Professor Sonja Tiernan

Eamon Cleary Chair of Irish Studies

Contact details

Tel +64 3 479 8634
Email sonja.tiernan@otago.ac.nz
Office G01 Ground Floor
99 Albany Street
Dunedin

Mail
Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054
New Zealand

Sonja Tiernan is the Eamon Cleary Professor of Irish Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies. Originally from Dublin, she studied at University College Dublin and has held visiting fellowships at the National Library of Ireland; Trinity College Dublin; Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame; School of Irish Studies, Concordia University Canada and most recently she was awarded a Moore Institute visiting fellowship at National University of Ireland, Galway. Professor Tiernan has received funding from prestigious sources in support of her research including from the Irish Research Council, Royal Irish Academy, National Endowment of the Humanities USA and the National University of Ireland.

Professor Tiernan’s research interest is primarily modern Irish history with a focus on social and gender politics. She has published widely in these areas including a co-edited volume on Sexual Politics in Modern Ireland. Many of her publications have focused on the recovery of the poet, playwright and political activist Eva Gore-Booth. The recovery of this previously overlooked Irish character has been broadly welcomed. In 2012, Sonja was invited to present her biography Eva Gore-Booth; an image of such politics to the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. In 2015, President Higgins presented a key note address at the Trade Union Congress in London based on Sonja’s publication; The Political Writings of Eva Gore-Booth. In 2018, the President wrote the foreword to Sonja’s volume of Eva Gore-Booth: Collected Poems.

Academic qualifications

MA(Hons);  PhD (University College Dublin)

Expertise

Modern Irish history; gender and women’s history; labour and social reform movements; the history of crime and punishment.

Research supervision

I welcome research proposals in any of my research areas.

Editorial and advisory responsibilities

• Committee Member Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand
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• Evaluator for the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme
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• Advisory Council Member of the British Association of Irish Studies
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• Editorial board member of Breac: a digital journal of Irish Studies
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• I act as a peer reviewer for the following:
  • Irish Historical Studies
  • History Research journal
  • University College Dublin (UCD) Press

Current research

My next monograph, which is on the history of the marriage equality movement in Ireland, is currently in press with Manchester University Press and is due for publication early in 2020.

I recently completed a chapter on women and the conscription crisis in Ireland during World War One which is also in press and will be published in a volume on Women and the Decade of Commemorations, edited by Oona Frawley to be published by Indiana University Press soon.

I have recently started a new research project on twentieth century feminist activism in Ireland which I plan to complete as a monograph. In 2019, I am grateful to have received two fellowships to begin research for this volume; the Moore Institute Visiting Fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway; and the Keough-Naughton Library Research Award at the University of Notre Dame. 

I am currently writing chapters for two edited volumes both of which are due to be published in 2020; an examination of the official organ of the Irish Housewives Association, The Irish Housewife, to be published in Volume II of Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth Century Ireland; and an account of Eva and Constance Gore-Booth for an edition to be published by the Royal Irish Academy, edited by Mary O’Dowd, stemming from an exhibition entitled Sisters held in the RIA in 2019.

Selected publications

Tiernan, S. (2020). Marriage Equality: A social revolution in Ireland. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press [In press: publication due 2020]

Tiernan, S. (2012) Eva Gore-Booth: An Image of Such Politics. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. 296p

Tiernan, S. (2018). (Ed.), Eva Gore-Booth: collected poems with foreword by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. New York, NY: Syracuse University Press, 440p

Tiernan, S. (Ed.), (2015). The Political Writings of Eva Gore-Booth. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 264p

Tiernan, S. (Ed.), (2010). Fiametta: a previously unpublished play by Eva Gore-Booth. New York, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 129p

Tiernan, S., & McAuliffe, M. (Eds.), (2009). Sapphists and Sexologists: Histories of Sexualities Volume II. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars. 260p

McAuliffe, M., & Tiernan, S. (Eds.), (2008). Tribades, Tommies and Transgressives: Histories of Sexualities Volume I. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars. 350p

Redmond, J., Tiernan, S., McAvoy, S., & McAuliffe, M. (Eds.), (2008). Sexual Politics in Modern Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Irish Academic Press, 208p

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Publications