Please join the James Joyce Society for our latest installment in our Lunchtime Launch Series:

Teaching James Joyce in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Barry Devine and Ellen Scheible

This event will meet over Zoom. RSVP link to come.

Teaching James Joyce in the Twenty-First Century presents examples of bold, innovative pedagogical techniques instructors have used to adapt the study of Joyce’s work for the contemporary classroom. Leading Joyce scholars share approaches that go beyond the traditional university lecture hall to include experiences teaching high school students, senior citizens, art students, book club members, and people in prisons.
 
The strategies in this inspirational volume range from class discussions to creating art and music to walking city streets. Works examined include the complex Finnegans Wake and the influential modernist milestones Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. While Joyce is often viewed as an essential and foundational author of Irish literature, contributors to this volume argue that the spirit of Joyce’s writing is global, and they offer suggestions for teaching these works in an international context. 
 
Students are often daunted by the perceived difficulty and inaccessibility of Joyce, but this volume helps both new and experienced teachers of Joyce make the writer’s texts understandable, relatable, and even fun. These authors argue that reading Joyce helps develop skills in holding and interrogating opposing ideas, skills that are essential in navigating the modern academic and political landscape. In grappling with Joyce, students will recognize his writing as relevant and urgent.

Barry Devine is an Associate Professor of English at Heidelberg University. He teaches British and Irish literature, Women's Literature, LGBTQ+ Literature, and Literary Theory. His research primarily involves the manuscripts and other pre-publication materials of James Joyce. His work has appeared in The Irish Bildungsroman (Syracuse UP 2025) and The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses (2022).

Ellen Scheible is Professor of English and founder of the Irish Studies program at Bridgewater State University. She is the author of Body Politics in Contemporary Irish Women’s Fiction: The Literary Legacy of Mother Ireland (Bloomsbury 2025). She is co-editor of The Dark: A Critical Edition (Syracuse UP 2025) with Anna Teekell; Teaching James Joyce in the 21st Century (UP of Florida 2025) with Barry Devine; and Rethinking Joyce’s Dubliners (Palgrave 2017) with Claire Culleton. Her work has appeared in various journals including New Hibernia Review, James Joyce Quarterly, Criticism, Irish University Review, and Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. She is currently coediting a special issue of LIT on Irish women's genre fiction with Tina Morin.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.