruth Gilligan review – tales of the Irish-Jewish experience. Guardian Newspaper: [Newspaper Articles]

    Video recording / TV

    Year Publication
    2024 Frawley; Neumann (2024) Talent Development Show - Interview with Udo Neumann. [Video recording / TV] [Link]
    Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

    Honors and Awards

    Date Title Awarding Body
    01/01/2009 Hennessy Award Nomination Hennessy Awards
    01/01/2014 Irish Book Award Nomination Irish Book Awards
    01/01/1996 Co-Winner, De Jure Manuscript Award CCNY
    01/01/2003 Robert Day Adams Prize for Best Dissertation involving Interdisciplinary Work CUNY Graduate Center
    01/01/1999 University Tuition Scholarship CUNY Graduate Center
    01/01/1998 University Tuition Scholarship CUNY Graduate Center

    Education

    Start date Institution Qualification Subject
    Graduate School and University Center, CUNY PhD