Emeritus Faculty
Research Interests
Ireland and Irish-America, Modern Europe, Oral History
Courses Taught
HISTORY 101: The Evolution of Western Ideas and Institutions to the Seventeenth Century
HISTORY 102: The Evolution of Western Ideas and Institutions Since the Seventeenth Century
HISTORY 291: Junior Collquium
HISTORY 300: Ireland, 1916 to the Present
HISTORY 325: Europe, 1900-1945
HISTORY 333: Ireland From Colony to Nation State
HISTORY 384: The Irish Diaspora in America
HISTORY 425: Graduate Colloquium: Variable Topics in Irish and Irish-American History: Women and Revolution in Ireland and Russia in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (2008)The Transatlantic Experience of Irish America (2007)
Selected Publications
Grants:
"First Generation Teachers in American Schools, 1880-1920: Sources and Implications for Contemporary Teacher Preparation", (with Noah Sobe, CEPS) LUC Chapter Summer Collaboration Project, 2008.
"Minds to Hands: Irish-American Teachers at the End of a Golden Age" LUC Summer Research Stipend, 2007.
Books:
Servants of the Poor: Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and Irish America. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004.
Ourselves Alone: Women's Emigration from Ireland, 1885-1920. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1989.
Recent Articles, Chapters and Video:
"Women's Place in the History of the Irish Diaspora: A Snapshot" Forum on New Directions in Irish Immigration and Ethnic History. Journal of American Ethnic History 28:4 (Summer 2009): 76-81.
"The Nun Who Stopped Traffic and the Patrick Henry of the Classroom: Justicia Coffey, Margaret Haley, and Chicago's School Wars" The Ernie O'Malley Memorial Lecture, 2005, Glucksman Ireland House, New York University. Radharc: A Journal of Irish and Irish-American Studies. Vol. 5-7 (2004-2006), 33-52.
"What Is Oral History?: A Video" American Academy of Pediatrics: May 2007.
"Pioneers in the Classroom: Irish-American Teachers in San Francisco in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century" In The Irish Experience in the San Francisco Bay Area, eds. Donald Jordan and Timothy O'Keefe, 170-186. San Francisco: Irish Literary and Historical Society, 2005.
"Silent Generations: New Voices in Irish America: A Review Essay of Kerby Miller, Arnold Schrier, Bruce Boling, David Doyle, Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan: Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675-1815;" Robert Dunne, Antebellum Irish Immigration and Emerging Ideologies of 'America': A Protestant Backlash; and Maureen Waters, Crossing Highbridge: A Memoir of Irish America." American Literary History 17:3 (Fall 2005): 595-603.
"Unintended Consequences: The National Schools and Women's Mobility in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Centuries" In Ireland in Transition,1867-1921, eds. George Boyce and Alan O'Day, 179-191, 268-271. London: Routledge, 2004.
Recent Reviews:
"The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930 by Margaret Lynch-Brennan." Irish Literary Supplement (forthcoming).
"The Opening of University Education to Women in Ireland by Judith Harford" New Hibernia Review (Summer 2008).
"The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers in the Union Army, 1861-1865 by Susannah Ural Bruce." American Historical Review (December 2007).
"The Bible War in Ireland: The 'Second Reformation' and the Polarization of Protestant-Catholic Relations, 1800-1840 by Irene Whelan." History: Reviews of New Books (Spring, 2006).
"Private Histories: The Writing of Irish Americans, 1900-1935 by Ron Ebest."History: Reviews of New Books (Winter 2006).
"'Your Fondest Annie': Letters from Annie O'Donnell to James P. Phelan, 1901-1904," ed. Maureen Murphy, Irish Literary Supplement (Spring 2006).
The Shamrock and the Lily: The New York Irish and the Creation of a Transatlantic Identity, 1845-1921, by Mary C. Kelly. Journal of American History (Spring 2006).
Pearse's Patriots: Saint Enda's and the Cult of Boyhood, by Elaine Sisson. Irish Studies Review 13:1 (February 2005).
The American Irish, by Kevin Kenny. Journal of American Ethnic History (Fall 2004).
Recent Lectures:
"The Patrick Henry of the Classroom and the Nun Who Stopped Traffic", Phi Delta Kappa Fall initiation, October, 2008.
"Europe in the Age of War and Dictators, 1900-1945", Senior Summer School, Chicago, July 2008.
"The Nun Who Stopped Traffic", Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Chicago, June 2008.
"The Personal Is Historical: the Memoir and History", Georgia Coastal Center, Savannah, March 2008.
Plenary Panelist, "The Irish in the Atlantic World", College of Charleston (S.C.), March 2007.
Respondent, "Irish Gender in the Atlantic World", College of Charleston (S.C.), March 2007.
"Nicholas II: The Last Romanov", The Teaching Company, March 2006.
"'The Nun Who Stopped Traffic' and the 'Patrick Henry of the Classroom': Justicia Coffey, Margaret Haley, and Chicago's School Wars", Michael Sundermeir Memorial Lecture, Creighton University, Omaha, November 2005.
"'The Nun Who Stopped Traffic' and the 'Patrick Henry of the Classroom'": Justicia Coffey, Margaret Haley, and Chicago's School Wars", O'Malley Memorial Lecture, Glucksman Ireland House, New York University, November 2005.
"Irish Women's Immigration to the United States in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries", Smurfit-Stone Corporation Endowed Professorship in Irish Studies, Center for International Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis, October 2005.
"Minds to Hands: The End of a Golden Age of Teaching, 1920-1935", Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother House, Dubuque, IA, June 2005.
"Chicago's School Wars and Irish-American Teachers in the 1920s and 1930s", Irish-American Teachers Association, Chicago, June 2005.
"The Nun Who Stopped Traffic: Justicia Coffey and Chicago's School Wars", Gannon Center for Women and Leadership, Chicago,, February 2005.
"Servants of the Poor: Irish-American Teachers in Chicago at the Turn of the Twentieth Century", Irish American Heritage Center, Chicago, November 2004.
"Minds to Hands: A Work in Progress", Loyola University Chicago Graduate Seminar, April 2004.
"Pioneers in the Classroom: San Francisco's Irish-American Teachers at the Turn of the Twentieth Century", Crossroads Irish American Festival and New College of California, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, March 2004.
"Researching Irish America", New College of California, March 2004.
Recent Television Appearance:
"The Golden Door" Part I, "Destination America", PBS, October 2005.
Recent Oral History Workshop:
"What Is Oral History?", American Academy of Pediatrics, September 2005 and March 2006.
