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Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in Indiana, Pennsylvania, fifty-five miles northeast of Pittsburgh, I teach courses in IUP's English Department and its Graduate Program in Literature, which I directed during 1987-91.  I've directed many dissertations and other student writing that has been published, and have done a lot of outside consulting and university service.   I earned my Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati in my hometown, my M.A. at University College, Dublin, and my B.A. at New College in Florida.  You can e-mail me at Jim.Cahalan@iup.edu, view my full vita, and sample a few of my publications by clicking on these numbers:  on Edward Abbey, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; on pedagogy, 1, 2; and on Irish literature, 1, 2, and 3.

My latest article is "Teaching Hometown Literature:  a Pedagogy of Place" in the January 2008 College English.  I co-edited the book Practicing Theory in Introductory College Literature Courses.  I am the author of the biography Edward Abbey:  A Life, which can be ordered online at discount in either hardback  or paperback  This book, which won the 2002 Thomas J. Lyon Award from the Western Literature Association, has been excerpted by the New York Times Book Review, Moab's Canyon Country Zephyr, and Abbey's Web.  A Korean translation of this book was published in 2006.  I've presented on Abbey more than 30 times, in 10 different states, most recently in Arizona.   The most distinguished literary native son of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Abbey was the author of numerous essays and novels, and the inspiration for the environmentalist movement called Earth First! and the elaborate and very useful Abbey's Web hosted in Stockholm, Sweden, where you can read my Earth First! article about Abbey since 9/11.   You can also read and look at all the pictures and maps in my article about the Appalachian Abbey.  I've been interviewed by many radio and TV stations about Abbey; the only one still Web-archived for easy listening is a show about Abbey and Earth First! that went out to millions on BBC radio as part of their series on "Green Gurus."  I sponsored the Abbey state historical marker, dedicated in 1996 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, beside the village sign at Home, Pennsylvania, ten miles north of Indiana, near where Abbey grew up.  You can see photos of my January 2001 expedition to Big Bend, including my jeep trip down Abbey's "No Road"; a gallery of photos from the February 2002 IUP library display; and also a photo of Ed and me in Flagstaff.  I've visited many U. S. national parks, I teach a course on that subject, and I published an article about Abbey in National Parks magazine.   

Most of my many other publications since 1976, including five of my seven books, have been about Irish authors, particularly fiction writers beyond James Joyce.  My article "Mercier’s Irish Comic Tradition as a Touchstone of Irish Studies" appeared in 2004; an earlier one was about the reader in Finnegans Wake.  My last of five books in the field was Double Visions: Women and Men in Modern and Contemporary Irish Fiction (1999).  I spent four months in Ireland  in 1973 and have been in love with the country ever since then, returning more than a dozen times for visits ranging in length from two weeks to a year-and-a-half. I've been teaching courses on Irish literature and the Irish language since 1978, and in the 1980s I directed an Irish studies undergraduate degree program and a summer-study abroad program in Dublin.  I am a member of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) and the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (IASIL). In summer 2006 I attended the IASIL Conference in Sydney and took a lot of photos of Australia and New Zealand.   During 1996-99 I lectured in many places on the Great Irish Famine or Hunger of more than150 years ago.  A lot of my work is concerned with Irish history, folklore, language, and gender issues.  My favorite online mailing from Ireland is the Irish Emigrant.  I am a big fan of traditional Irish and other Celtic music. 

Click here to see more pictures of my house. A Quaker concerned about peace, social justice, and environmental issues, I enjoy tennis and biking. _

     

[Jim at Home]

[Jim in Home]

[Jim at Work]

 

                                                                   

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JCahalan@iup.edu

Last Updated:   January 17, 2008