Molly Ferguson
Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of Operations
Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Molly Ferguson is Associate Professor of English and Affiliate Faculty in Women's and Gender Studies at Ball State University. Her research focus is in contemporary Irish literature, with a specific interest in gender, shame, and folklore. Dr. Ferguson was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2021, and she became a Ball Brothers Faculty Fellow in Honors in 2024. She has published articles on literature and teaching in journals including Éire-Ireland, Irish University Review, Women’s Studies, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Modern Fiction Studies, and LIT. Her book, Banshees, Hags, and Changelings: Feminist Folklore Transformations in Irish Writing was published by Syracuse University Press in 2026.
Professional Experience
Assistant Chair of Operations, English department
Ball Brothers Faculty Fellow in Honors
Outstanding Teaching Award
Creative Teaching Award
HIPs (High Impact Practices) Ambassador
Education
PhD, English
University of Connecticut
MA, English
University of Connecticut
Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies
University of Connecticut
BA, English and Women’s Studies
Franklin & Marshall College
Curriculum Vitae
Download CV (PDF)
Research and Publications
BOOK:
Banshees, Hags, and Changelings: Feminist Folklore Transformations in Irish Writing. Syracuse University Press, February 2026.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES:
“Banshee Legend and Embattled Masculinity in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin” Éire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies, Fall/Winter 2025.
The Changeling Legend and Queer Kinship in Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells” Irish University Review, 51:2, 2021, 296-311.
“Changing Approaches to Migration Memory in Irish Fiction: Beyond the Transactional Migration Model” Modern Fiction Studies, 66.2, Summer 2020, 396-415.
“The First Five Minutes: Teaching with Twitter in the Feminist Classroom” Modern Language Studies, 49.2 , Winter 2020, 94-107.“‘I retract that bit’: Hypermasculinity and Violence in Martin McDonagh’s Films” Literature, Interpretation, Theory (LIT), 30:1, 2019, 25-43.
“‘To say no and no and no again’: Fasting girls, shame, and storytelling in Emma Donoghue's The Wonder” New Hibernia Review, 22:2, 2018, 93-108.
“Clowning as Human Rights Activism in Recent Devised Irish Theatre” Studi Irlandesi: A Journal of Irish Studies, 7, 2017, 145-164.
“Killing them softly: Pillowman assassins in the works of Salman Rushdie and Martin McDonagh” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 52:5, 2016, 713-725.
“Paying the Devil his Due: Alcoholism and the Faustian Bargain in Claire Kilroy’s Novels” Nordic Irish Studies, 15:2, 2016, 57-77.
“The Subversion of Supernatural Lament in the Poetry of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill” Women’s Studies: An Inter-disciplinary Journal. 42.6, August 2013, p. 643-666.
“Reading the Ghost Story in Roddy Doyle’s The Deportees and Other Stories.” Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. 35:2, Autumn 2009, p. 52-60.
EDITED COLLECTIONS:
“‘I kind of suffer from anxiety with these things’: Disconnect and Emotional Resonance for College Students Reading Sally Rooney’s Novels” Sally Rooney: Perspectives and Approaches. Ellen Scheible and Barry Devine, eds. Bucknell University Press. Forthcoming June 2026.
“Casual Queerness in a Digital Age: Bisexuality in novels by Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan” Companion to the Contemporary Irish Novel, Kathleen Costello-Sullivan, Derek Hand, and Neil Murphy, eds. Syracuse University Press. Forthcoming.
“Emma Donoghue’s Queer Bildungsromane: Hood and The Pull of the Stars” The Irish Bildungsroman. Sarah Townsend, Gregory Castle and Matthew Reznicek, eds. Syracuse University Press, 2025. pp. 289-312.
“Migrants in the City: Dublin through the Stranger’s Eyes in Hugo Hamilton’s Hand in the Fire.” Irish Urban Fictions. Maria Beville and Deirdre Flynn, eds. Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 63-79.