Biography

Dr David Coughlan studied for his BA in English and Philosophy at University College Cork. He completed his MPhil in English Literature at UCC also before gaining his PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London. He was a Lecturer in English at Chuo University, Tokyo, a Teaching Assistant at the University of Limerick, and an IRC Government of Ireland Post-Doctoral Fellow at UCC before joining the School of English, Irish, and Communication at UL as a Lecturer in English in 2008. He was Associate Head of School (Quality in Teaching, Learning and Research) from 2009 to 2011 and Head of English from 2016 to 2019. He was Chair of the Irish Association for American Studies from 2017 to 2019 and was Editor-in-Chief of the association's official journal, Irish Journal of American Studies IJAS Online, from 2015 to 2021.

He has published on contemporary American fiction and graphic narrative in the journals Cultural Critique, ImageTexT, College Literature, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and Modern Fiction Studies, in a number of edited collections, and in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction and The Literary Encyclopedia. He has been a contributing co-editor on two special journal issues: Where Ghosts Live for Derrida Today in 2012 and Survival of the Death Sentence for Parallax in 2016. He is the author of Ghost Writing in Contemporary American Fiction, published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2016.

Research Interests

Dr Coughlan's research interests are in 20th and 21st-century literature, particularly American fiction; popular culture and graphic narrative; and literary and cultural theory. He has supervised PhDs on post-9/11 literature and on genre cinema and the digital. He has supervised MA theses on topics including the representation of trauma, time, and memory in post-9/11 fiction; terrorism and crime in contemporary American fiction; American utopian literature; and the poetry of Li Qingzhao and Emily Dickinson.

Professional Activities

Committee

  • 2022 FAHSS Athena Swan / EDI Committee,
  • 2022 UL Athena Swan / EDI Steering Committee,
  • 2019 SEIC Postgraduate and Research Committee,
  • 2019 FAHSS Faculty Research Board,
  • 2019 FAHSS Postgraduate Research Committee,
  • 2016 SEIC Quality Review Committee,
  • 2015 ICLA Research Committee on Comics Studies and Graphic Narrative,
  • 2012 IAAS Irish Association for American Studies Executive Committee,
  • 2011 UL First Seven Weeks Committee,
  • 2010 FAHSS Teaching Board,
  • 2010 UL Student Experience Committee,
  • 2009 LLCC Student Status Committee,
  • 2009 UL Languages Week Committee,

Association

  • 2017 Former Chair, Irish Association for American Studies (IAAS)
  • 2011 Founder and administrator , Graphic Narrative Research
  • 2010 Member, International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA)
  • Member, Modern Language Assocation (MLA)
  • Member, European Association for American Studies (EAAS)
  • Member, Association for Philosophy and Literature (APL)
  • Member, American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)

Award

  • 2016 - UL First Seven Weeks Teaching Award, AHSS Winner
  • 2013 - UL Award for Excellence in Large Group Teaching, Joint Winner
  • 2010 - UL First Seven Weeks Teaching/Advising Award, Overall Winner
  • 2007 - IRCHSS Government of Ireland Post-Doctoral Fellow
  • 1995 - UCC Title of College Scholar

Employment

  • 2007 University College Cork - IRCHSS Government of Ireland Post-Doctoral Fellow
  • 2006 University of Limerick - Teaching Assistant in English
  • 2002 Chuo University - English Lecturer, Faculty of Policy Studies

Education

  • 2002 Goldsmiths College, University of London - Ph.D.
  • 1997 University College Cork - M.Phil.
  • 1995 University College Cork - B.A.

Other

  • MA External Examiner, Stockholm University (2013): Stephen Blake Ervin, "The Animal/Man That I Am"
  • PhD Internal Examiner, University of Limerick (2015): Sara Buggy, "Disciplining Dystopia: Power and the Body in Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Fiction"
  • PhD External Examiner, University College Cork (2016): Mark Kirwan, "Beneath the Penumbral Glow: John Banville and the Cinema"
  • PhD External Examiner, Maynooth University (2018): Alan Carmody, "Illiterature: Reading Illness and Illegibility in the Early Works of William Burroughs"
  • PhD Internal Examiner, University of Limerick (2022): Dana Garvin, "Seeking an Image: The Visual Automatic Script of George and William Butler Yeats"
  • PhD Internal Examiner, University of Limerick (2023): Daniah Khayat, "Black Fatherhood in Contemporary African American Novels"

Research Collaborators

  • Dr Adnan Mahmutovic - Joint Publication - Stockholm University -Sweden
  • Dr Christoforos Diakoulakis - Joint Publication - Independent Scholar(Christoforos Diakoulakis) -Greece
  • Prof. David Huddart - Joint Publication - Chinese University of Hong Kong -Hong Kong
  • Dr Elizabeth Wijaya - Joint Publication - University of Toronto -Canada
  • Prof. Graham Allen - Joint Publication - University College Cork

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journals

Books

Book Chapters

2023

DeLillo and the Gallery

Coughlan, D. (2023) DeLillo and the Gallery. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press The Edinburgh Companion to Don DeLillo and the Arts :401-412

2008

Paul Auster's Ghost Writers

Coughlan, D. (2008) Paul Auster's Ghost Writers. Newcastle : Cambridge Scholars Space, Haunting, Discourse :143-152

2000

Framework: Nathalie Melikian's intertext

Coughlan, D. (2000) Framework: Nathalie Melikian's intertext. Southampton : Southampton Institute The Visual-Narrative Matrix: Interdisciplinary Collisions and Collusions :133-136

Edited Books

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Other Journals

Conference Publications

Conference Contributions

2019

JD19

Coughlan, D. (2019) JD19.

Published Reports

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Editorials

Book Reviews

Other Publications

2015

Which Side are You On? A Roundtable (Transcript and Video)

Ursini, F.-A., A. Mahmutovic, F. Bramlett, K. Roddy, K. Scott, D. Greene, N. Galante, T. Kakko, D. Coughlan, and R. Cook (2015) Which Side are You On? A Roundtable (Transcript and Video). : Department of English, University of Florida ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies

2010

Paul Auster

Coughlan, D. (2010) Paul Auster. Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction :438-439

2005

Postmodernism

Coughlan, D. (2005) Postmodernism. : The Literary Dictionary Company The Literary Encyclopedia