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Cian T. McMahon
Associate Professor, Department of History and Honors College, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Cian T. McMahon
Associate Professor, Department of History and Honors College, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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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 is the author of two books and over half a dozen scholarly articles on Irish and American immigration history.
In The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine (NYU Press, 2021), he 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 and Irish Historical Studies and he has a new essay forthcoming in 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 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
“‘That City Afloat’: Maritime Dimensions of Ireland’s Great Famine Migration,” American Historical Review (forthcoming, 2022)
“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 (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming)
“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
INTERVIEWS
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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