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Biography

Originally from Louisiana, Dr. Teekell's academic career took her to Rhodes College in Memphis, TN (BA); Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland (M.Phil.); Washington University in St. Louis, MO (Ph.D.); and Lincoln Memorial University in TN (where she was Assistant Professor), before her arrival at CNU in 2015. At Christopher Newport, Dr. Teekell teaches 19th and 20th century British and Irish literature, as well as core writing courses with topics such as gothic fiction, detective fiction, and Irish literature. She lives in Newport News with her husband, two sons, and enormous dog, Haggis.

In Spring 2024, Dr. Teekell was a Tidewater Fellow (https://cnuengage.org/tidewater-project/ay23-24-tidewater-fellows/) at CNU, and in partnership with the Virginia War Museum, her students created a storymap, "Newport News 1919: A City Built by War" (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/84c14e9b86104bbf99457244f5514a0c) to showcase the museum's archival collections and enable users to see how WWI shaped the city of Newport News.

Correlating to her love for maps, Dr. Teekell's favorite part of CNU is Study Abroad! She led the CNU in Scotland program at the University of Glasgow in Fall 2018, and the summer program, "Literature and Politics in Ireland and Northern Ireland" with Dr. Andrew Kirpatrick of the CNU Political Science department in 2023 -- they will take another group of students to Ireland in May 2025!

Dr. Teekell's scholarly focus is modern Irish literature. As often as possible, she involves CNU students in her research. For example, the inception of her newest book, BorderLines: A Literary Map of the Irish Border, was a Summer Scholars project with Kazuki Johnstone '21 in 2019. The interactive map, Irish Border Bibliography (bit.ly/irishborderbibliography) is being updated by English major Kaley Vincent '25 as a Fall 2024 Research Apprentice through CNU's Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.

With the help of CNU Summer Scholar Zenith Nguon '22, Dr. Teekell co-edited a critical edition of John McGahern's novel The Dark with Ellen Scheible of Bridgewater State University (forthcoming 2024, Syracuse University Press). Readers can learn more about it on Zenith's website: https://zenithnguon.wixsite.com/thedark/about-5.

Since coming to CNU, many of Dr. Teekell's publications have focused on Ireland and the Second World War, such as her book, Emergency Writing: Irish Literature, Neutrality, and the Second World War (Northwestern UP, 2018), an essay, “‘No help to the imagination’: Kate O’Brien and the Emergency.” Irish University Review 48.1(Spring 2018) and the recent chapter, “The Emergency’s Improbable Frequency in Contemporary Irish Culture.” Cultural Legacies of Neutral Europe. Ed. Manuel Bragança (London: Routledge, 2023).

Dr. Teekell also writes about the Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen, including a Special Issue of the Irish University Review on Elizabeth Bowen (co-edited with Tina O'Toole) 51.1(Spring 2021), “The Orphan Decade: Elizabeth Bowen’s 1930’s Novels,” Études-Irlandaises 42.2 (November 2017), and a forthcoming chapter in the Cambridge UP book, Elizabeth Bowen in Context, ed. Allan Hepburn.

Most recently, her focus has been on Northern Irish literature, including “The Room Where MacNeice Wrote ‘Snow’ and the Invention of Northern Irish Poetry.” Éire-
Ireland 56:1&2 (Summer 2021), and forthcoming articles on Northern Irish novels in LIT and Irish border poetry in Études Anglaises.

She is co-editor with Guinn Batten of a forthcoming book on Teaching Modern Irish Poetry and serves as Series Editor for Anthem Press's series, Anthem Irish Studies.