The Ertegun Scholarship made it possible for me to complete an MSt in Modern Languages at Oxford, with a focus on modern and contemporary German-language literature. Ertegun House was a hugely important part of my MSt experience on both a personal and an intellectual level and led to several long-standing friendships (including with future greats in my field such as Dr Karolina Watroba!)
After graduating from the MSt, I completed a PhD in Comparative Literature at Trinity College Dublin with funding from the Irish Research Council. My PhD research analysed responses to the climate crisis in contemporary fiction, considering works from a wide range of cultural contexts that included Austria, Germany, Poland, Australia, Ireland, and South Korea. From 2023-2025, I returned to Oxford first as a Lecturer in German, then as a Career Development Research Fellow in German and Comparative Literature at St John’s. In January 2026, I returned to Ireland to take up a permanent job as Lecturer in German at the University of Galway.