Prof Valerie Heffernan
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German Studies, School of Modern Languages, Motherhood Project, Arts and Humanities Institute
Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies
Head of School
Biography
Valerie Heffernan is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies and Head of the Maynooth University School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She studied at University College Dublin, the Université de Lausanne (Switzerland) and the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (Germany). She received her PhD in 2004.
Dr Heffernan's interdisciplinary research interests encompass feminist theory, cultural studies and literary studies. Her current work critically explores how motherhood is represented in contemporary literature and culture. Together with Gay Wilgus (CUNY), she recently edited a special issue of Women: A Cultural Review on “Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century”, which was republished in book form by Routledge in 2020. Other significant recent publications include Robert Walser: A Companion, co-edited with Samuel Frederick (Penn State) and published by Northwestern University Press in 2018.
Valerie Heffernan is the recipient of a number of highly prestigious grants from the European Commission, the Irish Research Council, the Royal Irish Academy and the National University of Ireland, as well as scholarships from the Mexican Government, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the Swiss Government Excellence programme, among others. In recent years, she has performed a number of leadership roles for the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission, assisting with the evaluation of a number of calls within the Horizon 2020 programme.
Dr Heffernan's interdisciplinary research interests encompass feminist theory, cultural studies and literary studies. Her current work critically explores how motherhood is represented in contemporary literature and culture. Together with Gay Wilgus (CUNY), she recently edited a special issue of Women: A Cultural Review on “Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century”, which was republished in book form by Routledge in 2020. Other significant recent publications include Robert Walser: A Companion, co-edited with Samuel Frederick (Penn State) and published by Northwestern University Press in 2018.
Valerie Heffernan is the recipient of a number of highly prestigious grants from the European Commission, the Irish Research Council, the Royal Irish Academy and the National University of Ireland, as well as scholarships from the Mexican Government, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the Swiss Government Excellence programme, among others. In recent years, she has performed a number of leadership roles for the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission, assisting with the evaluation of a number of calls within the Horizon 2020 programme.
Research Interests
Valerie Heffernan’s research interests encompass 20th and 21st century literature, feminist literary theory and cultural studies. Her current research considers the representation of mothers, mothering and motherhood in contemporary European culture, with a particular focus on cultural expressions of maternal regret. She is currently Maynooth PI on MotherNet, a collaborative project with Vilnius University (Lithuania) and Uppsala University (Sweden) which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 952366. From 2014-2016, she was Principal Investigator of a research project entitled “The Cultural Transmission of Motherhood in Europe: A Case Study”, for which she was awarded a prestigious Irish Research Council Research Project Grant.
Research Projects
Post Doctoral Fellows / Research Team
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | Heffernan V.;Stone K. (2021) '#regrettingmotherhood in Germany: Feminism, motherhood, and culture'. Signs, 46 (2):337-360. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2018 | Heffernan, V (2018) 'Mending the Torn Fragments of a Relationship: An Interview with Sarah Strong'. Women: A Cultural Review, 29 :97-111. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2018 | Heffernan, V;Wilgus, G (2018) 'Introduction: Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century - Images, Representations, Constructions'. Women: A Cultural Review, 29 :1-18. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2017 | Heffernan, Valerie (2017) 'Dementia narratives in contemporary German women’s writing'. Journal of Romance Studies, 13 (3):361-378. [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2010 | Heffernan, Valerie (2010) 'Swimming against the current? Rolf Lappert's Nach Hause schwimmen'. FIGURATIONEN: GENDER-LITERATUR-KULTUR, 1 :113-127. [Full-Text] |
Edited Book
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | Valerie Heffernan and Gay Wilgus (Ed.). (2021) Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century. London: Routledge, [Link] | |
2018 | Samuel Frederick and Valerie Heffernan (Ed.). (2018) Robert Walser: A Companion. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, [Link] | |
2013 | Valerie Heffernan & Gillian Pye (Ed.). (2013) Transitions: Emerging Women Writers in German-language Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi, | |
2010 | Jürgen Barkhoff & Valerie Heffernan (Ed.). (2010) Schweiz schreiben. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Mythos Schweiz in der Gegenwartsliteratur. Tübingen: De Gruyter, |
Book Chapter
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | Valerie Heffernan & Katherine Stone (2021) 'International Responses to Regretting Motherhood' In: Women’s Lived Experiences of the Gender Gap. Singapore : Springer. [Link] https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1174-2_11 | |
2018 | Heffernan, Valerie and Samuel Frederick (2018) 'Introduction. Robert Walser: Modernist at the Margins' In: Robert Walser: A Companion. Evanston, IL : Northwestern University Press. [Link] | |
2018 | Heffernan, Valerie (2018) 'Parodies of Power: Robert Walser's Dramatic Scenes' In: Robert Walser: A Companion. Evanston, IL : Northwestern University Press. [Link] | |
2015 | Heffernan, Valerie (2015) 'Matrilineal Narrative and the Feminist Family Romance' In: German Women’s Writing in the Twenty-First Century. Rochester, NY : Camden House. [Link] [Full-Text] | |
2015 | Heffernan, Valerie (2015) 'Versstücke, Szenen und Dialoge der Berner Zeit' In: Gisi, Lucas Marco(Eds.). Robert Walser Handbuch. Stuttgart : Metzler. | |
2014 | Heffernan, Valerie (2014) 'Mediating the Mommy Wars in Contemporary Germany' In: Stay-at-Home Mothers: Dialogues and Debates. Bradford, ON : Demeter Press. [Link] [Full-Text] | |
2013 | Valerie Heffernan (2013) 'Perspectives on the Borderline: Julia Franck's lagerfeuer' In: Transitions: Emerging Women Writers in German-language Literature. Amsterdam : Rodopi. [Full-Text] | |
2013 | Valerie Heffernan and Gillian Pye (2013) 'Trends and Transitions in Contemporary German-language Writing by Women' In: Transitions: Emerging Women Writers in German-language Literature. Amsterdam : Rodopi. [Full-Text] | |
2011 | Heffernan, Valerie (2011) 'Julia Franck, Die Mittagsfrau: Historia Matria and Matrilineal Narrative' In: Lyn Marven & Stuart Taberner(Eds.). Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century. Rochester, NY : Camden House. [Full-Text] | |
2010 | Heffernan, Valerie & Jürgen Barkhoff (2010) 'Einleitung: ›Mythos Schweiz‹. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Schweizerischen in der Literatur' In: Heffernan, Valerie & Jürgen Barkhoff(Eds.). Schweiz schreiben. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Mythos Schweiz in der Gegenwartsliteratur. Tübingen : De Gruyter. http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/179013 [Full-Text] | |
2010 | Heffernan, Valerie (2010) 'Unschweizerische Schweizerliteratur? Ruth Schweikert, Peter Stamm, Zoë Jenny' In: Heffernan, Valerie & Jürgen Barkhoff(Eds.). Schweiz schreiben. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Mythos Schweiz in der Gegenwartsliteratur. Tübingen : De Gruyter. http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/179013 [Full-Text] | |
2008 | Heffernan, Valerie (2008) 'Robert Walser: Lange wohnte sie nun schon im Turm der Geduld' In: Florian Krobb & Jeff Morrison(Eds.). Prose Project: Irish Germanists interpret German Short and Very Short Narrative Texts. Konstanz : Hartung-Gorre Verlag. [Full-Text] | |
2008 | Heffernan, Valerie (2008) 'Nicht wahr, es klingt so schoen. Zur Musik des Walser-Textes' In: Anna Fattori & Margit Gigerl(Eds.). Bildersprache Klangfiguren. Spielformen der Intermedialitaet bei Robert Walser. Munich : Wilhelm Fink. [Full-Text] | |
2007 | Heffernan, Valerie (2007) 'Walter M. Diggelmanns Die Hinterlassenschaft and the landscape of Swiss Vergangenheitsbewältigung' In: Patrick Studer and Sabine Egger(Eds.). From the Margins to the Centre: Irish Germanists on Swiss Culture and Literature. Bern : Peter Lang. [Full-Text] | |
2007 | Heffernan, Valerie (2007) 'Walsers hybride Subjekt. Zur dramatischen Szene Die Chinesin/Der Chinese' In: Wolfram Groddeck, Reto Sorg, Peter Utz and Karl Wagner(Eds.). Robert Walsers Ferne Nähe. Neue Beiträge zur Forschung. Munich : Fink. |
Book
Year | Publication | |
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2007 | Heffernan, Valerie (2007) Provocation from the Periphery. Robert Walser Re-examined. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. [Link] |
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2023) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.
Honors and Awards
Teaching Interests
Professor Heffernan convenes the "Language and Culture" programme in First Year.