Maggie O’Leary (B.A. University of North Dakota, M.A. Portland State University) is a doctoral student at Cornell University. Her work is in global/postcolonial literature and theory (most frequently in 20th and 21st century Irish literature and poetry), human rights, affect and theories of embodiment, and disability studies.

Working towards her dissertation, she anticipates a project in how a corporeal theory of hunger exerts pressure the conceptual limitations of human rights discourses by privileging “damaged” corporealities and centering disability as a material and affective organizing principle for a generative, flourishing politics.

To this effect, her work is often multi-disciplinary, inviting research in eating disorders and pathology particularly into an articulation of this theoretical orientation. You can download a copy of her most recent CV here.

Outside of academia, she enjoys writing creatively, knitting, hiking, horseback riding, and spending time with her aggressively fluffy cat.