Prof Valerie Heffernan

German Studies, School of Modern Languages, Motherhood Project, Arts and Humanities Institute
Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies
Biography
Research Interests
Post Doctoral Fellows/Research Team
Researcher Name | Project | Role | Funding Body | |
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Egle Kackute | Motherhood and Migration: Between Languages, Cultures and Identities | Post Doctorate | Irish Research Council (IRC) | |
Katherine Stone | Sexual Violence in German Memory since 1945 | Post Doctorate | ||
Kira Janina Collins | The Non-Traditional (M)Other: The Representation of Young Motherhood and Ambivalent Motherhood in Contemporary German and Irish Films | Postgraduate student | Irish Research Council (IRC) |
Books
Year | Publication | |
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2007 | Provocation from the Periphery. Robert Walser Re-examined.
Heffernan, Valerie (2007) Provocation from the Periphery. Robert Walser Re-examined. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. [Details] |
Edited Books
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century
Valerie Heffernan and Gay Wilgus (Ed.). (2021) Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century London: Routledge. [Details] |
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2018 | Robert Walser: A Companion
Samuel Frederick and Valerie Heffernan (Ed.). (2018) Robert Walser: A Companion Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. [Details] |
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2013 | Transitions: Emerging Women Writers in German-language Literature
Valerie Heffernan & Gillian Pye (Ed.). (2013) Transitions: Emerging Women Writers in German-language Literature Amsterdam: Rodopi. [Details] |
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2010 | Schweiz schreiben. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Mythos Schweiz in der Gegenwartsliteratur
Jürgen Barkhoff & Valerie Heffernan (Ed.). (2010) Schweiz schreiben. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Mythos Schweiz in der Gegenwartsliteratur Tübingen: De Gruyter. [Details] |
Peer Reviewed Journals
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | '#regrettingmotherhood in Germany: Feminism, motherhood, and culture'
Heffernan V.;Stone K. (2021) '#regrettingmotherhood in Germany: Feminism, motherhood, and culture'. Signs, 46 (2):337-360 [DOI] [full-text] [Details] |
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2018 | 'Mending the Torn Fragments of a Relationship: An Interview with Sarah Strong'
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] [Details] |
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2018 | 'Introduction: Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century - Images, Representations, Constructions'
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] [Details] |
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2017 | 'Dementia narratives in contemporary German women’s writing'
Heffernan, Valerie (2017) 'Dementia narratives in contemporary German women’s writing'. Journal of Romance Studies, 13 (3):361-378 [DOI] [full-text] [Details] |
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2010 | 'Swimming against the current? Rolf Lappert's Nach Hause schwimmen'
Heffernan, Valerie (2010) 'Swimming against the current? Rolf Lappert's Nach Hause schwimmen'. FIGURATIONEN: GENDER-LITERATUR-KULTUR, 1 :113-127 [full-text] [Details] |
Book Chapters
Year | Publication | |
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2021 | 'International Responses to Regretting Motherhood'
Valerie Heffernan & Katherine Stone (2021) 'International Responses to Regretting Motherhood' In: Angela Fitzgerald (eds). Women’s Lived Experiences of the Gender Gap. Singapore: Springer. [DOI] [Details] |
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2018 | 'Introduction. Robert Walser: Modernist at the Margins'
Heffernan, Valerie and Samuel Frederick (2018) 'Introduction. Robert Walser: Modernist at the Margins' In: Heffernan, Valerie and Samuel Frederick (eds). Robert Walser: A Companion. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. [Details] |
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2018 | 'Parodies of Power: Robert Walser's Dramatic Scenes'
Heffernan, Valerie (2018) 'Parodies of Power: Robert Walser's Dramatic Scenes' In: Heffernan, Valerie and Samuel Frederick (eds). Robert Walser: A Companion. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. [Details] |
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2015 | 'Matrilineal Narrative and the Feminist Family Romance'
Heffernan, Valerie (2015) 'Matrilineal Narrative and the Feminist Family Romance' In: Hester Baer and Alexandra Merley Hill (eds). German Women’s Writing in the Twenty-First Century. Rochester, NY: Camden House. [full-text] [Details] |
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2015 | 'Versstücke, Szenen und Dialoge der Berner Zeit'
Heffernan, Valerie (2015) 'Versstücke, Szenen und Dialoge der Berner Zeit' In: Robert Walser Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler. [Details] |
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2014 | 'Mediating the Mommy Wars in Contemporary Germany'
Heffernan, Valerie (2014) 'Mediating the Mommy Wars in Contemporary Germany' In: Elizabeth Reid Boyd and Gayle Letherby (eds). Stay-at-Home Mothers: Dialogues and Debates. Bradford, ON: Demeter Press. [full-text] [Details] |
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2013 | 'Perspectives on the Borderline: Julia Franck's lagerfeuer'
Valerie Heffernan (2013) 'Perspectives on the Borderline: Julia Franck's lagerfeuer' In: Valerie Heffernan and Gillian Pye (eds). Transitions: Emerging Women Writers in German-language Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi. [full-text] [Details] |
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2013 | 'Trends and Transitions in Contemporary German-language Writing by Women'
Valerie Heffernan and Gillian Pye (2013) 'Trends and Transitions in Contemporary German-language Writing by Women' In: Valerie Heffernan and Gillian Pye (eds). Transitions: Emerging Women Writers in German-language Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi. [full-text] [Details] |
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2011 | 'Julia Franck, Die Mittagsfrau: Historia Matria and Matrilineal Narrative'
Heffernan, Valerie (2011) 'Julia Franck, Die Mittagsfrau: Historia Matria and Matrilineal Narrative' In: Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century. Rochester, NY: Camden House. [full-text] [Details] |
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2010 | 'Einleitung: ›Mythos Schweiz‹. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Schweizerischen in der Literatur'
Heffernan, Valerie & Jürgen Barkhoff (2010) 'Einleitung: ›Mythos Schweiz‹. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Schweizerischen in der Literatur' In: Schweiz schreiben. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Mythos Schweiz in der Gegenwartsliteratur. Tübingen: De Gruyter. [DOI] [full-text] [Details] |
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2010 | 'Unschweizerische Schweizerliteratur? Ruth Schweikert, Peter Stamm, Zoë Jenny'
Heffernan, Valerie (2010) 'Unschweizerische Schweizerliteratur? Ruth Schweikert, Peter Stamm, Zoë Jenny' In: Schweiz schreiben. Zu Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Mythos Schweiz in der Gegenwartsliteratur. Tübingen: De Gruyter. [DOI] [full-text] [Details] |
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2008 | 'Robert Walser: Lange wohnte sie nun schon im Turm der Geduld'
Heffernan, Valerie (2008) 'Robert Walser: Lange wohnte sie nun schon im Turm der Geduld' In: Prose Project: Irish Germanists interpret German Short and Very Short Narrative Texts. Konstanz: Hartung-Gorre Verlag. [full-text] [Details] |
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2008 | 'Nicht wahr, es klingt so schoen. Zur Musik des Walser-Textes'
Heffernan, Valerie (2008) 'Nicht wahr, es klingt so schoen. Zur Musik des Walser-Textes' In: Bildersprache Klangfiguren. Spielformen der Intermedialitaet bei Robert Walser. Munich: Wilhelm Fink. [full-text] [Details] |
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2007 | 'Walter M. Diggelmanns Die Hinterlassenschaft and the landscape of Swiss Vergangenheitsbewältigung'
Heffernan, Valerie (2007) 'Walter M. Diggelmanns Die Hinterlassenschaft and the landscape of Swiss Vergangenheitsbewältigung' In: From the Margins to the Centre: Irish Germanists on Swiss Culture and Literature. Bern: Peter Lang. [full-text] [Details] |
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2007 | 'Walsers hybride Subjekt. Zur dramatischen Szene Die Chinesin/Der Chinese'
Heffernan, Valerie (2007) 'Walsers hybride Subjekt. Zur dramatischen Szene Die Chinesin/Der Chinese' In: Robert Walsers Ferne Nähe. Neue Beiträge zur Forschung. Munich: Fink. [Details] |
Conference Contributions
Year | Publication | |
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2015 | Ageing: Histories, Mythologies and Taboos.
Valerie Heffernan (2015) Ageing: Histories, Mythologies and Taboos. [Oral Presentation], Dementia Narratives in Contemporary German-language Literature: Memory, Legacy, Identity, University of Bergen, Norway , 30-JAN-15 - 31-JAN-15 [Details] |
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2015 | Popular Culture Association Conference.
Valerie Heffernan (2015) Popular Culture Association Conference. [Oral Presentation], Motherhood in Contemporary German Young Adult Fiction, New Orleans, USA , 01-APR-15 - 04-APR-15 [Details] |
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2015 | Women and Ageing: New Cultural and Critical Perspectives.
Valerie Heffernan (2015) Women and Ageing: New Cultural and Critical Perspectives. [Oral Presentation], Ageing Maternal Bodies, Ageing Maternal Minds: Contemporary Narratives of Dementia, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland , 20-MAY-15 - 22-MAY-15 [Details] |
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2015 | Missing, presumed dead: Absent Mothers in the Cultural Imagination.
Valerie Heffernan (2015) Missing, presumed dead: Absent Mothers in the Cultural Imagination. [Oral Presentation], The Murdered Mother of YA Fiction: Alina Bronsky’s Broken Glass Park (2008), Umeå University, Sweden , 12-JUN-15 - 13-JUN-15 [Details] |
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2015 | Ageing and Dementia in Recent German-language Literature.
Valerie Heffernan (2015) Ageing and Dementia in Recent German-language Literature. [Oral Presentation], Women's Ageing in Contemporary Women's Writing, King's College London, UK , 21-JUL-15 [Details] |
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2016 | Trauma and Gender in 20th Century European Literature.
Valerie Heffernan (2016) Trauma and Gender in 20th Century European Literature. [Oral Presentation], Reproducing Trauma, Reproducing Motherhood: War and its Aftermath, University of Strathclyde, Scotland , 11-MAR-16 - 12-MAR-16 [Details] |
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2019 | Mediating Motherhood.
Valerie Heffernan (2019) Mediating Motherhood. [Oral Presentation], #regrettingmotherhood in Germany: Feminism, Motherhood, and Culture, Maynooth University, Ireland , 29-MAR-19 - 29-MAR-19 [Details] |
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2019 | Robert-Walser Sculpture.
Valerie Heffernan (2019) Robert-Walser Sculpture. [Oral Presentation], Parodies of Power: Robert Walser’s Dramatic Scenes, Biel, Switzerland , 10-JUL-19 - 10-JUL-19 [Details] |
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2020 | Motherhood and Mothering in Literary, Medical and Media Narratives.
Valerie Heffernan (2020) Motherhood and Mothering in Literary, Medical and Media Narratives. [Oral Presentation], Transnational Matrilineal Narratives in Contemporary German Women’s Writing, Uppsala University, Sweden , 14-OCT-20 - 16-OCT-20 [Details] |
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2021 | Doing Women's Film & Television History.
Valerie Heffernan (2021) Doing Women's Film & Television History. [Oral Presentation], Matrescence and TV comedy series The Letdown and Workin’ Moms, Maynooth University , 10-JUL-21 - 11-JUL-21 [Details] |
Book Review
Year | Publication | |
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2017 | German Women Writers and the Spatial Turn: New Perspectives.
Heffernan, V (2017) German Women Writers and the Spatial Turn: New Perspectives. MADISON: Book Review [Details] |
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2014 | Review of Reproducing Women: Family and Health Work Across Three Generations by Marilyn Porter and Diana L. Gustafson.
Heffernan, Valerie (2014) Review of Reproducing Women: Family and Health Work Across Three Generations by Marilyn Porter and Diana L. Gustafson. Book Review [Details] |
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2013 | The Limits of Language. Preserving Unrest.
Heffernan, Valerie (2013) The Limits of Language. Preserving Unrest. LONDON: Book Review [Details] |
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2009 | Paul Klee: Poet/Painter.
Heffernan, Valerie (2009) Paul Klee: Poet/Painter. LEEDS: Book Review [Details] |
Conference Hosted
Year | Publication | |
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2014 | Bracha Ettinger and The Matrixial .
Moynagh Sullivan, Valerie Heffernan, Tina Kinsella (2014) Bracha Ettinger and The Matrixial . Conference Hosted [Details] |
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2015 | Motherhood and Culture Conference.
Moynagh Sullivan, Valerie Heffernan, Susan Gottlöber, Tanya Cassidy (2015) Motherhood and Culture Conference. Conference Hosted [Details] |
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2013 | Emerging Women Writers Workshop.
Heffernan, Valerie (2013) Emerging Women Writers Workshop. Conference Hosted [Details] |
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2006 | Mythos Schweiz? Zur Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Schweizerischen in der Gegenwart.
Heffernan, Valerie (2006) Mythos Schweiz? Zur Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Schweizerischen in der Gegenwart. Conference Hosted [Details] |
Honours and Awards
Year | Title | Awarding Body | |
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2011 | Mexican Government Scholarship for Foreigners | ||
2002 | University College Dublin Faculty of Arts Fellowship | ||
2000 | IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholarship | ||
2000 | University College Dublin Open Postgraduate Scholarship | ||
1997 | Swiss Government Scholarship | ||
1998 | Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Scholarship |
Committees
Committee | Function | From / To | |
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Faculty Research Committee | Chair | 2013 / 2016 |
Education
Year | Institution | Qualification | Subject | |
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2004 | University College Dublin | Ph.D | ||
1995 | University College Dublin | M.A. | ||
1993 | University College Dublin | B.A. (Hons) |