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Cian T. McMahon
Professor, Department of History and Honors College, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Cian T. McMahon
Professor, Department of History and Honors College, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
European Migration, Immigration During the 19th Century, Nativism and Xenophobia, North American Migration, Race and Ethnicity
AREAS OF TEACHING
US immigration; European migration; Maritime Social History; Age of Revolutions; Soccer; Social Protest; Historical Fiction
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
BIO
Cian T. McMahon holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and Honors College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (2010), his MA from University College Dublin (2002), and his BA from the University of Manitoba (2000).
EXTENDED PROFILE
A native of Dublin, Ireland, Cian T. McMahon has written and edited three books and over a dozen scholarly articles on Irish and American immigration history. He is currently working on a global history of Saint Patrick’s Day.
The Routledge History of Irish America (which he co-edited with Kathleen P. Costello-Sullivan in 2024) gathers over 40 world-class scholars to explore the dynamics that have shaped the Irish experience in America from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries.
In The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine (NYU Press, 2021), McMahon uses the emigrants’ own letters and diaries to show how, at every step of the journey—including the treacherous weeks at sea—migrants created new threads in the worldwide web of the Irish diaspora.
In The Global Dimensions of Irish Identity: Race, Nation, and the Popular Press, 1840-1880 (UNC Press, 2015), he argues that the international dispersal of millions of people during and after the Great Famine radically altered how the Irish thought about nations and nationalism.
His articles have appeared in a range of journals including the Journal of American Ethnic History, Irish Historical Studies, and the American Historical Review.
At UNLV, McMahon’s transatlantic interests allow him to teach a range of courses in Irish, European, and American history. He also teaches seminars of his own design including “Great Migrations in Modern Human History” and “Soccer and the Making of the Modern World.”
RESEARCH
BOOKS
The Routledge History of Irish America (Routledge, 2024)
The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine (NYU Press, 2021)
The Global Dimensions of Irish Identity: Race, Nation, and the Popular Press, 1840-1880 (UNC Press, 2015)
ARTICLES
“Shipwrecks and Society: Press Reports of the Irish Emigrant Passage to Canada, 1845-1855.” In Canada and the Great Irish Famine, edited by William Jenkins, 55-72. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025.
“Sabbath on the Ocean: Rules, Rituals, and Religion on Irish Emigrant Ships in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” In Rituals of Migration: Italians and Irish on the Move, edited by Kevin Kenny and Maddalena Marinari, 83-98. New York: New York University Press, 2025.
“Globalizing Irish America” Special Issue (co-edited with Darragh Gannon), Journal of American Ethnic History 44, no. 1 (Fall 2024): 5-160.
“‘That City Afloat’: Maritime Dimensions of Ireland’s Great Famine Migration,” American Historical Review 127, no. 1 (2022): 100-128.
“Tracking the Great Famine’s ‘Coffin Ships’ Across the Digital Deep,” Éire-Ireland 56, nos. 1–2 (Spring/Summer 2021): 85-113
“The Pages of Whiteness: Theory, Evidence, and the American Immigration Debate,” Race & Class 56, no. 4 (April 2015): 40-55
“International Celebrities and Irish Identity in the United States and Beyond, 1840-1860,” American Nineteenth Century History 15, no. 2 (2014): 147-168
“Cartoons in the Classroom: Using Digitized Political Caricatures to Teach Migration and Ethnicity,” Journal of American Ethnic History 33, no. 4 (Summer 2014): 87-93
“Caricaturing Race and Nation in the Irish-American Press, 1870-1880: A Transnational Perspective,” Journal of American Ethnic History 33, no. 2 (Winter 2014): 33-56
“Transnational Dimensions of Irish Anti-Imperialism, 1842-1854” in Irish and Scottish Encounters With Indigenous Peoples, edited by Graeme Morton and David Wilson (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013), 92-107
“Ireland and the Birth of the Irish-American Press, 1842-61,” American Periodicals: A Journal of History and Criticism 19, no. 1 (2009): 5-20
“Irish Free State Newspapers and the Abyssinian Crisis, 1935-6,” Irish Historical Studies 36, no. 143 (May 2009): 368-388
AWARDS
Hibernian Research Grant (CUSHWA: Center for the Study of American Catholicism, 2021), William Morris Award for Excellence in Scholarship, College of Liberal Arts, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2016), William Morris Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Liberal Arts, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2016), Honorable Mention, Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book, American Conference for Irish Studies (2016), NEH Summer Stipend (National Endowment for the Humanities, 2015)
INTERVIEWS
“Why do we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day? Here’s What The Holiday Is All About.” CBS News interview (March 17, 2025)
“Globalizing Irish America: A Special Issue of the Journal of American Ethnic History” Upside Podcast: University of Illinois Press (October 2024)
“The Taoisigh Visits to White House for Saint Patrick’s Day” Talking History, Newstalk FM [Irish national radio] (March 2024)
“The Coffin Ship,” The History Show, RTÉ Radio 1 [Irish national radio] (October 2023)
“The Story of Irish Coffin Ships,” Irish History Podcast (January 2023)
The Coffin Ship,” Fund for Irish Studies lecture series, Princeton University (December 2021)
The Coffin Ship book launch, Glucksman Ireland House, New York University (28 October 2021)
“Clingen Conversation on The Coffin Ship,” Clingen Family Center for the Study of Modern Ireland, University of Notre Dame (November 2021)
“The Coffin Ship,” Victorian Society New York (22 September 2021)
“The Coffin Ship,” Irish American Heritage Museum, Albany, New York (9 September 2021)
“Writing The Coffin Ship,” Irish Echo, New York newspaper (25 August 2021)
“The Coffin Ship,” New Books Network (Irish Studies) Podcast (August 2021)
“Sean Moncrieff Show,” Newstalk FM, Ireland (June 2021)
Glucksman Irish Diaspora book series launch, Glucksman Ireland House, New York University (May 2021)
“Cultures of Las Vegas: The Irish,” Clark County Television (March 2020)
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