Stephen Watt

Stephen Watt serves as Provost Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance at Indiana University Bloomington within the College of Arts & Sciences, where he has taught continuously since 1985.

He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois (1982).

Watt's research centers on 19th-20th century drama/theatre, Irish Studies, and contemporary university dynamics. His scholarly output includes three major monographs: Bernard Shaw’s Fiction, Material Psychology, and Affect (2018) analyzing Shaw through psychoanalytic and affect theory lenses; “Something Dreadful and Grand”: American Literature and the Irish-Jewish Unconscious (2015) examining cultural intersections between Irish-American and Jewish-American immigrant experiences; and Beckett and Contemporary Irish Writing (2009) exploring works by Beckett, Friel, Carr, and others. He is currently developing a book on audience constructions in contemporary Irish, British, and American playwriting.