Meet Our Faculty Fellows

The 2024-2025 Global Irish Studies Initiative Faculty Fellowship consists of 5 Faculty Fellows from across campus.

GIS is delighted to introduce its first annual class of Faculty Fellows. The Faculty Fellows program supports our colleagues across Georgetown’s schools and campuses in their pursuit of ground-breaking research and the development of curriculum enrichment programs for their classes. Read about our faculty and their projects below.

If you wish to learn more about the Faculty Fellows program, or to develop more opportunities for faculty research and curriculum development, please feel free to contact Prof. Cóilín Parsons  (Director) or Prof. Darragh Gannon  (Associate Director), or go to our Make a Gift page.

2024-25 Faculty Fellows

Paul Elie

Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

As a GIS fellow, Prof. Elie is planning to write a personal and literary-critical essay intertwining James Joyce’s time in Rome; his grand-uncle Bishop Robert F. Joyce’s time in Rome during the Second Vatican Council; and his own extensive experience in Rome a century later. The essay will culminate in a vivid and distinct account of crypto-religiosity, worked out through a literary encounter with two strong Joycean precursors.

Erick D. Langer

Professor of History, School of Foreign Service

Prof. Langer will publish the diary of Francis Burdett O’Connor (1791-1871), an Irish aristocrat who fought with Simón Bolívar during the independence struggles of Spanish South America. O’Connor also played vital roles in the formation of Bolivia, including holding the post of Minister of War. He later settled down along the southern frontier, leaving behind diaries that are unique in describing daily life in 19th-century South America.

Sarah McNamer

Professor of English, College of Arts and Science

Prof. McNamer plans to advance research on her project, “Lionel of Antwerp and the Irish Matrix of English Poetry.” Lionel served as viceroy in Dublin, 1361-66; his most resonant historical act was that of enacting the infamous Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366. Prof. McNamer’s project examines the politics of language in medieval Ireland and its impact on English letters.

Patrick O’Malley

Professor of English, College of Arts and Science

Using a curriculum enrichment grant, Prof. O’Malley will bring students to a performacnce of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play, The Rivals. Prof, O’Malley is launching a new course on Irish literature before 1900, the first of its kind to be offered at Georgetown.

Lois Wessel

Associate Professor, School of Nursing

Prof. Wessel will travel to Galway, where she will deliver a series of lectures on the effects of climate change, with an emphasis on how nurses can advocate for healthy environments. This opportunity will seek to build on-going partnerships and exchanges between Georgetown and the University of Galway’s School of Nursing.