Peter Hession holds a Ph.D. in Modern Irish History from the University of Cambridge where he also completed the M.Phil. in Modern European History following a B.A. in History and Political Science at Trinity College, Dublin. He is a social historian with a particular interest in the material and environmental histories of nineteenth-century Ireland and is currently researching the role played by technology during the Great Irish Famine. Prior to being appointed Faculty Fellow in Irish History at NYU, he was the Newman Fellow in Irish History at University College Dublin (2019-2022), a Busteed Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Institute for Irish Studies (2018-19) and the Old Library Visiting Fellow at the Irish College Paris / Centre Culturel Irlandais (2017).

EDUCATION

Ph.D., 2018, University of Cambridge; M.Phil. Modern European History, 2010, University of Cambridge; B.A. History and Political Science (Gold Medal), 2009, Trinity College Dublin; Erasmus Exchange, University of Warsaw, 2006-07.

AREA OF RESEARCH

Modern Irish history; Urban history; Famine studies; History of science and technology; Political economy; Governmentality studies; Food history;  Global History.

FELLOWSHIPS / HONORS

2022                Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland Inaugural Essay Prize

2019-22           Newman Fellowship in Irish History, University College Dublin

2018-19           Busteed Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Liverpool

2017                Old Library Visiting Fellowship, Irish College Paris / Centre Culturel Irlandais

2013                British Association for Irish Studies Postgraduate Bursary Award

2010                Peterhouse College Postgraduate Studentship Award

2010                Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award

2010                Cambridge Home and EU Scholarship Scheme Award

2010                Holland-Rose Studentship, Cambridge Faculty of History Trust Funds

2010                University of Cambridge Newton Research Grant

2009                Gold Medal for exceptional merit in degree exams, Trinity College Dublin

PUBLICATIONS

Editor, Black ’47: The Trevelyan Papers (Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, forthcoming)

‘Taming the channel: Technology, liberalism and the Irish Sea, 1845-52.’, in Ciaran McCabe (ed.) Dublin and the Great Famine (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2022)

Co-authored with Aidan Beatty, ‘Editor’s Introduction: Irish and World Histories’, Radical History Review, Special Issue: Irish and World Histories, 143 (May 2022), 1-14.

Co-editor with Aidan Beatty, Radical History Review, Special Issue: Irish and World Histories, 143 (May 2022), 1-212.

‘Imagining the railway revolution in pre-Famine Ireland: Technology, governance, and the Drummond Commission, 1832-39’, in Richard Butler (ed.) Dreams of the Future in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021), 258-282. [Winner of Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland Inaugural Essay Prize 2021-22]

Co-authored with Ann Leahy, ‘From the crash to Covid: Review of the social situation in Europe, 2007-2020’, European Research Series, Social Justice Ireland 13 (2021), 1-88.

“Wholesome regulation and unlimited freedom”: Governing market space in pre-Famine southern Ireland’, Urban History, 46:1 (2019), 21-43.

“Riding three horses at once”: The political economy of EU membership in Ireland, 1973-2018’, Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy, 27:2 (2019), 64-74.

“New Jerusalem”: Constructing Jewish space in Ireland, c. 1880-1914’, in Aidan Beatty (ed.) Jewish Questions and Irish Questions (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2018), 47-60.

‘Irish Elites: continuity and change, c. 1880-1923’ in John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, Mike Murphy and John Borgonovo (eds.) Atlas of the Irish Revolution (Cork: Cork University Press, 2017), 66-73.

Reviews

Review of Ciaran McCabe, Begging, Charity and Religion in Pre-Famine Ireland (Liverpool, 2018), Saothar: Journal of the Irish Labour History Society, 45, (2020), 122-124.

Review of Bradley Kadel, Drink and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Alcohol Trade and the Politics of the Irish Public House (Boston, 2015), The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 33:1 (2019), 153-155

Review of Frances McGee, The Archives of the valuation of Ireland 1830-65 (Dublin, 2018), Family and Community History 21:3 (2018), 241-243.

Review of Dermot Keogh and Ann Keogh, Bertram Windle: the Honan Bequest and the Modernisation of University College Cork, 1904-1919 (Cork, 2011), Irish Literary Supplement, (Spring, 2013), 21-22.