Noreen Giffney BA (NUI), PhD (NUI), MSc Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (Dubl), Diploma in Clinical Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (IIPP)

I completed a BA (Hons) in English and history at University College Dublin, and was awarded a PhD for a thesis on atrocity propaganda, monstrosity and medieval apocalypticism, entitled '"The Age is Drowned in Blood": Reading Anti-Mongol Propaganda, 1236-55', from University College Dublin. I coordinate postgraduate and postdoctoral researcher training in the UCD Humanities Institute.

I completed an MSc in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (clinical specialisation) in the Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin, in association with the Irish Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (IIPP). I have a Diploma in Clinical Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, awarded by the Irish Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (IIPP), and work as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in Dublin.

I am, at present, writing a book-length study on the discourses of desire in the work of the psychoanalyst Wilfred R. Bion and the Kleinian tradition of psychoanalysis more broadly. The project is tentatively titled 'With/out Desire: An Experience in Reading W.R. Bion'. I have written a number of chapters which are forthcoming as articles on, for example, discourses of desire in Bion's work; a theory of desiring within the context of Bion's theory of thinking; desire in relation to the experience of reading Bion's writings; and the operation of craving rather than desiring in the film, Shame. I am also co-editing, with Michael O'Rourke, a special issue of the journal Studies in Gender and Sexuality (Routledge) entitled 'The Womb/Intra-Uterine Complex and the Analytic Encounter: Clinical and Theoretical Responses to Bracha L. Ettinger's Persephone-Demeter Complex'. 

I am the co-editor of Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies (Taylor and Francis 2007); Queering the Non/Human ('Queer Interventions' book series, Ashgate 2008); The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory ('Queer Interventions' book series, Ashgate 2009); The Lesbian Premodern ('The New Middle Ages' book series, Palgrave Macmillan 2011) and Theory on the Edge: Irish Studies and the Politics of Sexual Difference ('Breaking Feminist Waves' book series, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). I am completing a book, with Dr Eve Watson, entitled Clinical Encounters: Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory with contributions by theoretical specialists in gender and sexuality, and clinical practitioners in psychoanalysis. I have also edited special issues, or clusters, of the following journals: Studies in the Maternal (2009); Irish Feminist Review (2007); Studies in Gender and Sexuality (2012); The Journal of Lesbian Studies (2007, 4 issues) and The History Review (2001, 2002).

I founded two book series with Michael O'Rourke: Queer Interventions at Ashgate, which I edited from 2006 to 2009, and Cultural Connections: Key Thinkers and Queer Theory at the University of Wales Press, which I edited from 2007 to 2009. I continue to serve on the international advisory board of Cultural Connections (Punctum Books). I served as the Humanities Book Review Editor for GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (Duke University Press) during 2007-2011.  I am on the editorial boards of a number of international journals relating to critical theory, and gender and sexuality studies, including Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies (Palgrave Macmillan).

I have organised, solely and in collaboration with colleagues, a large number of high-profile international, interdisciplinary conferences, symposia, intensive seminars, roundtable discussions and panels of academic papers relating to academic and clinical work. I established, with Michael O'Rourke the Dublin Queer Studies Group in 2001 and have been convening The(e)ories: Critical Theory & Sexuality Studies with him since 2002. I have been organising academic events with Dr Anne Mulhall since 2007. I was the organiser of Gender, Culture & Society Seminars at the University of Limerick (2009-2010), and the co-organiser of the Horror Cinema Discussion Forum (2006-2007) and the Feminist Research Seminar Series (2006-2007) at University College Dublin. I am on the organising committee of the UCD Humanities Institute Theory Reading Group. I was a member of the Education Sub-committee of the Irish Forum for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (IFPP) during 2010-2013, which organises events for psychoanalytic psychotherapists and other clinical practitioners, such as psychologists and psychiatrists. I currently co-convene the Object Relations Clinical Reading Group. I have given a large number of invited lectures and conference presentations on my research at academic institutions based in, for example, London, Manchester, Brussels, Cambridge, Chicago, Belfast, Leeds, Newcastle, Vienna, Amsterdam, Oxford, Swansea and Texas. 

I have devised and lectured undergraduate, postgraduate and professional training courses and given guest lectures in the areas of psychoanalytic theory, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural studies at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Limerick, the National University of Ireland, Galway, Independent College, Dublin and the Donnybrook Centre for Psychotherapy, Counselling and Onward Professional Development. I have taught courses on research methods, have supervised postgraduate and undergraduate dissertations, and have acted as the internal and external examiner for doctoral and masters theses. I lecture on the MSc in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (clinical specialisation) in the Department of Psychiatry and the MPhil in Psychoanalytic Studies in the School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, as well as the MA in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (clinical specialisation) and the Higher Diploma in Psychotherapy Studies in the School of Psychotherapy at Independent College, Dublin.

I am a member of the Dublin Lacan Study Group, the BABEL Working Group at Southern Illinois University, USA, the Queer(y)ing Psychology Collective at the Open University, UK and the Bioethics, Sexuality, and Gender Identity Consortium based at the University of Pennsylvania, USA; a research affiliate in Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK; and a research associate in the Somatechnics Research Centre at Macquarie University, New South Wales, Australia. I was previously a research affiliate in the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Sexuality and Gender in Europe at the University of Exeter, UK

               

Education

Year 2005 Institution: University College Dublin Qualification: PhD Subject:

Year 1996 Institution: University College Dublin Qualification: BA (Hons.) Subject: English; History

         

                                                                                                     

Research Interests

Clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis, with an emphasis on the work of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Wilfred R. Bion and the object relations tradition Critical and cultural theories of gender and sexuality Film studies, especially psychoanalytic, queer and feminist approaches to film