Date: Mar 19, 2010

Hofstra Professor Maureen Murphy Recognized for Contributions to the Groundbreaking "Dictionary of Irish Biography"

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Dr. Maureen Murphy, Hofstra University professor of curriculum and teaching and former acting dean of the School of Education, Health and Human Services, is receiving accolades for her work on the editorial board of the newly published Dictionary of Irish Biography,  a collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy. Dr. Murphy was the only American to serve on the Dictionary’s editorial board.

Edited by James McGuire, MRIA University College Dublin, and James Quinn, Royal Irish Academy, the Dictionary is considered the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical reference work available in both print and online for Ireland. It includes the lives of Irish men and women who made a significant contribution in Ireland and abroad, as well as those born overseas who had noteworthy careers in Ireland from James Ussher to James Joyce, St. Patrick to Patrick Pearse, St. Brigit to Maud Gonne MacBride, Shane O'Neil to Eamon de Valera, Edward Carson to Bobby Sands. The Dictionary puts their lives into every major library in the world and on the shelves of scholars, journalists, teachers, broadcasters, diplomats and general readers. It will be especially important in helping to sustain Irish studies courses in universities throughout the world.

In February 2010, at the annual meeting of The Association of American Publishers - Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division in Washington D.C., the Dictionary of Irish Biography was honored with the 2009 American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) for Best Multivolume Reference work in the Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Dr. Maureen Murphy is a distinguished scholar and well-known authority in the areas of Irish folklore, Irish literature, Irish history, curriculum and instruction, and multicultural education. She has also successfully combined these areas in her efforts as director of the Great Irish Famine curriculum, a program funded through a grant from the New York State Education Department. The curriculum received the 2002 Social Studies Program of Excellence Award from the National Council for Social Studies.

She has written more than 100 articles and book chapters and delivered more than 300 invited lectures in 18 countries. Additionally, Dean Murphy was a Fulbright Fellow at University College, Dublin, and twice a State Department lecturer to Egypt. She is the past president of the American Conference for Irish Studies and the past chair of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures. She is also the historian of the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City.

(Members of the Hofstra community: To access the Dictionary of Irish Biography online, visit hofstra.edu/libraries. Click on "Online Catalogs." Next to "Keyword" select "Title" and type in Dictionary of Irish Biography. Then select Dictionary of Irish Biography: From Earliest Times to the Year 2002. Then click on "Connect to Online Version.")

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