Geraldine Higgins specializes in twentieth century Irish literature and culture. She joined the Emory faculty in 1996 after completing a D.Phil. at Trinity College, Oxford and a B.A. in English and History at Trinity College, Dublin.

Her two books and selected articles address the troubled connections between art and the representation of violence, the poet and the polis, tradition and modernity. Heroic Revivals from Carlyle to Yeats (Palgrave) examines the work of Carlyle, O'Grady, Russell (AE), Synge and Yeats in order to reassess the aesthetic and political dimensions of the Revival's heroic ideal and its implications for the construction of Irish modernity. Her second book, Brian Friel (Northcote House), is a critical study of Ireland's most influential and important living playwright. This study of Friel places his work within the context of the Irish dramatic tradition and examines his position as a writer from the north of Ireland negotiating between the responsibilities of art and the demands of violent conflict. Professor Higgins is the Director of Emory’s Irish Studies Program and the faculty contact for Study Abroad in Ireland.