Maebh Long is the new Eamon Cleary Chair in Irish Studies.
Céad míle fáilte, nau mai haere mai, a warm welcome to Dr Maebh Long, who has been appointed the Eamon Cleary Chair in Irish Studies at Otago.
This Chair reflects Otago’s commitment to supporting research and teaching that will illuminate the development of Irish culture and the significance of Ireland in national, regional and global contexts, including the important connections between Ireland and New Zealand. The position is based in Mātai Airana, Mātai Kotirana I The Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies.
Maebh, who will start as a professor at Otago in January, says she’s eager and enthusiastic to begin.
“I am inspired by the sense of relationality and responsibility that comes with this role, both to the discipline and to the community. It’s an important time to consider Irish literature and Irishness broadly, particularly in the diasporic context in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Maebh is from a small village called Aghabullogue in County Cork, Ireland. A literature scholar, she is best known for her work on Irish modernism and the author Flann O’Brien.
She comes to Otago from the University of Waikato where she is a Senior Lecturer in English. Her academic career began with a lectureship at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji, where she co-founded the Oceanian Modernism project with Dr Matthew Hayward. Their co-authored monograph, The Rise of Pacific Literature: Decolonization, Radical Campuses, and Modernism, has just been published by Columbia University Press.
The Oceanian Modernism project involved collaboration with Otago academics, including Professor Jacob Edmond from the English and Linguistics programme and Dr Emma Powell from Te Tumu - School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies.
Te Kete Aronui Division of Humanities Interim Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Hugh Campbell says the appointment is exciting.
“It is exciting to appoint someone who has strong sense of both the importance of modern Irish literature and ‘Irishness’ in a modern global context, and how these fit in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.”
During the past five years, Maebh’s research has incorporated a focus on the medical humanities.
Her Marsden-funded project ‘Modern Immunity’ analyses public understandings of immunology in Ireland, Britain, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia during the modernist period. She has also collaborated with corpus linguists to examine Aotearoa New Zealand’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, looking particularly at metaphors and discourses of risk.
Otago Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson welcomes Maebh’s appointment to the Centre and the wider community.
“There are strong connections between Aotearoa and Ireland and Scotland as nations and peoples. This interdisciplinary centre brings a valuable perspective and there is so much to be explored through shared issues such as identity, sovereignty, and preservation of Indigenous languages.”
As Chair, Maebh will lead research in Irish Studies across the Division of Humanities and teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Maebh’s husband completed his PhD at Otago, so she says she’s familiar with the beauty of the region and they are very much looking forward to the move to the South Island.
Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies, Professor Liam McIlvanney says he can’t wait to start working with Maebh.
“Dr Maebh Long is a writer and scholar of exceptional reach and accomplishment. A global expert on Flann O’Brien, she has also developed a profound understanding of the cultural connections between Ireland and the Pacific. Dr Long will take Mātai Airana, Mātai Kotirana I The Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies in exciting new directions.”
The Eamon Cleary Chair in Irish Studies was established thanks to a generous endowment from Eamon Cleary, an Irish businessman who had a home and interests in New Zealand, prior to his death in 2012.
Read more about the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies
Recent related news: Scotland’s Makar takes up Otago Fellowship