Dr Catherine Gander

    English

    Associate Professor
    Research Postgraduate Co-ordinator

    Iontas Building
    Ground Floor
    Office 0.44
    (01) 708 7363

    Biography

    I am the Chair of the all-island Irish Association for American Studies (IAAS): https://iaas.ie/

    My research and teaching are in modern and contemporary American literature, specialising in the intersections between written and visual texts and modes. I write across and between disciplines, publishing on literary studies, art history, and word & image studies.

    I came to Maynooth after 4.5 years lecturing at Queen's University Belfast, where I established the Centre for the Americas and the American MA pathway. Before that, I held teaching posts at the University of Nottingham and UEA after completing my PhD at King's College London in early 2009.
     
    My first monograph, Muriel Rukeyser and Documentary: The Poetics of Connection (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) won the biennial book award of the Irish Association for American Studies.  I continue to publish on Rukeyser's wide-ranging work, most recently editing a special issue of Textual Practice on her remarkable treatise, The Life of Poetry (2018).

    I co-edited, with Sarah Garland, Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices (Manchester University Press, 2016), which contains work from a current project: an exploration of the effects of pragmatist philosophy and aesthetics -- particularly of John Dewey and William James -- on intermedial forms, titled Poetry, Painting, and Pragmatism: Embodied Perspectives on American Avant-Gardes.

    My work in the areas embodiment, aesthetics, and intertextuality has led to recent work on contemporary authors and artists, including Don DeLillo, Claudia Rankine, and Carrie Mae Weems. I am interested in the ways in which these artists and others blend formal experimentations with positions of political and cultural resistance.    

    I am currently working on an edited collection of essays for EUP on Don DeLillo and the Arts, which features over 30 essays by renowned and emerging international scholars.

    I am also working on a project I began at Queen's with Steffi Lehner and Fidelma Ashe (UU): the AHRC and PaCCS-funded project 'LGBTQ Visions of Peace in a Society Emerging from Conflict'. This project's creative outcomes, including a photography exhibition and theatre performance, will be launched during Belfast's Queer Arts Festival, Outburst, in November 2017, at Belfast Exposed and TheatreofplucK.

    Pronouns: She/her

    I have supervised research projects on the subjects of post-9/11 American literature, ecofeminist apocalyptic literature, modernism, contemporary literature and ideas of happiness, feminist and anti-racist poetry. 
    I would be happy to receive PhD proposals in the areas of:
    • documentary poetics
    • word-image intersections
    • contemporary American poetry or fiction 
    • modern American poetry or fiction
    • American visual culture 

    Research Interests

    • Word-image studies
    • Modern and contemporary American poetry and poetics
    • American art
    • Contemporary American fiction
    • Photography
    • Literatures of resistance
    • Visual culture
    • Feminist literature and culture
    • Radical forms and texts

    Books

      Year Publication
    2013 Muriel Rukeyser and Documentary: the Poetics of Connection.
    Catherine Gander (2013) Muriel Rukeyser and Documentary: the Poetics of Connection. UK and US: Edinburgh University Press. [Details]

    Edited Books

      Year Publication
    2022 Accepted by publisher: The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts
    Catherine Gander (Ed.). (2022) Accepted by publisher: The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts UK and US: Edinburgh University Press. [Details]
    2016 Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices
    Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (Ed.). (2016) Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices UK and US: Manchester University Press. [Details]

    Peer Reviewed Journals

      Year Publication
    2020 '‘Black and White Landscapes: Topographies of Disorientation in the Works of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine''
    Catherine Gander (2020) '‘Black and White Landscapes: Topographies of Disorientation in the Works of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine''. Journal of American Studies, 53 (3):517-540 [DOI] [Details]
    2018 'Poetry as embodied experience: the pragmatist aesthetics of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry'
    Gander C. (2018) 'Poetry as embodied experience: the pragmatist aesthetics of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry'. Textual Practice, :1-25 [DOI] [full-text] [Details]
    2018 '‘Re-reading Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry’'
    Catherine Gander (2018) '‘Re-reading Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry’'. Textual Practice, 32 (7):1097-1102 [DOI] [full-text] [Details]
    2013 'The American Imagetext Special Issue'
    Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2013) 'The American Imagetext Special Issue'. European Journal of American Culture, 32 (2) [full-text] [Details]
    2013 '‘Facing the Fact: Word and Image in Muriel Rukeyser’s “Worlds Alongside”’'
    Catherine Gander (2013) '‘Facing the Fact: Word and Image in Muriel Rukeyser’s “Worlds Alongside”’'. JNT-Journal of Narrative Theory, 42 (3):288-328 [full-text] [Details]
    2013 'Review essay: Touching Photographs by Margaret Olin'
    Catherine Gander (2013) 'Review essay: Touching Photographs by Margaret Olin'. European Journal of American Culture, 32 (3):205-208 [Details]
    2011 '‘The Senses of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead’'
    Catherine Gander (2011) '‘The Senses of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead’'. European Journal of American Culture, 30 (3):175-194 [full-text] [Details]
    2010 'Muriel Rukeyser, America, and the “Melville Revival”'
    Catherine Gander (2010) 'Muriel Rukeyser, America, and the “Melville Revival”'. Journal of American Studies, 44 (4):759-775 [full-text] [Details]
    2010 'Review essay: Peter Conn, The American 1930s, A Literary History'
    Catherine Gander (2010) 'Review essay: Peter Conn, The American 1930s, A Literary History'. Journal of American Studies, 44 (2):466-468 [Details]

    Book Chapters

      Year Publication
    2021 'DeLillo and Time'
    Catherine Gander (2021) 'DeLillo and Time' In: Jesse Kavadlo (eds). Don DeLillo in Context. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. [Details]
    2018 ''The Art of Being Out of Time in Don DeLillo's Point Omega''
    Catherine Gander (2018) ''The Art of Being Out of Time in Don DeLillo's Point Omega'' In: Katherine Da Cunha Lewin and Kiron Ward (eds). Contemporary Critical Perspectives on Don DeLillo. UK and US: Bloomsbury Academic. [Details]
    2016 '‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’'
    Catherine Gander (2016) '‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’' In: Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (eds). Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices. UK and US: Manchester University Press. [Details]
    2016 '‘To fasten words again to visible – and invisible – things’'
    Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2016) '‘To fasten words again to visible – and invisible – things’' In: Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (eds). Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices. UK and US: Manchester University Press. [Details]
    2016 '‘The idea, the machine and the art: word and image in the twenty-first century’'
    Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2016) '‘The idea, the machine and the art: word and image in the twenty-first century’' In: Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (eds). Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices. UK and US: Manchester University Press. [Details]

    Other Journals

      Year Publication
    2019 'Singing in Dark Times'
    Catherine Gander (2019) 'Singing in Dark Times' Poetry Ireland Review, (129) :35-40. [Details]
    2014 '‘Accords of Components Whose End is Truth’'
    Catherine Gander (2014) '‘Accords of Components Whose End is Truth’' The Wolf magazine for poetry, 30 :71-81. [Details]

    Invited Lectures

      Year Publication
    2019 An Aesthetics of Displacement: Lecture and Response to IMMA exhibition, Doris Salcedo, Acts of Mourning.
    Catherine Gander (2019) An Aesthetics of Displacement: Lecture and Response to IMMA exhibition, Doris Salcedo, Acts of Mourning. Invited Lectures [Details]

    Conference Contributions

      Year Publication
    2019 ‘From there. To here. Gestures of orientation in the landscapes of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine'.
    Catherine Gander (2019) ‘From there. To here. Gestures of orientation in the landscapes of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine'. [Oral Presentation], Gestures: Writing that moves between, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester , 15-FEB-19 - 16-FEB-19 [Details]
    2019 Topographies of disorientation in the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine.
    Catherine Gander (2019) Topographies of disorientation in the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine. [Invited Oral Presentation], Contemporary Literature: Politics and Aesthetics in Crisis, Queen's University Belfast [Details]
    2017 ‘Claudia Rankine’s curatorial poetics of witness’, part of a panel organised by Gander and Peat.
    Catherine Gander (2017) ‘Claudia Rankine’s curatorial poetics of witness’, part of a panel organised by Gander and Peat. [Oral Presentation], MSA annual conference, Amsterdam , 10-AUG-17 - 13-AUG-17 [Details]
    2017 ‘Seeing what happens from here: the ethics of (re)inscribing the visual in Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine’.
    Catherine Gander (2017) ‘Seeing what happens from here: the ethics of (re)inscribing the visual in Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine’. [Oral Presentation], ALA annual convention, Boston, USA , 25-MAY-17 - 28-MAY-17 [Details]
    2017 Between no longer and not yet, there's still life: art and time in Don DeLillo's late fiction.
    Catherine Gander (2017) Between no longer and not yet, there's still life: art and time in Don DeLillo's late fiction. [Keynote Address], Trying things out in America, Cambridge Faculty of English symposium, Cambridge University Faculty of English , 13-MAY-17 [Details]
    2016 ‘(Re)Considering Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry.
    Catherine Gander (2016) ‘(Re)Considering Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry. [Invited Oral Presentation], MLA Annual convention, Austin, Texas , 07-JAN-16 - 10-JAN-16 [Details]
    2016 The physiology of the nervous system and the processes of the imagination: ekphrasis and artful language in William Carlos Williams's Spring and All.
    Catherine Gander (2016) The physiology of the nervous system and the processes of the imagination: ekphrasis and artful language in William Carlos Williams's Spring and All. [Oral Presentation], ICLA annual conference, University of Vienna , 21-JUL-16 - 27-JUL-16 [Details]
    2016 ‘Between “no longer and not yet”: art and time in Don DeLillo’s post-9/11 fiction’.
    Catherine Gander (2016) ‘Between “no longer and not yet”: art and time in Don DeLillo’s post-9/11 fiction’. [Oral Presentation], Don DeLillo: Fiction Rescues History, Université Paris Diderot & Sorbonne , 18-FEB-16 - 20-FEB-16 [Details]
    2016 ‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’.
    Catherine Gander (2016) ‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’. [Invited Oral Presentation], Special Relationships: American Artists and their Collaborators, Tate Britain museum [Details]
    2016 ‘SAMOesthetics? Basquiat, the integrated body, and the extended mind’. Panel organiser and presenter: Negotiating the Seen and the Felt: where American Art meets American Writing.
    Catherine Gander (2016) ‘SAMOesthetics? Basquiat, the integrated body, and the extended mind’. Panel organiser and presenter: Negotiating the Seen and the Felt: where American Art meets American Writing. [Oral Presentation], EAAS Biennial conference, Constanta, Romania , 22-APR-16 - 25-APR-16 [Details]
    2014 Panel at American Literature Assoc. conference.
    Catherine Gander (2014) Panel at American Literature Assoc. conference. [Chaired Session], Muriel Rukeyser and Other Writers, ALA, Washington DC, USA , 22-MAY-14 [Details]
    2013 ‘“The physiology of the nervous system and the processes of the imagination”: ekphrasis and artful language in William Carlos Williams’ Spring and All’.
    Catherine Gander (2013) ‘“The physiology of the nervous system and the processes of the imagination”: ekphrasis and artful language in William Carlos Williams’ Spring and All’. [Oral Presentation], Aesthetics and Naturalism, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico , 21-AUG-13 - 23-AUG-13 [Details]
    2012 ‘The still life and death of images: the ethical aesthetic in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man’.
    Catherine Gander (2012) ‘The still life and death of images: the ethical aesthetic in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man’. [Oral Presentation], BAAS Annual conference, University of Manchester , 12-APR-12 - 15-APR-12 [Details]

    Article

      Year Publication
    2015 ‘Michael Hanna: Short Films about Learning’.
    Catherine Gander (2015) ‘Michael Hanna: Short Films about Learning’. Article [Details]

    Edited Journal Issue

      Year Publication
    2018 Textual Practice Special Issue: Muriel Rukeyser's THE LIFE OF POETRY.
    Catherine Gander (2018) Textual Practice Special Issue: Muriel Rukeyser's THE LIFE OF POETRY. Edited Journal Issue [Details]

    Co-edited Journal Issue

      Year Publication
    2013 The European Journal of American Culture.
    Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2013) The European Journal of American Culture. Co-edited Journal Issue [Details]

    Invited papers

      Year Publication
    2016 ‘Using a public-facing blog for formative and summative assessment’: Presentation at ‘Teaching and Learning Conference: Harnessing Change to Improve Student Learning’, Queen's University Belfast.
    Catherine Gander (2016) ‘Using a public-facing blog for formative and summative assessment’: Presentation at ‘Teaching and Learning Conference: Harnessing Change to Improve Student Learning’, Queen's University Belfast. Invited papers [Details]
    2015 Post-45, University of York.
    Catherine Gander (2015) Post-45, University of York. Invited papers [Details]

    Invited Seminars

      Year Publication
    2019 Topographies of disorientation in the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine (Trinity College Dublin).
    Catherine Gander (2019) Topographies of disorientation in the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Claudia Rankine (Trinity College Dublin). Invited Seminars [Details]
    2015 ‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’.
    Catherine Gander (2015) ‘“Twenty-six things at once”: Pragmatic perspectives on Frank O’Hara and Norman Bluhm’s Poem-Paintings’. Invited Seminars [Details]

    Seminar

      Year Publication
    2019 Poetry in Times of Crisis: A reading and discussion with Erika Meitner and Wayne Miller.
    Organiser and discussant: Catherine Gander (2019) Poetry in Times of Crisis: A reading and discussion with Erika Meitner and Wayne Miller. Boston College, Dublin: Seminar [Details]

    Conference Hosted

      Year Publication
    2020 Leonard Cohen: An Interdisciplinary Conference.
    Catherine Gander, Philipp Rosemann, Thomas O'Connor, Laura Watson (2020) Leonard Cohen: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Maynooth University: Conference Hosted [Details]
    2020 Counter-narratives and Hidden Histories.
    Lead organiser: Catherine Gander. David Conlon, Catherine Leen, JoAnne Mancini (2020) Counter-narratives and Hidden Histories. Maynooth University: Conference Hosted [Details]
    2016 Queer Visions of Home.
    Catherine Gander and Steffi Lehner (2016) Queer Visions of Home. Belfast Exposed: Conference Hosted [Details]
    2016 Joint conference of British and Irish Associations for American Studies.
    Catherine Gander, Philip McGowan, Andrew Pepper (2016) Joint conference of British and Irish Associations for American Studies. Queen's University Belfast: Conference Hosted [Details]
    2011 The American Imagetext.
    Catherine Gander and Sarah Garland (2011) The American Imagetext. University of East Anglia, UK: Conference Hosted [Details]

    Discussion

      Year Publication
    2019 Racism and Media.
    Gavan Titley and Catherine Gander (2019) Racism and Media. Maynooth University: Discussion [Details]

    Media

      Year Publication
    2019 An Aesthetics of Displacement.
    Catherine Gander (2019) An Aesthetics of Displacement. Media [Details]

    Blog

      Year Publication
    2014 Muriel Rukeyser and Other Writers.
    Catherine Gander (2014) Muriel Rukeyser and Other Writers. USA: Blog [Details]
    2013 Crisis, hope, and the life of poetry.
    Catherine Gander (2013) Crisis, hope, and the life of poetry. USA: Blog [Details]
    2013 On the centenary of Muriel Rukeyser’s birth: the lives of a poet.
    Catherine Gander (2013) On the centenary of Muriel Rukeyser’s birth: the lives of a poet. USA: Blog [Details]

    Honours and Awards

      Year Title Awarding Body
    2013 IAAS Book Prize Irish Association for American Studies
    2015 Innovation Award (£98,000): co-investigator on 'LGBTQ Visions of Peace in a Society Emerging from Conflict' AHRC and PaCCS
    2019 Conference fund: IAAS2020 Maynooth University research development

    Professional Associations

      Association Function From / To
    Irish Association for American Studies Chair 13-APR-19 /
    Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive Board of Directors /
    Evental Aesthetics Editorial Board 01-AUG-13 /
    British Association of American Studies Member /
    Modern Language Association Member /
    American Literature Association Member /
    Modernist Studies Association Member /

    Committees

      Committee Function From / To
    English Department Teaching and Learning Committee Chair 2018 / 2019
    IAAS Prizes committee Member 2013 / 2015
    Leonard Cohen: An Interdisciplinary conference Member 2018 / 2020
    IAAS 50th Anniversary conference Chair 2019 / 2020
    Faculty Research Committee Secretary 2019 /
    English Department Research Committee Member 2019 /

    Employment

      Employer Position From / To
    Queen's University Belfast Lecturer 01-FEB-13 / 01-SEP-17

    Education

      Year Institution Qualification Subject
    2014 Queen's University Belfast Postgraduate Cert. Higher Education Teaching
    2009 King's College London PhD English

    Languages

      Language Reading Writing Speaking
    Italian Fluent Fluent Fluent

    Consultancy

      Client Description
    Dublin Business School
    External examiner: Higher Certificate in Arts
    Dublin Business School
    External examiner for BA (Hons) Arts

    Outreach Activities

      Description

    Talks at events: Poetry Ireland. Diversity in poetry and criticism publishing: consulting and facilitating: Poetry Ireland

    Public talks alongside exhibitions: IMMA

    Reviews

      Journal Role
    Mosaic Reviewer
    Modernism/Modernity Reviewer
    Comparative Critical Studies Reviewer
    Textual Practice Reviewer
    Journal Of American Studies Reviewer

    Teaching Interests

    I teach modern and contemporary American literature and culture. 

    I convene the Stage 2 elective module: EN242: Introduction to American Literature

    I convene the Stage 2 core module: EN204: Literatures of Place (2019-)

    I convene the Stage 3 seminar: EN382: Picturing America: Shaping the States in Word and Image.

    I convene the Stage 3 seminar: EN362: Research Seminar. Poetry, Witness, Resistance (2019-)

    I co-convene the MA module 'The Political is Personal: Radical Contemporary Literatures' with Dr Íde Corley. (https://thepoliticalispersonalmaynooth.wordpress.com)