University Directory

Kersti Powell, DPhil

Associate Professor and Director of Irish Studies Program

Kersti Tarien Powell D.Phil.

Department

Office

Merion 188

Contact
    • DPhil, Oxford University
    • MA, University of Tartu
    • BA, University of Tallinn

  • Books & Book Manuscripts in Progress:

    • Anne Enright in Context. Eds: Kersti Tarien Powell, Mary McGlynn, and Claire Bracken (under contract with Cambridge University Press; expected publication in 2028).

    • Ireland and Representations of Eastern Europe (book manuscript in progress).

    • Irish Fiction: An Introduction, New York and London: Bloomsbury, 2004.

     

    Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

    • “Booker Prize.” Anne Enright in Context. Eds. Kersti Tarien Powell, Mary McGlynn and Claire Bracken. Cambridge UP (anticipated publication in 2028).

    • Kersti Tarien Powell, Mary McGlynn, and Claire Bracken. “Introduction.” Eds: Kersti Tarien Powell, Mary McGlynn, and Claire Bracken. Approved by Cambridge University Press’ Syndics; expected publication in 2028.

    • “The Archive” John Banville in Context. Eds. Bryan Radley and Nick Taylor-Collins. Under contract with Cambridge University Press (forthcoming in 2027).

    • “The Celtic Tiger Boom in Fiction.” Companion to the Contemporary Irish Novel. Eds. Kathleen Costello-Sullivan, Derek Hand, and Neil Murphy. Syracuse University Press, 2026: 436-449.

    • “Things of Science: Tom Stoppard’s Galileo.” Modern Drama. Vol. 69, No.2-3 (2026): 

    • “’Where is my Gogol?’: Milkman’s Russo-Ukrainian Contexts.” Textual Practice. (6 May 2026): 1-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2026.2666179

    • “Sally Rooney, James Joyce, and ‘Eastern’ Europe.” LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, special issue “Irish Women’s Genre Fiction.” Eds. Christina Morin & Ellen Scheible, Vol. 36, No.4 (2025): 422-435. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10436928.2025.2594376

    • “On the Edge of Foreign”: Race and (non-)Belonging in Contemporary Irish Crime Fiction.” Irish Studies Review, special issue “The Rise of the Phoenix: Restoration and Renaissance in Contemporary Irish Writing.” Eds. Eoghan Smith & Simon Workman, Vol.31, No.3 (2023): 405-419.

    • “Samuel Beckett.” Tom Stoppard in Context. Eds. David Kornhaber and James N. Loehlin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021: 62-70.

    • “’Cancel, cancel, and begin again’: John Banville’s Path from ‘Einstein’ to Mefisto” ABEI: The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies, special issue “Word upon World: Half a Century of John Banville’s Universes.” Eds. Laura Zuntini de Izarra, Nick Taylor-Collins and Hedwig Schwall, Vol.22, No.1 (2020): 135-146.

    • “This place… so vividly, so violently, so murderously alive”: Emigration in John Banville’s Benjamin Black Novels.” Éire–Ireland, special issue "Ireland and the Contemporary." Eds. Margaret Kelleher & Nicholas M. Wolf. Vol.52, No.1& 2 (Spring/Summer 2017): 144-168.

    • "A Wholly Other World of Things, Hidden": Benjamin Black's and Tana French's Criminal Worlds." Clues: A Journal of Detection. Vol.35, No.2 (Winter 2017): 40-47.

    • “The Answer… is Yes and No: John Banville, Henry James and The Ambassadors.” Irish University Review. Vol. 45, No.2 (November, 2015): 302-319.

    • “‘Dualism is the word’: Wave/Particle Functions in Banville and Stoppard.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language. Vol. 56, No. 3 (Fall 2014): 326-347.

    • “‘Life just is like that’: Martin McDonagh’s Estonian Enigma.” New Hibernia Review. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2011): 138-150.

    • “The Lighted Windows: Place in John Banville’s Fiction.” Irish University Review, “John Banville Special Issue.” Ed. Derek Hand, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2006): 39-51.

      • Reprint. “The Lighted Windows: Place in John Banville’s Fiction.” Gale Literature Resource Center. Vol.315. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Contemporary Literary Criticism Select (2012).

    • “‘Not a son but a survivor:’ Beckett… Joyce… Banville.” Yearbook of English Studies “Irish Writing since 1950.” Ed. Ronan McDonald, Vol. 35, Leeds: Manley Publishing & Modern Humanities Research Association, 2005: 199-211.

    • “The Nightmare of Shapelessness: The Screen Adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen.” To the Other Shore: Cross-Currents in Irish and Scottish Studies, Eds. Shane Murphy, Anne Oakman and Neal Alexander, Belfast: Belfast Studies in Language, Culture and Politics, 2004: 153-158. 

    • “How Much Mystifying Mystery We Need: John Banville and Editorial Intervention.” New Voices in Irish Criticism, Vol. 3. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002: 181-187.

    • “Trying to Catch Long Lankin by His Arm: The Evolution of John Banville’s Long Lankin.” Irish University Review, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Autumn/Winter 2001): 386-403.

      • Reprint. “Trying to Catch Long Lankin by His Arm: The Evolution of John Banville’s Long Lankin.” Gale Literature Resource Center. Vol 224. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Contemporary Literary Criticism Select (2006).

     

    Dictionary Entries:

    • “John Banville.” (10,000-word invited contribution) Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 386: Twenty-first Century Irish Fiction Writers. Bruccoli Clark Layman Inc., 2020: 3-22. 

    • “Kate O’Riordan.” Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 267: Twenty-first Century British and Irish Novelists, Bruccoli Clark Layman, Inc., 2003: 279-284.

    • Saint Joseph's University Summer Research Grant, 2023
    • Saint Joseph's University Teaching Innovation Grant (team-taught course category - with Prof. Emily Hage), Summer 2022
    • Pennsylvania GOAL Grant for adopting Open Educational Resources, May 2021
    • Saint Joseph's University Teaching Innovation Grant, Summer 2020
    • Saint Joseph’s University Faculty Teaching Award, 2018
    • Michael J. Morris Grant for Scholarly Research, 2017-18
    • Saint Joseph University Summer Research Grant, 2016
    • Wake Forest University Archie Grant for the Arts and Humanities, 2005
    • Contemporary British and Irish Literature
    • Archives and (modern) Manuscripts
    • Authorship and Publishing
    • Science and Literature