Adam Hanna is Head of English at UCC. He is Senior Lecturer in Irish Literature and the author of two monographs, Northern Irish Poetry and Domestic Space (Palgrave, 2015) and Poetry, Politics, and the Law in Modern Ireland (Syracuse University Press, 2022). His most recent book received the Honourable Mention in the 2023 Robert Rhodes Prize for Books on Literature, awarded by the American Conference for Irish Studies. In 2026, he won his college's inaugural Inspiring Learning Award, which recognises exceptional performance in teaching.

He is the co-editor of three collections: Architectural Space and the Imagination (with Jane Griffiths, Wadham College, Oxford University, Palgrave, 2020); Law and Literature: The Irish Case (with Eugene McNulty, Dublin City University, Liverpool University Press, 2022); and an anthology of ekphrastic poetry, The Echoing Gallery (Redcliffe Press, 2013).

He joined the School of English at UCC as an IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow in 2015. Before this, he taught in the English departments of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Bristol and the University of Aberdeen. He has also trained and practised as a solicitor, an experience that informs his research on law and literature.

Selected Recent Invited Talks

• 'Seamus Heaney's North manuscripts, NYU Glucksman Ireland House, New York 2025
• 'Law and Poetry in Ireland', Columbia University Irish Studies Seminar, New York, 2024. 
• 'W. B. Yeats: Imagining a Nation', a celebration of W. B. Yeats at the Irish Senate, 2023
• 'Yeats's Houses, Yeats's Rooms', Yeats Summer School, Sligo, 2023

External Roles

• Board Member of the Irish University Review (Book Reviews Editor) (2025-)
• Co-founder and co-director of the Legal Humanities Working Group, in the Irish Humanities Alliance, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (2024-)
• External Examiner, English MA, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick (2025-)
• International Treasurer of the American Conference of Irish Studies (2022-) 
• Member, editorial board of Cork University Press (2024)
• Member of the executive committee of the British Association of Irish Studies (2014-15)

Internal Roles

• Head of English and Vice-Head of School
• International Officer for English
• Member of the College International Committee
• Member of the English second year committee (head of committee 2022-25)
• Member of the School of English and Digital Humanities Self-Evaluation Committee, 2026

Postdoctoral Mentoring

• Danny Shanahan, 'Disturbed Areas: Literature and Emergency Law in Kashmir and Northern Ireland' (IRC postdoc, research to be published as a monograph with Bloomsbury in 2026)

His chief area of interest is modern Irish poetry. His major research projects to date are on the manuscripts of Seamus Heaney, law and literature, and space and place. 

He is currently writing a study of the Literary Papers of Seamus Heaney (National Library of Ireland), focusing on moments of hesitation and indecision, and co-editing a collection of essays on Irish versions of the Greek classic Antigone. He has written a monograph entitled Poetry, Politics and the Law in Modern Ireland (Syracuse University Press, 2022), an original exploration of how modern Irish poetry has been shaped by, and responded to, the laws of both of the island’s jurisdictions. He is the author of Northern Irish Poetry and Domestic Space (Palgrave, 2015), which he adapted from his doctoral thesis (Bristol, 2012). 

He also has research interests in ekphrasis, literature and social class, and the use of literary archives as teaching resources.

Current UCC teaching

He co-ordinates the following courses:

• EN3077 The Irish Literary Revival and Irish Modernism (third year lecture course)
• EN3004 Introduction to Irish Literature (semester 1 lecture course for visiting students) 
• EN3005 Introduction to Irish Literature (semester 2 lecture course for visiting students) 
• Irish Poetry Since Yeats (third year seminar course)

He contributes to the following courses:

• EN3075 Contemporary Irish Literature (third year poetry lectures)
• MA Modernities classes on modern Irish poetry
• Dissertation module (third year course)

MA Supervision

Guest Teaching and Invited Lectures

He has given invited Irish literature teaching to students from twelve universities in six countries, including Boston College, Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, and the University of Shanghai.