Brendan W. Corcoran

Brendan W. Corcoran serves as Associate Professor of English in Indiana State University's College of Arts & Sciences, specializing in twentieth-century/contemporary Irish and British poetry with emphasis on elegiac traditions and literature's intersection with climate change. His scholarship centers on Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and Michael Longley's poetic engagements with historical trauma and ecological crisis.

Corcoran's educational foundation includes:

• Ph.D. in English from Emory University (2003), dissertation: 'Ships of Death: The Elegiac Poetics of Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and Michael Longley'
• M.A. in Poetry Writing from Johns Hopkins University (1995)
• B.A. in Humanities from Yale University (1989)

His research examines how elegiac poetry processes collective trauma through works like Heaney's 'bog poems' addressing the Holocaust, while recent scholarship investigates 'ecological lament' in climate crisis contexts. Corcoran analyzes literature's capacity to confront environmental collapse through elegy's mourning framework, bridging Romantic traditions with Anthropocene challenges.

Corcoran's 2021-2024 publications reveal intensifying focus on climate-poetry intersections, with book chapters like 'Heaney’s ‘Proffer’: Catastrophic Climate Change' and creative works such as 'Thin Ice' demonstrating dual scholarly-poetic engagement. His recent output increasingly connects mythic frameworks with ecological urgency, while his poetry contributions explore climate metaphors through war literature lenses.

Key honors include:

• Keats-Shelley Association Prize (2009) for Keats scholarship
• ISU Sustainability Leadership Award (2018)
• Outstanding Foundational Studies Instructor Award (2021)
• Professing Excellence awards (2019-2020)

Corcoran directs significant sustainability initiatives including a $640k EPA Recycling Education Grant (2024-2027) and NEH-funded 'Transformative Education for Sustainable Future' (2022-2023). His teaching innovation includes evolving 'Literature and the Climate Crisis' into a service-learning course connecting students with reTHink's plastic upcycling and community gardens.

He co-founded ReTHink (serving as Vice President) advancing Terre Haute's sustainability through zero-waste stores and composting programs, while mentoring EARTHlings youth climate activists developing cross-curricular climate education for local schools.