In the mid-1980s, CSWS awarded Eileen Kearney the Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowship to help with her doctoral work and research on the 1930s Irish playwright, Teresa Deevy. She received her doctorate in theatre arts in 1986 and has subsequently taught theatre all over the country. She now teaches part-time at the University of Colorado Denver and continues to direct plays.
Her recent book, Irish Women Dramatists: 1908-2001, was published in November 2014 by Syracuse University Press. In the acknowledgments section in the beginning of the book, she thanks CSWS for its support. Teresa Deevy is only one of the seven playwrights in the book. The CSWS support that she received, Kearney says “helped spark my interest in putting as many of these wonderful women dramatists on the map as possible.” She coedited this anthology with Dr. Charlotte Headrick of the Oregon State University Theatre Department.
“Women characters dominate the Irish stage—yet, for decades, Irish women dramatists have been neglected, ignored and sometimes deliberately marginalized. This wonderful new anthology takes an important step towards addressing and redressing that problem. It celebrates seven great writers, whose dramas display the vitality, virtuosity and variety of Irish women’s playwriting—giving us works that range from comedy to high drama to the deepest tragedy.”—Patrick Lonergan, National University of Ireland, Galway
