Paul A. Townend
Associate Professor & Chair
Department of History
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Wilmington, NC 28403
(910) 962-3308
townendp@uncw.edu
EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Ph.D. in British/Irish History, 1999
M.A., 1995
COLGATE UNIVERSITY
B.A. 1989, History with High Honors, Graduated Magna cum laude
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION
“Regenerating the Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Cork Total Abstinence Society, 1838-1848"
 Defended with Distinction, 2/4/99.
HONORS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Graduate
1997-98, Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellow
1989-90, Thomas J. Watson Fellow
Spent a year in Belfast, Northern Ireland, studying reconciliation/cross-community work and
working with a variety of community groups.
Undergraduate
Phi Beta Kappa; Phi Alpha Theta;
Dana Scholar; Picker Scholar
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2008-Present
UNCW History Department Chair. Elected to a second term, 2012.
August 2001-Present
Assistant Professor of British History, University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Associate from
2007. Teaching responsibilities include western civilization surveys, modern/early modern
Britain and Ireland, the Atlantic World, as well as the history of the British Empire.
Major University Committees served on
University Studies Advisory Committee (chair,); Faculty Senate Research Committee (chair); Faculty
Senate Curriculum Committee (chair); Search Committee, Associate Provost for Research and Dean of the
Graduate School; University College Assistant Dean search (chair); Undergraduate Studies University
Studies Director search; Honors College Assistant Director search; CAS Dean Cordle Review Committee
(chair); CSURF Advisory Board; CTE Advisory Board; Office of E-Learning Instructional Designer Search
Committee
History Representative, American Conference for Irish Studies Executive Committee, 2013-2015
Constituted Prize Committee for Donald Murphy Prize, 2013, 2014.
Spring 2008
Resident Director, UNCW Swansea study group. Led some 25 American university students from UNCW
and associated honors programs, on a study abroad experience at the University of Swansea, Wales.
Coordinated with UNCW office of International Programs, and worked closely with program staff in the
American Studies Department at Swansea University.
August 2005-2009
Undergraduate college advisor. Worked with 40-50 undergraduate undeclared advisees on course
selection and managing academic progress.
August 2004-2007
Undergraduate coordinator for UNCW’s History department. Responsible for curriculum
initiatives, approving new courses, and working with the chair and undergraduate committee in
structuring offerings and assessing/revising our program.
August 2000-August 2001
Arthur Ennis Fellow, Villanova University, Core Humanities Program.
June 1998-July 2000
Assistant Director, Office of Student Housing, University of Chicago. Supervised and coordinated
fifty residential staff in four undergraduate residence halls (approximately 1400 students,
supervised some 50 staff members). Also served as University Dean-on-Call.
September 1995-June 1996
Resident Head, University of Chicago, 5700 S. Stony Island Avenue. Supervised dormitory,
assisted in providing academic and social opportunities to resident undergraduates.
PUBLICATIONS
“A Cosmopolitan Nationalist: James J. O’Kelly in America” in Irish Imperial Cultures, ed. by
Michael De Nie, Tim McMahon, and Paul Townend (Forthcoming, Palgrave-MacMillan)
The Road to Home Rule: Anti-Imperialism, Disloyalty, and the Building of an Irish National
Movement, 1870-1885. Forthcoming, University of Wisconsin Press.
“Mathewite Temperance in Atlantic Perspective,” in The Irish in the Atlantic World, ed. by David
Gleeson, University of South Carolina Press (2010)
Instructor’s Resource Manual for The Making of the West (3rd ed.) by Lynn Hunt, et. al.,
Bedford/St. Martins (2008).
“No Imperial Privilege:” Justin McCarthy and the British Empire,” Eire/Ireland (Summer 2007).
“Between Two Worlds: Irish Nationalists and Imperial Crisis, 1878-1880,” Past and Present
(February 2007).
“Ireland” and “Home Rule” entries for the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World , Oxford
University Press (2008).
“’Heretical Plants of Irish Growth’: Catholic Critics of Mathewite Temperance,” The Catholic
Historical Review (October 2005).
“‘Academies of Nationality’ Reading Rooms and Irish National Movements,” in The Written Word
and Irish Historical Memory, 1870-1922, ed. by Lawrence M. McBride, Four Courts Press (2003).
Temperance, Father Mathew, and Irish Identity, Irish Academic Press (2002).
Awarded the American Conference on Irish Studies James Donnelly award for 2003 (Best Irish
history/social science book of 2002).
“The Irish Brewing and Distilling Industry,” entry for the Everything Irish Encyclopedia,
Ballantine Books (2003).
“Guinness,” “The Sacred Heart Total Abstinence Society,” and “James Haughton” entries for
Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia, ABC/Clio (2003)
“Father Mathew and the Cork Total Abstinence Society,” Entry for the Encyclopedia of the Irish
in America, Notre Dame Press (1999).
“The Irish Clergy and the Cork Total Abstinence Society, 1838-1848,” in the New Hibernia
Review (March 1999).
REVIEWS
Breandan Mac Suibhane’s Society and Manners in Early Nineteenth Century Ireland, (2011) for
Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2013.
Colin Barr’s The European Culture Wars in Ireland: The Callan Schools Affair 1868-81, 2010, for
JBS, 51:3 (2012)
Paul Connell’s The Diocese of Meath Under Bishop John Cantwell, 1830-66, Four Courts Press,
2004, for Catholic Historical Review 93:2 (2007)
Kevin Collin’s Catholic Churchmen and the Celtic Revival in Ireland, Four Courts Press, 2002, for
the Journal of Modern History 78:3 (2006)
James Flint’s Great Britain and the Holy See: The Diplomatic Relations Question, 1846-1852,
Catholic University of America Press, 2003, for The American Historical Review (June 2005)
Kirby Miller’s Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan, Oxford University Press, 2003 for the Irish
Literary Supplement (Fall 2005)
Frances Finnegan’s Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalen Asylums in Ireland, Cosgrave
Press, 2002, for Reviews of New Books. (Summer 2005)
Colin Barr’s Paul Cullen, John Henry Newman, and the Idea of an Irish University, Notre Dame
University Press, 2003, for the Journal of Modern History (Summer 2005)
Andrew Marx’s Faith in Nation, Oxford University Press, 2003, for the Journal of Interdisciplinary
History (Autumn 2005)
Garret Fitzgerald’s Reflections on the Irish State, Irish Academic Press, 2003, for the Irish Literary
Supplement (Fall 2004)
David Hudson’s The Ireland that We Made, University of Akron Press, 2003, for Reviews of New
Books (January 2004)
Michael Hopkinson's The Irish War of Independence, McGill-Queen's University Press: 2002, for
Albion (3/2004)
Ambrose Macauley's The Holy See, British Policy, and the Plan of Campaign in Ireland, 18851893, Four Courts Press, 2002, for Catholic Historical Review (October 2003)
Roger Swift's Irish Migrants in Britain, 1815-1914, Cork University Press: 2002, for Irish Literary
Supplement, (Spring 2003)
Janice Holmes' Religious Revivals in Britain and Ireland 1859-1905, Irish Academic Press: 2000,
for New Hibernia Review, (Winter 2002)
Marcus Tanner’s Ireland’s Holy Wars, Yale University Press, 2002, for Journal of Interdisciplinary
History, (Spring 2003).
Stephen Howe’s Ireland and Empire, Oxford University Press: 2000, for Albion, (3/2002).
Jacinta Prunty’s Lady of Charity, Sister of Faith: Margaret Aylward, 1810-1889, Four Courts Press:
1999, for the Catholic Historical Review (July 2000).
Judith Hill’s Irish Public Sculpture, Four Courts Press: 1997, for the New Hibernia Review
(Summer 1999).
LECTURES, CONFERENCE & WORKSHOP PAPERS
May 2015
“The State of Irish History Study,” organized and led a panel discussion at ACIS at University of Florida.
June 2014
“James Joseph O’Kelly: A Cosmopolitan Nationalist” at the American Conference on Irish Studies Annual
Meeting
March 2012
“The Siege of Tim Quinlan’s Castle: An Incident in the Land War” at the American Conference for Irish
Studies Annual Meeting
April 2011
“Triangulation: The Imperial Policies of the Irish Party” at the American Conference for Irish Studies
Annual Meeting
March 2007
”Mathewite Temperance in an Atlantic Context” at the College of Charleston’s Irish in the Atlantic World
Symposium.
April 2006
"'The Same Old Story': The Irish Party and Gladstonian Imperialism” at the American Conference
for Irish Studies annual meeting.
November 2005
”Cosmopolitanism: Consequences of the Irish Experience of Empire” presented at Boston
College’s History Department Workshop.
October 2005
“Integrating Physics and History in a First-Year Learning Community” presented at Association
of American Colleges and Universities annual meeting.
October 2005
”Reconciliation? Justin McCarthy and Imperial Sensibility”, presented at the North American
Conference on British Studies annual meeting
April 2005
Organized a panel on Ireland and the Union, and presented “Justin McCarthy and Empire” at the
American conference for Irish Studies annual meeting.
October 2004
Organized a panel on Ireland’s place in the 19th century British Empire (“Troubled Subjects”) and
presented Between Two Worlds: Irish Nationalists and Imperial Crisis, 1877-1880, North
American Conference for British Studies annual meeting.
June 2003
Organized a panel on aspects of the Irish temperance movement and presented Thomas Chisholm
Anstey, the Oxford Movement, and the Problem of Mathewite Temperance, American
Conference for Irish Studies annual meeting.
June 2002
Ireland and Empire: Nationalists Respond to the Zulu Wars, 1879-1881, American Conference for
Irish Studies annual meeting.
March 2002
Alcohol and the Irish: An Historical Perspective on an Enduring Stereotype, Phi Alpha Theta
Lecture Series, University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
February 2001
Father Mathew and the Irish Temperance Movement, presented for the Fordham University
Institute for Irish Studies lecture series.
May 1999
Chaired a panel at the annual American Conference on Irish Studies meeting.
October 1998
Daniel O’Connell and the Sober Men of Ireland. Northeast Conference on British Studies.
April 1998
The Roman Catholic Church and Father Mathew’s Movement, American Conference of Irish
Studies annual meeting.
April 1996
Temperance and Popular Practice in Pre-Famine Ireland, American Conference on Irish Studies
Annual meeting.
April 1994
Prologue to Partition: Ulster Unionism and the Third Home Rule Bill. Presented in the Modern
European History Workshop.
LANGUAGES
Good written and spoken French
MEMBERSHIPS
American Historical Association
American Conference on Irish Studies
North American Conference on British Studies
REFERENCES: On Request