Dr Stephanie Rains

Media Studies

Associate Professor

0.22 Iontas Building
(01) 708 6980

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, 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.  I teach classes on media history, advertising and political economy, and podcasting, and I am the International Co-ordinator for the Department of Media Studies.
My main research interests are in Irish media and cultural history.  I have published monographs on Irish-American cultural history, and on the history of shopping and consumer culture in Dublin, and several articles/chapters on the Irish popular press of the late 19thC and early 20thC, published in Irish Studies Review, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, Media History and the Irish University Review.  My latest book is Advertising and Consumer Culture in Ireland 1922-1962: Buy Irish, published by Liverpool University Press in 2022.  I also run the Irish Media 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 on UK or US popular cultural history topics.

Office Hours: students can contact me at stephanie.rains@mu.ie to arrange a consultation.

Book

Year Publication
2022 Stephanie Rains (2022) Advertising and Consumer Culture in Ireland, 1922-1962: Buy Irish. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
2010 Dr Stephanie Rains (2010) Commodity Culture and Social Class in Dublin, 1850-1916. : Irish Academic Press.
2007 Rains, S. (2007) The Irish American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000. : Irish Academic Press.

Book Chapter

Year Publication
2022 Stephanie Rains (2022) 'The Politics of Sitting Down: Women, Cafes and Public Toilets in Dublin' In: Shopping and the Senses, 1800-1970. London : Palgrave Macmillan.
2020 Stephanie Rains (2020) ''Popular Prints'' In: Irish Literature in Transition, 1830-1880 (Vol 3). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
2019 Stephanie Rains (2019) 'Reading the Hand: Graphology and Alternative Literacies' In: Literacy, Language and Reading in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Liverpool, UK : Liverpool University Press.
2009 Rains, S. (2009) 'Ireland as a Past Life: Bridey Murphy and Irish-American Tourism to Ireland, 1945-1960' In: James Rogers and Matthew O’Brien(Eds.). After the Flood: Irish-America 1945-1960. Dublin : Irish Academic Press.
2007 Rains, S. (2007) 'Making Strange: Journeys through the Unfamiliar in the Films of Vincent Ward' In: Ian Conrich and Stuart Murray(Eds.). New Zealand Filmmakers. Detroit : Wayne State University Press.
2006 Rains, S. (2006) 'Roots and Routes: Irish-American Interest in Genealogy, 1945-2000' In: Diane Negra(Eds.). The Irish In Us: Irishness, Performativity, and Popular Culture. Durham, NC : Duke University Press.
2004 Rains, S. (2004) 'Quarterizing the City:  The Spatial Politics of the Joyce Industry in Dublin' In: David Bell and Mark Jayne(Eds.). City of Quarters: Urban Villages in the Contemporary City. Aldershot : Ashgate Publishing.
2003 Rains, S. (2003) 'Home from Home: Diasporic Images of Ireland in Film and Tourism' In: Barbara O’Connor and Michael Cronin(Eds.). Tourism in Ireland: A Critical Study. Clevedon : Channel View Publications.

Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
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]
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
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

Year Publication
‘Roots and Routes: Irish-American Interest in Genealogy, 1945-2000’ Crosscurrents: The Postgraduate Conference in Irish and Scottish Studies Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen, UK, .
2008 (2008) ‘Modernity and Consumption in 19thC Ireland: The Araby Bazaar and 1890s Popular Culture' Early Popular Visual Culture Symposium IADT Dun Laoghaire, .
2008 (2008) ‘Organising an Exhibition: National and International Exhibitions in 19thC Dublin’ Associational Culture in Ireland and the wider world, c. 1750-c.1940 NUI Maynooth, Ireland, .
2008 (2008) ‘Department Stores and Exhibitions: The Arrival of Commodity Culture in mid-19thC Dublin’ American Conference for Irish Studies Mid-West Conference Metropolitan State University, St Paul, Minnesota, USA, .
2008 (2008) ‘Welcome (Back) to Ireland: The 1950s, The Search for Bridey Murphy and Ireland as an Escape from Co American Conference for Irish Studies National Conference University of St Ambrose, Davenport, Iowa, USA, .
2008 (2008) ‘Here Be Monsters: the Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853 and the Growth of Dublin Department Store Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland Conference University of Limerick, Ireland, .
2007 (2007) ‘The Case of the Disappearing Colleen: Irish Actresses in Hollywood Film, 1945-2000’ Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference Chicago, USA, .
2007 (2007) ‘Modernity and Consumption in 19thC Ireland: The Araby Bazaar and 1890s Popular Culture’ International Association for the Study of Irish Literature Conference UCD, Ireland, .
2006 (2006) ‘Modernity and Consumption in 19thC Ireland: The Araby Bazaar and 1890s Popular Culture’ American Conferernce for Irish Studies National Conference University of Missouri-St Louis, St Louis, USA, .
2006 (2006) ‘The Everyday and the Academy: A New Generation of Cultural Studies?’ Rethinking the Everyday: Different Approaches to Material Culture NCAD, Dublin, .
2005 (2005) ‘An Introduction to Michel Foucault’ Cultural Theory Public Lecture Series Douglas Hyde Gallery, TCD Dublin, .
2005 (2005) ‘Celtic Kitsch: Irish-America and Irish Material Culture’ American Conference for Irish Studies Mid-West Conference Loras College, Iowa, USA, .
2005 (2005) ‘John Wayne Seeks Maureen O’Hara: Representations of Sexuality and Gender in Irish-American Popular O'Kane Film Centre Research Seminar Series UCD, Ireland, .
2004 (2004) ‘Diaspora and Conflict: Irish America and the Northern Ireland Troubles’ Ireland and Irish-America in the Twentieth Century NUI Maynooth, Ireland, .
2002 (2002) ‘Politics and Capital: Irish-American Ideological and Economic Involvement with Ireland’ Cultures in Conflict St. Patrick’s College, Dublin, .
2002 (2002) ‘John Wayne Seeks Maureen O’Hara: Representations of Sexuality and Gender in Irish-American Popular Private Vices, Public Virtues: Gendered Sexualities and Citizenship University of Evora, Portugal, .
2001 (2001) ‘Roots and Routes: Irish-American Interest in Genealogy, 1945-2000’ Diasporic Communications: Transnational and Local Cross-Currents University of Westminster, UK, .
2000 (2000) ‘Pedestrian Politics: Joyce Tourism in Dublin’ English Department Research Seminar University College, Chichester, UK, .
1999 (1999) ‘Home from Home: Irish Diaspora Tourism in Ireland’ Defining Colonies, Third Galway Conference on Colonialism NUI Galway, Ireland, .
1998 (1998) ‘Pedestrian Politics: Joyce Tourism in Dublin’ International James Joyce Foundation Symposium Rome, Italy, .

Book Review

Year Publication
Dr Stephanie Rains BREV
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