Michael G Kelly

I have taught across the disciplines of French and comparative literature at UL since 2003, having previously worked and studied at a number of institutions in France, Ireland, and the UK. I serve as Head of the French section at UL, as research contact for the School of MLAL, and as Director of the Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies (an interdisciplinary research centre at the university). In a related role, I am also Managing Editor of the Centre's book series. 

My research is grounded in an engagement with modern and contemporary poetry and poetics in French, on which I have published widely and continue to work. This has led to a diversified interest in the relations of linguistic and spatial practices – encompassing theories and treatments of space in literary thought, the problem of literary individuation, and the analysis of contemporary work in relation to theories of cognitive mapping. Cumulatively, these strands cohere around the central importance of individuated human utterance – and its continued possibility – to sustainable social and political conditions.

Engaged with a wide range of topics in modern and contemporary French-language and comparative literatures and cultures, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Completed PhD supervisions (joint and solo) in areas including Cultural Urban Studies, French-language utopias, and contemporary Francophone literature. Current collaborative supervisions include projects on urban planning in conflict zones, comparative curricular studies on the theme of Europe, and the contemporary poetics of nostalgia.