Irene Gilsenan Nordin, professor i engelska 9/12-13

Irene Gilsenan Nordin is Professor of English at Dalarna University, Sweden. She was born in 1947 in County Meath, Ireland. She studied at Coloma College of Education in London and qualified as a teacher in 1970. During the early 1970's, she worked as a primary school teacher in London and Ireland. In 1974, she went to Africa as a volunteer, and worked there for a number of years as a teacher of English– first in Kenya and then Botswana. In 1981, she moved to Dalarna, Sweden, with her Swedish husband, whom she met in Africa. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in English and Computer Science at Dalarna University in 1989, and has taught English at Dalarna University since 1991. In 1999, she defended her doctoral thesis in English Literature at Uppsala University, on the poetry of Seamus Heaney. She became Docent at Dalarna University in 2007, and Professor of English at Dalarna University in 2010.

Irene’s main research interests are contemporary literature and culture with focus on themes of landscape and identity; place and belonging. She has a special interest in contemporary Irish poetry. She is currently Research Leader for the research group Transcultural Identities, at Dalarna University. She has published numerous books and articles in her fields of research, and her most recent publications include Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature (Rodopi, 2013), and Urban and Rural Landscapes: Language, Literature and Culture in Modern Ireland (Peter Lang, 2012). She is Founder/Director of DUCIS (Dalarna University Centre for Irish Studies), and co-founder and former editor of Nordic Irish Studies. She is former president of NISN (Nordic Irish Studies Network), and member of the Executive Board of EFACIS (European Federations of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies). She is currently president of SWESSE (Swedish Society for the Study of English).