Academic biography

Jennifer Mooney is an Assistant Professor at the School of English, chair of the MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature degree programme, and co-director of the Centre for Research in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. 

Jennifer has published on Irish and international young adult literature. She is co-editor of the The Routledge Companion to Young Adult Literature (forthcoming 2026). Her monograph, Feminist Discourse in Irish Literature (2022), addresses the role of YA Irish literature in responding and contributing to some the most controversial and contemporary issues in today’s modern society: gender, and conflicting views of power, sexism, and consent. She is also a published creative writer, with expertise in playwrighting (stage and radio). Jennifer is president of The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature.

Research Interests

Research interests include children’s and young adult literature, particularly contemporary YA realism, genders and sexualities in YA literature and YA poetry.