Dr Stephen O'Neill

English

Associate Professor
Undergraduate Programme Co-ordinator

Iontas Building
Ground Floor
0.39
(01) 708 3489

Biography

Dr Stephen O’Neill is Associate Professor in English and Shakespeare Studies and was Head of Department for 2019-2020. 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, guest lectures, and a digital exhibition. 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. 

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 HBO’s Westworld and Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel Hamnet. He is also co-editing with Maria Pramaggiore a volume of essays Kylie Minogue: Critical Insights into Music and Media celebrity (under contract with Bloomsbury Academic), for which he is writing a chapter on Minogue's affective fandoms. In 2022, he was part of a team that received a Maynooth University CTL Teaching Fellowship for the project “Eco-Journaling: Climate-Engaged Learning through Literature” for EN342: Lost Worlds. A key aim for the project team (which includes Dr Evan Bourke, Prof Pat Palmer, Dr Kevin Tracey, and Alan Waldron) is to involve students through direct participation in-class, through a campus tree-trail, and workshops with visual artist Susan Leen. The project will go beyond the timeframe of the module itself through a creative exhibition featuring class work and the launch of student leadership roles as “MU Climate Heroes”. 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.  

Research Interests

Shakespeare studies, especially Shakespeare’s afterlives; contemporary Shakespeare adaptation studies and digital cultures; early modern literature, especially drama and theatre; early modern Ireland.  

Research Projects

Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
Literature and Ireland's Trees PI Strand-1a Literature and Ireland’s Trees (LIT) aims to establish an arboreal literary studies network in collaboration with Crann: Trees for Ireland and international scholars. Exploring the literary lives of trees, the project will identify new ways of seeing trees and explore arboreal representation as a mode of engagement with climate challenge. Working with a Writer-in-Residence, and through a networking event, postgraduate placements, and a web presence, the project will lead to an essay collection featuring critics, arborists and writers, and to the generation of meaningful knowledge about how Ireland’s tree and literary cultures enrich Irish society. 01/12/2021 01/09/2021 10448

Book

Year Publication
2014 O'Neill, Stephen (2014) Shakespeare and YouTube: New Media Forms of the Bard. London and New York: Bloomsbury / Arden Shakespeare. [Link]
2007 O'Neill, Stephen (2007) Staging Ireland: Representations in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Link]

Edited Book

Year Publication
2022 O'Neill, S and Diana Henderson (Ed.). (2022) The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Adaptation. London and New York: Arden Bloomsbury, [Link]
2021 Stephen O’Neill and Ton Hoenselaars (Ed.). (2021) The Shakespearean International Yearbook 19: Special Section, Shakespeare and Refugees. London: Routledge, [Link]
2018 O'Neill, Stephen (Ed.). (2018) Broadcast Your Shakespeare: Continuity and Change Across Media. London: Bloomsbury / Arden Shakespeare, [Link]
2010 Stephen O'Neill and Janet Clare (Ed.). (2010) Shakespeare and the Irish Writer. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, [Link]

Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
2023 Stephen O'Neill (2023) 'Arborealities, or Making Trees Matter in Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees'. ISLE Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, . [Link] https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isad040 [Full-Text]
2021 O’Neill S. (2021) '“And Who Will Write Me?”: Maternalizing Networks of Remembrance in Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet'. Shakespeare, 17 (2):210-229. [DOI] [Full-Text]
2021 O’Neill S. (2021) 'Bring yourself back online, Old Bill: Westworld’s media histories, or six degrees of separation from Shakespeare'. Cahiers Elisabethains, . [DOI] [Full-Text]
2020 O'Neill, Stephen (2020) 'Shakespeare's Hand, or the strangers' case: Remediating Sir Thomas More in the context of the Refugee Crisis'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, . [Link]
2019 O'Neill, Stephen (2019) 'Finding Refuge in King Lear: From Brexit to Shakespeare's European Value'. Multicultural Shakespeare, 19 (34). [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text]
2018 O'Neill, Stephen (2018) 'Shakespeare’s Digital Flow: Humans, Technologies and the Possibilities of Intercultural Exchange'. Shakespeare Studies, 46 :120-133. [Link] [Full-Text]
2018 O'Neill, Stephen (2018) 'Beyond Shakespeare's land of ire: Revisiting Ireland in English Renaissance drama'. Literature Compass, 15 (10). https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12491
2016 O'Neill, Stephen, and Maurizio Calbi (2016) 'Introduction: #SocialMediaShakespeares'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, X (1). [Link] [Full-Text]
2016 O'Neill, Stephen (2016) '‘It's William Back from the Dead’: Commemoration, Representation, and Race in Akala's Hip-Hop Shakespeare'. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 16 (2):246-256. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.jproxy.nuim.ie/doi/10.1111/sena.12192/full [Full-Text]
2015 O'Neill, S (2015) 'Shakespeare and Social Media'. Literature Compass, 12 :274-285. [DOI] [Full-Text]
2015 O'Neill, Stephen (2015) 'Teaching and Learning Guide for: “Shakespeare and Social Media”'. Literature Compass, 12 (7). [Link] [DOI]
2014 O'Neill, Stephen (2014) 'Ophelian Negotiations: Remediating the Girl on YouTube'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, IX (1). [Link] http://www.borrowers.uga.edu/1281/show [Full-Text]
2011 Stephen O'Neill (2011) 'Uploading Hamlet: Agency, Convergence and YouTube Shakespeare'. ANGLISTICA, 15 :63-75. [Link] [Full-Text]

Book Chapter

Year Publication
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) '‘The time invites you’, or Making Hamlet your Digital Contemporary: Online Adaptation and Community' In: Agrégation anglais 2023. William Shakespeare. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Paris : Ellipses.
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) '“Quoting Machines: Shakespearean things in and beyond HBO’s Westworld”' In: Performing Shakespearean Appropriations Essays in Honor of Christy DesmetPerforming Shakespearean Appropriations Essays in Honor of Christy Desmet. Lanham : Rowman and Littlefield. [Link]
2020 O'Neill, Stephen (2020) 'Hiddleston–Shakespeare–-Coriolanus, or Rhizomatic Crossings in Fanfic' In: Shakespeare and Geek Culture. London : Arden Bloomsbury. [Link]
2016 O’Neill S. (2016) 'Beyond MacMorris: Shakespeare, Ireland and critical contexts' In: Celtic Shakespeare: The Bard and the Borderers. [DOI]
2018 O'Neill, Stephen (2018) 'Quoting Shakespeare in Digital Cultures' In: Shakespeare and Quotation. Cambridge : Cambridge UP. [Link]
2017 O'Neill, Stephen (2017) 'Theorizing User Agency in YouTube Shakespeare' In: The Shakespeare User: Critical and Creative Appropriations in a Networked Culture. New York : Palgrave Macmillan. [Link]
2017 O'Neill, Stephen (2017) '“In fair [Europe], where we lay our scene” Romeo and Juliet, Europe and digital cultures' In: Romeo and Juliet in European Culture. Amsterdam : John Benjamins. [Link] [Full-Text]
2014 O'Neill, Stephen (2014) '“YouTube, Shakespeare and the Sonnets: Textual Forms, Queer Erasures”' In: Digital Shakespeares: Innovations, Interventions, Mediations, special issue of The Shakespearean International Yearbook. London : Ashgate.
2013 O'Neill, Stephen (2013) 'Beyond MacMorris: Shakespeare, Ireland and critical contexts' In: Celtic Shakespeare: The Bard and the Borderers. London : Ashgate.
2007 O'Neill, Stephen (2007) '1599: Sir John Oldcastle, the Irish Wars and the Elizabethan Stage' In: Ireland in the Renaissance, c. 1540-1660. Dublin : Four Courts Press.

Edited Journal Issue

Year Publication
2019 O'Neill, Stephen (2019) Shakespeare and Digital Humanities: New Perspectives, Future Directions, Humanities. [Edited Journal Issue] [Link]
2015 O'Neill, Stephen (2015) “Shakespeare/ Social Media”, Borrowers and Lenders. [Edited Journal Issue] [Link]

Magazine Article

Year Publication
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) What's your favourite reference to trees in Irish literature?. [Magazine Article] [Link]

Other Journal

Year Publication
2021 Stephen O'Neill (2021) 'On the ‘Spenser Dispenser’' Spenser Forum, 51 (3) . [Link]

Conference Contribution

Year Publication
2023 O'Neill, Stephen (2023) Arborealizing Adaptation in Lois Patiño and Matías Piñeiro’s Sycorax (2021) Irish Renaissance Seminar Queen's University Belfast, 28/01/2023-28/01/2023.
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) “Ventriloquizing (Arboreal) Forms: Finding Tree lines Tree Lines: Texts, Times, Images Maynooth University, 18/11/2022-19/11/2022.
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) Tree Lines: Texts, Times, Images Literature and Ireland's Trees Research Symposium Maynooth University, 18/11/2022-19/11/2022.
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) “If that happens in Hamlet. I don't care”: Succession as Adaptation Theory, or Serial TV's selective Shakespeareanisms Shakespeare's Serialty: an International Workshop Universität Konstanz, 14/07/2022-16/07/2022.
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) “Arborealities: Bearing Witness and Being (with) Nature in Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees” “Landscape, Narrative, and Deep Time” St Louis University, Madrid, 02/06/2022-04/06/2022.
2021 O'Neill, S. (2021) Eco-Migration: Shakespeare and the Contemporary Novel”, Shakespeare Association of America Shakespearean eco-echoes in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island online, 03/04/2021-03/04/2021.
2019 O'Neill, Stephen (2019) “By most mechanical … hand”: Shakespeare embedded in Westworld and digital cultures Shakespeare on Screen in the Digital Era Université of Paul-Valéry Montpellier, 26/09/2019-28/09/2019.
2018 O'Neill, Stephen (2018) ‘“The Strangers’ Case”: Sir Thomas More, the Refuge Crisis and Social Media’ Shakespeare Studies Today, British Shakespeare Association Queen's University, Belfast, 14/06/2018-17/06/2018.
2018 O'Neill, Stephen (2018) Remediating Early Modern Drama seminar Shakespeare Association of America Los Angeles, 29/03/2018-31/03/2018.
2017 O'Neill, Stephen (2017) Shakespeare / Hiddleston / Coriolanus: Rhizomatic Crossings in Fanfiction, Shakespearean Fandom and Digital Cultures Shakespeare Association of America Atlanta, 06/04/2017-08/04/2017.
2016 Stephen O'Neill (2016) #notforanagebutforalltime: Quoting Shakespeare in Digital Cultures Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture Université d’Artois, Arras, France, 15/06/2016-17/06/2016.
2016 Stephen O'Neill (2016) ‘It is the digital, | The digital above us, govern our conditions’: Shakespeare, (Mis)Quotation and Digital Cultures Shakespeare Lives across the Island: Conversations and Celebrations Irish Renaissance Seminar Queens University Belfast, 07/05/2016-07/05/2016.
2015 Stephen O'Neill (2015) Shakesgirls, or what’s Ophelia doing in social media? The Gendered Politics of Production Middlesex University, London, 16/06/2015-16/06/2015.
2015 Stephen O'Neill (2015) #Shakespeare: Twitter and Tumblr as Modes of Shakespeare Commemoration Celebrating Shakespeare: Memory and the Cultures of Commemoration Murcia University, Spain, 04/11/2015-07/11/2015.
2013 Stephen O'Neill (2013) YouTube Shakespeare Digital Shakespeares University of Nottingham, 24/07/2013-.
2013 Stephen O'Neill (2013) “‘Scaling his present, bearing with his past’: Coriolanus and the Challenges of Teaching Shakespearean Topicality now Reimagining Topicality, Shakespeare Association of America St Louis, USA, 09/04/2014-12/04/2014.
2012 Stephen O'Neill (2012) Has no one made him out to be an Irishman?: interpreting Shakespeare's perceived Irish problem Irish Studies Centre, Concordia University Montreal, .
2012 Stephen O'Neill and Maurizio Calbi (2012) Social Media Shakespeare Seminar Shakespeare Association of America Toronto, .
2011 Stephen O'Neill (2011) Shakespeare, You Tube and the (Un)sexing of the Sonnets Media Shakespeare: Appropriation Reconsidered, European Shakespeare Research Association Weimar, Germany, 29/04/2011-30/04/2011.
2011 Stephen O'Neill (2011) Shakespeare's Sonnets on YouTube: Medium Play, Queer Erasures and the Culture of Vernacular Creativity UCD School of English Research Seminar Dublin, 17/11/2011-17/11/2011.
2011 Stephen O'Neill (2011) “Shakespeare, Ireland and the Critics” World Shakespeare Congress Prague, .
2010 Stephen O'Neill (2010) “It’s Shakespeare … with a twist: Exploring Conflict in Shakespeare on You Tube” European Shakespeare Research Association Conference Pisa, .
2010 Stephen O'Neill (2010) “Politics, Paranoia, and Power in Shakespeare’s Plays” Abbey Theatre Dublin, .
2010 Stephen O'Neill (2010) Celtic Shakespeare?  Or, what has happened to Shakespeare’s ‘English’ histories? Shakespeare, Performance and Ireland Research Seminar, with the Moore Institute NUI Galway, 29/05/2010-29/05/2010.
2009 Stephen O'Neill (2009) Beyond Mackmorrice?: Rethinking Shakespeare's Irish Subtexts Shakespeare, Ireland, Scotland, Wales Conference School of English, Trinity College Dublin, .
2009 Stephen O'Neill (2009) 'Has no-one made him out to be an Irishman?': Shakespeare and Irish Writing Research Seminar, School of Language and Literature, New Bulgarian University Sofia, Bulgaria, .
2009 Stephen O'Neill (2009) Twentieth Century Rewritings of Shakespeare Guest Lecture, School of Language and Literature, New Bulgarian University Sofia, Bulgaria, .
2009 Stephen O'Neill (2009) After-show Talk and Discussion, Macbeth Rathmines Literary Festival St Louis, Dublin, .
2009 Stephen O'Neill (2009) It's Shakespeare with a twist: Exploring Conflict in Shakespeare on You Tube The 8th International European Shakespeare Research Association Conference Pisa, Italy, .
2008 Stephen O'Neill (2008) Villainy and the (Dis)Closure of Trauma in Shakesp Shakespeare Association of America Dallas, Texas, .
2008 Stephen O'Neill (2008) CGI Elizabeth, or a Spanish Tragedy: Historical T Filming and Performing Renaissance History Symposi Queen's University Belfast, .
2007 Stephen O'Neill (2007) “Images of the Irish”, Author Interview, Staging I The Eleventh Hour, RTE Radio One Dublin, .
2007 Stephen O'Neill (2007) ‘What ish my nation?, or questions of Irish differ Queen's University, Belfast Belfast, .
2007 Stephen O'Neill (2007) Shakespeare’s Stage Irishman and questions of diff Jean Monnet University Saint-Etienne, France, .
2007 Stephen O'Neill (2007) Panel Discussion on Shakespeare The Orla Barry Show, Newstalk Dublin, .
2007 Stephen O'Neill (2007) “Shakespeare’s Relevance Today Tubridy Show, RTE Radio One Dublin, .
2005 Stephen O'Neill (2005) Go not to Ireland’: Negotiating the Trauma of the Early Modern Terrorism: Atrocity and Political Vio University of Manchester, .
2005 Stephen O'Neill (2005) 1599: Drama, Nation, and the Burden of War Ireland in the Renaissance Dublin, .

Webinar

Year Publication
2023 Stephen O'Neill (2023) 'The book that gave us Shakespeare: Four hundred years of the First Folio, Inspiring Ideas at Trinity, TCD. [Webinar] [Link]
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) “Writing with Trees: in conversation with Lynn Buckle. [Webinar] [Link]
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) Texts and Trees: Forays into Ireland's Arboreal Cultures in conversation with Dr Anna PIlz and Dr Brandon Yen. [Webinar] [Link]

Blog

Year Publication
2017 Stephen O'Neill (2017) The Strangers' Case: Sir Thomas More, Social Media and the Refugee Crisis. [Blog] [Link]
2015 Stephen O'Neill (2015) “Shakespeare and Online Video”, Shakespeare on YouTube. [Blog] [Link]

Radio Presentation

Year Publication
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) Literature and Ireland’s Trees, Mooney Goes Wild. Dublin: [Radio Presentation] [Link]

Guest Lectures

Year Publication
2023 Stephen O'Neill; Katie Holten (2023) IMMA Outdoors, Garden Talk and Walk about The Language of Trees. [Guest Lectures]

Online Multimedia

Year Publication
2019 O'Neill, S; Watson, L. (2019) 'I should be so lucky: doing the academic locomotion with Kylie', RTE Brainstorm. [Online Multimedia] [Link]
2016 Stephen O'Neill (2016) Storify - Introduction Shakespeare and Social Media. [Online Multimedia] [Link]

Conference Publication

Year Publication
2000 Stephen O'Neill (2000) Proceedings of the British Graduate Shakespeare Conference . In: Janet R. Costa eds. ‘“Irish Affairs’: Representing Ireland in Sir John Oldcastle” The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham,
1998 Stephen O'Neill (1998) PAGES “‘From Ireland coming’: the Irish Wars in Late Elizabethan Drama” University College Dublin,

Book Review

Year Publication
2022 O'Neill, Stephen (2022) Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration Theatre to YouTube By Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens (2021). Shakespeare Studies. [Book Review] [Link]
2010 Dr Stephen O'Neill (2010) Review of J.B Lethbridge (Ed.). Shakespeare and Spenser: Attractive Opposites (Manchester University Press, 2008). [Book Review]
2008 Stephen O'Neill (2008) The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street by Charles Nichol, The Arts Show, RTE Radio One. [Book Review]
2006 Dr Stephen O'Neill (2006) Review of Deana Rankin, Between Spenser and Swift: English Writing in Seventeenth Century Ireland (Cambridge University Press, 2005). [Book Review]
2004 Dr Stephen O'Neill (2004) Review of Clare Carroll, Circe’s Cup: Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Ireland (Notre Dame University Press, 2001). [Book Review]
1999 Dr Stephen O'Neill (1999) Review of Curtis Perry, The Making of Jacobean Culture (Cambridge University Press, 1999). [Book Review] http:/www.hull.ac.uk/renforum/v3no2/oneill.htm

Reviews

Year Publication
2016 Stephen O'Neill (2016) Review: Reason in Madness, Draíocht Theatre. [Reviews] [Link]
2015 Stephen O'Neill (2015) “Of Crowns, Nations and Memory Machines: Druid reimagines Shakespeare’s Histories.”. [Reviews] [Link]
2014 Stephen O'Neill (2014) Review of Brigit by Tom Murphy for Exuent. [Reviews] [Link]

Thesis

Year Publication
2004 Dr Stephen O'Neill (2004) Staging Ireland: Representations in English Renaissance Drama, c.1587-1603. University College Dublin: [Thesis]
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

Professional Associations

Description Function From / To
Shakespeare Association of America Member -
Irish Renaissance Seminar Member -
European Shakespeare Research Association Member -

Committees

Committee Function From / To
Faculty of Arts Research Committee Chairperson -
Academic Council Faculty of Arts Representative -

Education

Start date Institution Qualification Subject
NUI (University College Dublin ) PhD English

Teaching Interests

Dr O'Neill is the recipient of a Maynooth University Teaching Award (2023). His main teaching interests and responsibilities are in Shakespeare and early modern literature studies but he also contributes more broadly to teaching across the MU English degree. Current teaching includes EN106: "Cli-Fi: Climate Crisis and the Literary Imagination", which is available to double major and single honours students; EN202: "Literature and History"; EN244: "Imagined Worlds"; and EN342: "Lost Worlds: Reading a Fragile Planet". He also offers an elective module in Third Year, "Shakespeare Across Media", which explores adaptations of Shakespeare in literary and popular cultures. He has previously taught modules on Shakespeare, Feminism and Popular Culture, and on thee fiction of Don DeLillo. At postgraduate level, he co-teaches the module Afterlives on the Department's new MA programme, Literatures of Engagement. He also supervises PhD projects on Shakespeare and also in digital media. 

In 2022, he received a Maynooth University CTL Teaching Fellowship for the project “Eco-Journaling: Climate-Engaged Learning through Literature” as part of EN342. A key aim for the project team (which includes Dr Evan Bourke, Prof Pat Palmer, Dr Kevin Tracey, and Alan Waldron) is to involve students through direct participation in class, through a campus tree-trail and workshops with visual artist Susan Leen. But we want to go beyond the timeframe of the module itself through a creative exhibition featuring the group’s work and also launch student-leadership roles as “MU Climate Heroes”. By developing greater learner partnerships, we can together explore how the study of literature helps us as global citizens to apprehend, process, and identify actions as we face the climate crisis.

Digital Badges:

All Aboard digital badge for “Flipped Classroom”. All Aboard Digital Skills in Higher Education. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

All Aboard digital badge for "Design Thinking”. All Aboard Digital Skills in Higher Education. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 




Recent Students

Graduation date Name Degree
2011 O’Dowd, Liam MLitt
2006 O'Neill, Brian MLitt