Dr. Ian Kinane

B.A. (Hons.) in English Studies (Dublin)

M.Phil. in Popular Literature (Dublin)

Ph.D. in English Literature (Dublin)

I was appointed Lecturer in English Literature in the Department of English and Creative Writing in September 2016, Senior Lecturer in 2018, and Reader in Popular Literature and Culture in 2024. Prior to Roehampton, I was a Visiting Lecturer in the School of English at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. I have also taught in the Samuel Beckett Centre and the School of Drama, Film, and Music at the University of Dublin, Trinity College, as well as in the School of English, Dublin Business School. 

I am currently the Departmental Outreach Officer, the Social Media Officer, and I lead the School Recruitment Committee and sit on the School Comms and Marketing Committee. I also sit on the editorial board of Fincham Press.

I am the general editor of the International Journal of James Bond Studies, the first online, open-access research journal of its kind in this field. I am also consultant reader for a number of international academic journals, including Island Studies, Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, Studies in Travel Writing, and Eighteenth Century Fiction; and I am on the editorial board of Gothic Nature. 

20th century literature, contemporary fiction, late-19th century literature, popular literature and culture; genre fiction (particularly adventure fiction, robinsonade narratives, and spy fiction), children's literature; postcolonial literatures and theory; island studies; gothic islands; Ian Fleming's James Bond novels; Michelle Cliff's fiction; cultural geography; space and place in literature; representations of bisexuality in literature and culture; the politics of representation.

I welcome research proposals from anyone interested in these areas.

My current research explores notions of bi-erasure in popular culture at large. I am currently putting together an edited collection provisionally titled Literature, Culture, and Bisexuality. In addition, I am preparing a number of other book-length projects, including a monograph provisionally titled Terror Incognita: Islands in the Tropical Gothic and another on Ian Fleming's James Bond novels; as well as edited collections on ecocritical Robinsonades and the collected works of Ian Serraillier.

Beyond my current research, I have published a number of books, including On the Very Edge: Bidentities in Michelle Cliff's Fiction (University Press of Mississippi, 2024), Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence (Bloomsbury, 2021), Isn't it Ironic?: Irony in Contemporary Popular Culture (Routledge, 2021), Didactics and the Modern Robinsonade (Liverpool University Press, 2019), Theorising Literary Islands (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and (with Downey and Parker) Landscapes of Liminality: Between Space and Place (Rowman & Littlefiled, 2016). 

In 2019, I was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

My teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes has included the following modules:

• Popular Literature and Culture
• Reading Popular Culture
• Genre Fictions
• Genre in Context
• Form and Genre
• Reading and Writing Fantasy Worlds
• Politics of the Bestseller
• Childhood and Popular Culture 
• Critical and Theoretical Perspectives
• Postcolonial Rewritings
• Childhood: Histories, Lives, and Stories
• British Children's Literature
• Introduction to Literary Studies

I have supervised a number of dissertations at both BA and MA level, on a variety of topics. Some of these include:

• James Bond and the Myth of St. George
• Vampires and Bakhtin's Grotesque Bodies
• Gender Identities in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games Trilogy
• Ideology and Power in the Harry Potter Novels
• Cold War Consumerism and Surveillance Culture
• Representations of Italy in Dan Brown's Popular Fiction
• Representations of Autism in Genre Fiction
• Language and Race in Toni Morrison's Fiction
• The Black Female Body in Contemporary Literature
• Literary Constructions of Cornwall in Daphne du Maurier's Fiction
• Popular Utopian and Dystopian Narratives
• Refugee Narratives and Narratives of Displacement
• The Representation of Food in Roald Dahl's Fiction

Current PhDs:

• Kiera Fitzgerald, 'State Secrets and the Public Archives: Cold War Spycraft and the Literary History of British Espionage' (AHRC/Techne-funded collaborative doctoral award in conjunction with The National Archives).

Completed PhDs:

• Lucas Townsend, 'The Intermodernist Poetics of Ian Fleming and Graham Greene'.
• Aimee Hinds, 'All Women in Greek Myth: Inclusive Feminist Frameworks for Greek Mythology in Popular Culture' (AHRC/Techne-funded studentship, co-supervised with colleagues in Classics).

Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Member, Royal Society of Literature

Member, European Society for the Study of English

Member, Techne Peer Review College

General Editor, International Journal of James Bond Studies

Consultant Reader for Island Studies Journal, Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, Studies in Travel Writing, and Eighteenth Century Fiction, as well as Columbia University Press, Bloomsbury Academic, Manchester University Press, Routledge, Palgrave, Liverpool University Press, University of Westminster Press, and Rowman & Littlefield International

Editorial Board Member, Gothic Nature

I have been a consultant on Ian Fleming, Daniel Defoe, and Agatha Christie for the BBC2 documentary series and accompanying BBC Radio series The Novels That Shaped Our World, and the BBC 4 series Wild Bond, as well as for a number of national and international news and media outlets, including ITV News at Ten (10/01/2020), ITV News London (28/9/21), BBC Radio (28/9/21), The Washington Post (1), The Washington Post (2), 9News Australia, The Times, Newsweek (1), Newsweek (2), BBC, The Express (1), The Express (2), The Express (3), The Express (4), The Express (5), The Express (6), The Express (7), The Associated Press, The Mirror, The World News, The Metro (1), The Metro (2), The Article, Perspecs, Artistic Licence Renewed, Medium and The Guardian. I have also been consulted on Robinson Crusoe and the Robinsonade genre for a number of literary podcast series, including Morals and Make Believe and Words to That Effect; and I have spoken to The Bunker podcast on the release of the James Bond film, No Time to Die, and Tomorrow is the Question, the PSHE Association podcast, about James Bond, gender norms, relationships, and misogyny. 

I am a member of the board of Balbriggan Youth Service and a member of the board of trustees of Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland. I have worked with the Trinity Access Programme (TAP) and the College For Every Student Initiative (CFES) in Ireland to deliver literature and drama workshops for primary and post-primary schoolchildren. I have also been a workshop facilitator for Foróige, the Irish National Youth Organisation. In conjunction with the Carnegie Library, I organised a series of large-group revision workshops for post-primary students of the English curriculum. I am also the Chair of Judges for the Wimbledon Book Festival writer's competition.