Ronan McDonald

Ronan McDonald is Gerry Higgins Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Melbourne. He writes on modernism, literary criticism, and questions of value, and is currently co-leading a research project on the history of English as a discipline. He is working on book about attention.

Works By Ronan McDonald

Discipline and Deflate
Few scholars have observed universities as closely as Stefan Collini. Yet, for Ronan McDonald, Collini’s scrupulous history of English studies skirts the systemic tensions and charismatic appeal of a discipline whose future hangs in the balance.
20 Feb. 2026