Emer_O'Toole

Emer O'Toole

Emer O'Toole

Irish academic and writer

Emer O'Toole is a researcher and writer who contributes to various online publications, including The Guardian and the feminist blog The Vagenda. She is from the West of Ireland, and lives in Montréal, where she is Assistant Professor of Irish Performance Studies at Concordia University.

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Education and career

O'Toole completed a BA in philosophy and English literature at National University of Ireland, Galway, and then a master of philosophy degree in Irish theater and performance at Trinity College in Dublin.[1][2] She moved on to a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, which she completed in 2012. Her dissertation examined the ethics of intercultural theater practice. Articles and chapters based on this research were included in journals such as Target: International Journal of Translation Studies and The Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance.[3]

O'Toole spent a year doing postdoctoral research on Indigeneity in the Contemporary World project. She is currently an associate professor of Performance Studies, at the School of Irish Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research explores the relationship between contemporary Irish performance and activism.[4] She is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, such as Irish Times and The Guardian, writing about feminism and Ireland. She logs for the popular feminist site Vagenda, recites short stories for audio magazine 4'33", composes comedy sketches for the fledgling comedy troupe Wet Lettuce, and writes romantic poetry.[5]

Her professional associations and affiliations include serving as a performance review editor for the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, and as ambassador for the National Women's Council of Ireland. She is a fellow of Concordia's Simone de Beauvoir Institute.[4]

In 2012, O'Toole caused an Internet storm when she appeared on a morning talk show and exposed her decision to stop removing her body hair. She discussed the negative responses this often engenders, but stated that "Our bodies should be there for us to enjoy - express ourselves. Instead, there’s a capitalist pressure on us where we are being coerced into buying a service or products, and told if you don’t then you are unhygienic or outdated."[6][2]

In her first book, Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts, and Daring to Act Differently, O'Toole explores how gender roles are performed. She draws on personal experience as well as academic sources, and has said that she hopes the book makes "Judith Butler's theory of performativity accessible... to a wide demographic."[7][4]

Personal life

O'Toole is bisexual and polyamorous.[2] As of April 2019, she was expecting her first child.[8]

Publications

Books
  • Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts, and Daring to Act Differently. London: Orion, 2015
  • Ethical Exchanges: Translation, Adaptation and Dramaturgy. O’Toole, Emer, Andrea Kristic Pelegri and Stuart Young, eds. Boston; Leiden: Brill, 2017
  • Happy Families (upcoming), Orion: London, 2019
Chapters
  • "Intercultural Adaptation: The Ethics of Peter Brook's 11 & 12." Translation, Adaptation and Dramaturgy: Ethics in Dialogue, Ethics in Action. Ed. Emer O’Toole, Andrea Kristic Pelegri and Stuart Young. Boston; Leiden: Brill, 2017
  • ‘The Eternal Interculture Wars: Reading the Controversy Surrounding Bisis Adigun and Roddy Doyle's Playboy of the Western World.’ Irish Migrant Adaptations: Memory, Performance and Place. Ed. Jason King, Matthew Spangler and Charlotte McIvor. 2018
Peer-reviewed journal articles
  • O'Toole, Emer. 'Panti Bliss Still Can’t Get Hitched: Meditations on Performativity, Drag, & Gay Marriage' Sexualities, 2018
  • 'Guerilla Glamour: The Queer Tactics of Dr. Panti Bliss.' Eire-Ireland 52.4, 2017.
  • 'Waking the Feminists: Re-imagining the Space of the National Theatre in the Era of the Celtic Phoenix.' Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory 28.2 (2017): 134-152.
  • ‘Cultural Capital in Intercultural Theatre: A Study of Pan Pan Theatre Company’s The Playboy of the Western World.’ Target 25.1 ,2013. P. 407- 426.
  • ‘Towards Best Intercultural Practice: A Study of Tim Supple’s Pan-Indian A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, 4.3, 2011. P. 289-302

References

  1. [1]
    "'Leading light of feminism' Emer O'Toole, to address NWCI Feminist Futures Conference". MediaHQ. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  2. [2]
    Holmquist, Kate (30 March 2015). "'Everybody's queer': life on the sexuality spectrum". Irish Times. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  3. [3]
    "Dr Emer O Toole". Royal Holloway University of London. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  4. [4]
    "Emer O'Toole, PhD". Concordia University. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  5. [5]
    "Emer O'Toole". Blake Friedman. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  6. [6]
    Drohan, Freya (13 June 2015). "Irish feminist Emer O'Toole on why she hasn't shaved in years - 'I'm fed up with pressure on women to modify their bodies'". Independent. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  7. [7]
    Carey, Anna (28 February 2015). "Review: Girls will be Girls, by Emer O'Toole". Irish Times. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  8. [8]
    "I'm Still Pregnant (Yer Still Wha?)". One More. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
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