Kate Costello-Sullivan, Ph.D.

  • Professor of Modern Irish Literature English
  • Program Director Irish Studies

Contact

email
sullivkp@lemoyne.edu

Location

Reilly Hall 303

Professor Costello-Sullivan is a Professor of Modern Irish literature and the current (and inaugural) Mary A. Carroll Endowed Professor in Arts and Sciences. She served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Le Moyne from 2014-2019. Kate teaches courses in 19th-21st-century English and Irish literature, post-colonial literature, and writing. She began at Le Moyne in 2004, after earning a B.A. in English and Spanish at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English/Irish Studies from Boston College (2004). Kate is the author of the monographs Mother/Country: Politics of the Personal in the Fiction of Colm Tóibín (Reimaging Ireland series, Peter Lang 2012) and of Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-first-Century Irish Novel, (Syracuse UP, March 2018). She recently co-edited The Routledge Handbook on Irish America (summer 2024) with Dr. Cian McMahon. Kate has also edited two critical editions, J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella Carmilla (2013, Syracuse UP) and Norah Hoult’s Poor Women! (2016, Anthem Press). She is a former President of the American Conference for Irish Studies—the largest academic Irish organization in the world—and has served since summer 2018 as the (first female) Series Editor of the Syracuse University Press’s prestigious Irish line, the oldest line of its kind in North America. Kate is currently researching representations of the nurturing parental body in Irish literature for her next monograph; she has another co-edited collection and multiple articles pending publication.

Download Current CV

Education

  • Ph.D. (English Dept., Irish Studies Program), Boston College
  • M.A. (English Dept., Irish Studies Program), Boston College
  • B.A. (English and Spanish), Rutgers College

Areas of Specialization

  • 20th-21st Century Irish Literature
  • Irish Cultural Studies
  • 19th Century Irish and British Literature
  • Trauma Theory
  • Feminist Theory & Literature
  • Anglo-Irish Women’s Fiction

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Inaugural Mary A Carroll Endowed Professor of Arts and Science (June 2025-2028).
  • Nominee, Faculty Career Mentor Award (*Nominated by student). (August 2022).
  • Rev. Richard M. McKeon S.J. Scholar of the Year (April 2022).
  • Nominee, Rev. Richard M. McKeon S.J. Scholar of the Year (2022, 2020, 2014).
  • “Honorary Arts Administrator” award (Inaugural). MS Arts Admin program (May 2019).
  • Friend of Gender and Women’s studies award, GWSS program (April 2019).
  • Rev. Msgr. A. Robert Casey Teacher of the Year. (*Nominated by student). (April 2007).

Selected Publications

  • The Routledge History of Irish America.  with Cian T. McMahon. (NY: Routledge). July 2024.
  • Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-first-Century Irish Novel. (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2018).
  • Poor Women! by Norah Hoult. A Critical Edition. Editor, Introduction author. (London: Anthem Press, December 2016.)
  • Carmilla: A Critical Edition by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Editor, Introduction author. (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, March 2013).
  • Mother Country: Politics of the Personal in the Fiction of Colm Tóibín. “Reimagining Ireland” series. Series ed. Eamon Maher. (England: Peter Lang, March 2012).

Selected Presentations

  • “Time to consider it”: Immigrant Regret and Redemption in Colm Tóibíin’s Long Island.” ACIS National Conference, Savannah, GA. February 23-26, 2025. Also presented on the “Irish Writing in the 1990s’ roundtable.
  • “Reading Trauma in The Dark.” ACIS National Conference. Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland. June 16-20 2024.
  • “’Being human never did…any good’: Redefining Society in Sara Baume’s Spill Simmer Falter Wither.” Animal in Ireland symposium. University of Würzburg, Germany. February 2023.
  • “‘Puppeting it Back to Life’: Corpses, Motherhood, and Authorship in Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat.” American Conference for Irish Studies National conference. San Jose, CA. June 6-9, 2023.   A version of this paper was also given at the Mid Atlantic Regional ACIS conference, Sacred Heart U., Fairfield, CT. Oct 2022.
  • “Bedrooms and Dishwashers: Reclaiming the Domestic and the Maternal in The Gathering and The Green Road.” Panel discussion on Anne Enright before Keynote. NEMLA conference. March 23, 2023.