Caroline Elbay
Affiliated with Dublin Campus, International Education
BIO

Dr. Caroline Elbay has been a professor at Champlain College, Dublin since it opened its doors in the historical heart of Georgian Dublin in 2008. Elbay currently teaches courses in Modern & Contemporary Irish Literature, Technical Writing, and Irish Music.  

One of Dr. Elbay's favorite things about teaching at Champlain College is its small class sizes. This lends itself to a seminar-style teaching and facilitation mode, which means she gets to know students as individuals. Whether she and her students are discussing the power and potential of music as social and political commentary or analyzing the finer nuances of Hiberno-English in the works of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, or more modern Irish writers, everyone's voice can be heard and every opinion counts. Dr. Elbay considers this student-centered experience—the joy of exploration, discussion, and the sharing of ideas and concepts—an absolute privilege to be part of and believes it is undoubtedly what John Henry Newman had in mind in his seminal treatise "The Idea of a University." 

Teaching at Champlain has allowed Dr. Elbay to focus on and share the two great passions of her life: literature and music. Working at Champlain, Elbay is reminded of the old Chinese proverb: "Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

Dr. Elbay is constantly growing and strengthening Champlain's international internship program as Internship Manager. She looks forward to introducing more and more students to what Joyce described as "the heart of the Hibernian metropolis"—a city of culture, creativity, and innovation that has become the tech hub of western Europe.


PUBLICATIONS

Conference papers include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • "Les Voici, les enfants de Bohême: Bizet, Carmen, Weininger & Joyce" (Queens University Belfast, 2013)
  • "Women in Dubliners" (James Joyce Symposium, University of Utrecht, NL, 2014)
  • "Music in the works of James Joyce" (DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama, Dublin, 2014)
  • "Whores, Mothers & Others: Women in Dubliners" (Annual Lecture Series, James Joyce Centre, Dublin, 2015)
  • "Music in The Dead" (The Dead Weekend - A Centenary Celebration, James Joyce Centre Dublin, 2015)
  • "Joyce, Bloom, Sex & Weininger: Gender, Anti-semitism & Anti-feminism in the works of Weinginer and Joyce" (Queens University Belfast, 2016)
  • "You's are all nicely shanghaied now: Sean O'Casey and 1916" ("Writing the Rising" conference, Universita Roma 3, Italy, 2016)
  • "Whores, Mothers & Others: Women in Weininger & Joyce" (Trieste Joyce School, Universita di Trieste, Italy, 2016)
  • "What is a Nation?: Joyce, Bloom & the post-truth Trumpadours'" (Annual Lecture Series, James Joyce Centre, Dublin, 2017)
  • "Sisters in Arms: A History of The Irish Women's Movement" (Dublin City University, 2018)
  • "Apres Kafka: Anthropomorphism in the works of James Joyce" ("Beastly Modernisms" Conference, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 2019)
  • "Reading Brendan Behan: A Drinker with a Writing Problem?" ("Old Bottles, New Wine", James Joyce Centre, Dublin, 2019)
  • "Throwing Shapes: The Morphing Feminine in Joyce" (Annual Lecture Series, James Joyce Centre, Dublin, 2019)
  • "Take her up to Monto: Madams, Murder, and More-than-meets-the Eye" (James Joyce Symposium, Trieste, Italy, forthcoming) 

Elbay is currently working on a volume of edited essays for the centenary of the publication of 'Ulysses' in 2022.

QUOTE

"Ever tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail Again. Fail Better."

—Samuel Beckett

"Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

—Leonard Cohen