Stephen O'Neill

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, with two projects, a monograph entitled Arborealities: Reimagining Trees in the Anthropocene, and an edited volume, Tree Lines: Arboreal Agency in the Creative Arts. These works build from his Irish Research Council funded project LIT: Literature and Ireland's Trees that 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 reviewd 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.