Sinéad Moynihan

Professor Sinéad Moynihan is an academic in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter, specializing in American Studies with interconnected interests in Transatlantic Literary Studies and Irish Atlantic studies. She was promoted to Professor in March 2023 after joining the university as a Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature in 2010.

• B.A. in English and French, National University of Ireland, Galway (2000)
• M.A. in English, University College Cork (2002)
• Ph.D. in American Studies, University of Nottingham (2007)
• Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2007)

Her research interrogates intersections of race, gender, transnationalism, and diaspora in contemporary American and Irish literatures, with a focus on racial/gender passing (2010 monograph) and transatlantic cultural negotiations (2013, 2019 monographs). A current project explores Irish writers’ engagement with U.S. magazines (1940–1970) to challenge perceptions of mid-century Irish literary stagnation.

Moynihan’s work spans literary theory, cultural studies, and media analysis, with recent outputs emphasizing migration narratives and postcolonial frameworks. She co-edited the Journal of American Studies (2019–2022) and contributes to Exeter’s research networks on migration and displacement.

• Michael J. Durkan Prize (2019)
• Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2007)