Mary Trotter

Mary Trotter has been a faculty member at UW-Madison since 2005, where she teaches a wide range of theatre and performance history and Irish Studies courses, from “Introduction to Theatre and Dramatic Literature,” to “American Theatre and Dramatic Literature to 1900,” to advanced seminars on theatre historiography and on the Irish Dramatic Movement. Her own research focuses mainly on modern Irish theatre, reflecting her larger interests in political performance, theatre and identity, gender and/in performance, transatlantic theatre and culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and historiography.

Mary’s publications include two books. Her first book, Ireland’s National Theaters: Political Performance and the Origins of the Irish Dramatic Movement (Syracuse University Press, 2001) examined the dynamic relationship between political activism and theatrical performance in Dublin from the formation of the Gaelic League in 1893 to the Easter Rebellion in 1916. Her second book, Modern Irish Theatre (Cultural History of Literature Series, Polity Press, 2008) offers a comprehensive look at the work of Irish playwrights, players and companies from the 1880s to the contemporary period. In addition, Mary has published articles and reviews in such journals as Modern Drama, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Theatre Research International, and New Hibernia Review, and she has contributed book chapters to several edited theatre and performance collections. Her research is also anthologized in the Norton Critical Edition, Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama (2008). She is currently working on a new book monograph, “Actresses and Activists: Nationalism, Gender and Theatricality in Early 20th Century Ireland.” Along with participating regularly on scholarly panels at national and international conferences, she has been invited to present her research as a guest lecturer or plenary speaker at universities and academic meetings in North America, Canada and Ireland.

Her service to the profession includes membership on the Editorial Advisory Board of Modern Drama (2007-present) and North American book review editor for Theatre Research International (2003-2007). She also completed her two-year term as President of the American Conference for Irish Studies in spring of 2015.

Mary holds an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama from Northwestern University and an MA in English from the University of Texas at Austin.