Lachlan Whalen, PhD

Dr. Lachlan Whalen left a tenured position at Marshall University to come to the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg in August 2007. Here, he teaches classes on twentieth-century and contemporary Irish, British, and postcolonial literature. His research focuses primarily on the writings of Irish political prisoners, and his critical book on the subject, Contemporary Irish Republican Prison Writing, was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in 2007. He currently is editing an anthology of Irish prison writing. Minority languages are another of Lachlan’s interests, and he speaks Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic) and Lakota (Sioux). In his spare time he plays a number of instruments including guitar, mandolin, bodhrán (Irish frame drum) and uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes), and is also secretly writing a zombie novel. He thinks The Builders and the Butchers are the best band known to humankind.

Recent Publications

Contemporary Irish Republican Prison Writing. NY: Palgrave-Macmillan, forthcoming November 2007.

“’You Look Like Jesus Christ’: The Troubled Cinematic Iconography of Irish Republican Prisoners.” Forthcoming in Nua: Studies in Contemporary Irish Writing, special film issue, vol. 5.2 (Winter 2006-7).

“’Our Barbed Wire Ivory Tower’: The Prison Writings of Gerry Adams.” New Hibernia Review/ Iris �ireannach Nua. 10.2 (Summer/Samhradh 2006), 123-39.

“Irish Republican Prison Writing.” M�scail March 2006: 10.