Louise Harrington, PhD and MA SOAS, University of London, BA Trinity College Dublin

Contact

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts - English & Film Studies Dept

Email: lmharrin@ualberta.ca

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Postcolonial War Peace Borders Partition

About

I'm an assistant professor in postcolonial studies and contemporary literatures with an emphasis on South Asia, Ireland and Northern Ireland, and Palestine and Israel. My research interests lie at the intersection of cultural & literary studies, critical border studies, and conflict & peace studies.

My current book project takes up aspects of critical border studies and geocriticism to examine how literary and cinematic mediations of 20th century partitions map spaces of conflict and their legacies. I am also leading SSHRC-funded multidisciplinary research that studies how a variety of cultural forms serve an essential function in mobilizing creative modes of peacebuilding, called 'Cultural Peace Work in "Post-Conflict" Northern Ireland'. Another project examines the intersections between critical border studies and postcolonial and decolonial literary studies. A third considers the role of humour in writing conflict and peace.

I have previously published on topics including the railway in Indian literary imagination; narratology and the Partition of Bengal; South Asian Irish cultural production; Bengali and Bangladeshi resistance writing; the militant body in Northern Ireland and Palestine; the anxiety of post-partition Irishness; and Kurdish cultural identity in literature, music and film.

Research

Supervisory and Research Interests

Postcolonial and comparative literatures; critical border studies; South Asian literatures and cultures; Irish literature and culture; the Arab-Israeli conflict; war, (post-)conflict and partition studies; literature and religion; spatial literary studies and theory.

Teaching

Recent and upcoming courses include:

ENGL 103 Case Studies in Research: Language Politics in Irish Literature
ENGL 150 Intro to English Studies: Narratives of Migration
ENGL 222 Reading Race and Ethnicity
ENGL 305 Topics in Literature and Religion
ENGL 315 South Asian Literatures in English
ENGL 367 Contemporary Literature and Culture
ENGL 426 The Short Story in South Asia
ENGL 465 Women Writing War
ENGL 481 Borders, Lines and Walls
ENGL 569 Borders as Methodologies
ENGL 680 Border Aesthetics

Courses

ENGL 103 - Case Studies in Research

This variable content course introduces methods of literary research as an in-depth process through one or more case studies. Refer to the Class Schedule and the Department of English and Film Studies website for specific topics. This course cannot be repeated for credit. Note: Not to be taken by students with 6 units in approved junior English.

Winter Term 2025 Winter Term 2026

ENGL 223 - Reading Empire and the Postcolonial

An introduction to dynamics of colonization and its resistances in literary and other cultural texts, and to the critical concepts and methods key to their study. Prerequisite: 6 units of junior ENGL, or 3 units of junior ENGL and 3 units of junior WRS.

Winter Term 2025 Fall Term 2025

ENGL 305 - Topics in Literature and Religion

Prerequisite: 6 units of junior ENGL, or 3 units of junior ENGL and 3 units of junior WRS. Note: variable content course which may be repeated if topics vary.

Winter Term 2026

ENGL 402 - Studies in Genres

Prerequisites: 12 units of senior ENGL with a minimum of 6 units at the 300 level. Note: variable content course which may be repeated.

Fall Term 2025

Browse more courses taught by Louise Harrington

Louise Harrington, PhD and MA SOAS, University of London, BA Trinity College Dublin

Contact

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts - English & Film Studies Dept

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

About

Research

Teaching

Courses

ENGL 103 - Case Studies in Research

ENGL 223 - Reading Empire and the Postcolonial

ENGL 305 - Topics in Literature and Religion

ENGL 402 - Studies in Genres

Featured Publications

Critical Border Studies, Postcolonial and Decolonial Literature

Locating Kurdish Cultural Identity in Canada

Cultural Peace Work in ‘Post-Conflict’ Northern Ireland

"Post-Partition Anxieties and the Matter of Authenticity in Ireland"

“’Conflict Cinema’ and Hostile Space in Northern Ireland and Palestine.”

“Crossing Borders in Partition Studies and the Question of the Bangladesh Liberation War.”

“Simulating South Asia: literature, culture and belonging in Ireland.”

“Women and Resistance in West Bengal and Bangladesh: 1967-1971”