Dr Kelsey McFaul
- School: School of English, Drama, and Film
- Mentor: Dr Sharae Deckard
Late in the season: Atmosphere and weather in the global novel (1991-2024)
Dr Kelsey McFaul has a PhD in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where her dissertation focused on the role of the novel and climate change in the Horn of Africa. She is a specialist in postcolonial literature and the environmental humanities, with a special focus on African literatures and languages, and translation studies.
"Late in the season" is a comparative study of literary weather in non-English literatures within the last three decades of the climate crisis (1991-2024). In the predominantly Anglophone climate sciences and environmental humanities, non-English cultures and texts are often perceived as “late” arrivals to climate change awareness and theorists have questioned whether the literary novel is capable of representing extreme climate impacts. This research highlights descriptions and discussions of everyday weather and atmosphere that are under-analyzed in criticism. Reading contemporary novels in French, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, Amharic, Danish, and Spanish, it shows how non-English literatures engage and extend long traditions of climate awareness and demonstrates the important role of global perspectives in the emerging field of atmospheric humanities.
Contact Details:
Email: (opens in a new window)kelsey.mcfaul@ucd.ie
RMS profile: (opens in a new window)Kelsey McFaul