Professor Helena Sheehan / home page

selected past articles

Grand narratives then and now: Can we still conceptualise history? Socialism and Democracy 12, 1998
The end of history? Grand narratives of our time. Times Change 1996
The end of his story. Graph 1992
America: symptoms of decline. The Irish Review 11, 1992
The parameters of the permissable: Scrap Saturday. Irish Communications Review 2, 1992
On public service broadcasting: against the tide. Irish Communications Review 2,1992
Writing and the zeitgeist. Irish University Review 21,1991
Reflections on Eastern Europe. Making Sense 1991
Of snails and Sisyphus. Graph 1991
Navigating the zeitgeist. Socialism in the World 13, 1989
Is television drama ideological? The Crane Bag 9, 1985

selected chapters

Helena Sheehan. Television drama as social history: the case of Fair City. Mapping Irish Media: Critical Explorations UCD Press 2007
John Horgan, Barbara O'Connor, Helena Sheehan. Introduction. Mapping Irish Media: Critical Explorations UCD Press 2007
Helena Sheehan. A Voice From the Dead (Introduction). Philosophical Arabesques by NI Bukharin Monthly Review Press 2005
Helena Sheehan. Marxism. Encyclopedia of Science Technology and Ethics MacMillan Reference 2005
Helena Sheehan. The Lysenko Case. Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics MacMillan Reference 2005
Helena Sheehan. John Desmond Bernal. Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics MacMillan Reference 2005
Helena Sheehan. John Desmond Bernal. Dictionary of Irish Philosophers Thoemmes Continuum 2004
Helena Sheehan. Television. The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture Blackwell 2001
E Holt and H Sheehan H. Television in Ireland. Television in Europe Intellect Books 1997
Helena Sheehan. Has the red flag fallen ? A Dozen LIPS Attic Press 1994
Helena Sheehan. Portrait of a Marxist as a Young Nun Marxism and Spirituality: An International Anthology Bergin & Garvey 1993
Helena Sheehan. The false dilemma of the 20th century Dialectical Materialism and Modern Science International Publishers 1978

pamphlets

COMMUNISM AND THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN Dublin: New Books, 1976 (German edition: Berlin, 1978)
HAS THE RED FLAG FALLEN ? THE FATE OF SOCIALISM IN THE 1990s Dublin: Attic Press, 1989
EUROPEAN SOCIALISM: A BLIND ALLEY OR A LONG AND WINDING ROAD ? Reflections on the Trajectory of History published with commentary by Proinsias De Rossa as EUROPEAN SOCIALISM: A NEW BEGINNING Dublin: MSF (trade union, now AMICUS) 1992

"Another tv drama is possible: The Wire" at Marxism 2008 conference (November 2008)
"Universities, social movements and market forces: the fate of philosophy" at UCD Philosophy Society (October 2008)
"Why the new interest in marxism and science?" at seminar on Marxism(s) and historiography of science at Université Paris 7 (March 2008)
"Identities, ideologies and intellectuals" at Forging identities conference at DCU (February 2008)
"Breakfast roll man, public space and planet of slums" at Ireland Institute for Historical and Cultural Studies (November 2007)
"Marxism and science: the historical drama, the contemporay conjucture" Historical Materialism conference at SOAS, University of London (November 2007)
"Marxism and the natural sciences" at Communist University of Britain at Ruskin House, Croydon (October 2007)
"Marxism in the 21st century" at Communist University of Britain at Ruskin House, Croydon (October 2007)
"The centenary of Christopher Caudwell and the philosophical landscape of the century" at Caudwell centenary conference sponsored by Marx Memorial Library, London (October 2007)
"The assault on scientific rationality: historical analysis and epistemological response" at conference on The assault on science: Constructing a response, 13th congress of European Council of Skeptical Organisations, Dublin (September 2007)
"Philosophy and science: connection, disconnection, consequences" public lecture sponsored by Irish Skeptics Society (June 2007)
"Marxism and the interpretation of science" at Institute of Historical Research, University of London (May 2007)
"Marxism and science: a sweep through the decades" at 34th annual philosophy of science conference at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik (April 2007)
"Universities, social movements and market forces" at All Africa House, University of Cape Town (March 2007)
"Identities, ideologies, market forces and social sciences" at Dept of Sociology, University of Cape Town (Feb 2007)
"Identities and ideologies: Are sociologists stenographers of the surface?” plenary address at Sociological Association of Ireland postgraduate conference (November 2006)
"Are the humanities threatened by the increasing commercialisation of universities?" (debate with president of DCU) at humanities festival at DCU (May 2006)
"Fair City and our fair city: soap opera and social order” at conference on Irish Media in Global and Local Contexts sponsored by Irish Media Research Network at DIT (June 2006)
“JD Bernal: philosophy, politics and the science of science” at JD Bernal: Science and Society sponsored by Institute of Physics in Ireland at Limerick Institute of Technology (June 2006)
"Marxism and science studies: from 1931 to now" conference on Scientists and Social Commitment at Science Museum London (September 2006)
"The influence of marxism on science studies" at Princeton seminar on Geopolitics, Marxism & 75 Years of Science Studies at Princeton University (March 2006) abstract & collage
"Speaking of the south: northern voices and southern realities" at conference on Education for Development in a Globalising World at DCU (March 2006)
"Teaching philosophy in the 21st century" at Royal Institute of Philosophy, Cardiff (March 2004)
"Cultures and transformation in post-apartheid South Africa" at Cultures in Conflict conference at DCU (February 2002)
"Philosophy and transformation" at conference of Philosophical Society of Southern Africa, University of Stellenbosch (January 2002)
"Politics and academe in the new South Africa" at DCU School of Communications staff seninar series (Nov 2001) and for MA in International Relations lecture series (April 2002)
"The legacy of the German Democratic Republic" at Trinity College Dublin for MPhil in Peace Studies course on Eastern Europe (January 2001)
"The rise of the repressed: where does South Africa fit into the picture ?" at All Africa House, University of Cape Town (March 2001)
"Transformation and academe: alternative paths" at Centre for Higher Education Development, University of Cape Town (April 2001)
"The history of philosophy: questions about class, race and gender" at Department of Philosophy, University of Cape Town (March 2001)
"The history of ideas and the other" at Cultures in Transition conference at DCU (February 2000)
"Class: defining it, debating it, dramatising it" at Understanding Class in Ireland conference at University College Dublin (December 1999)

Harvard University, Boston University, Temple University, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Bridgeport, Fairfield University, Villanova University, University of Toronto, York University, University of London, University of Cape Town, TCD, UCD, UCC, UCG, QUB, Maynooth, Safarik University Presov, USSR Academy of Sciences, GDR Academy of Sciences, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Political Science Association, Tito Political School Kumrovec, Interuniversity Centre of Postgraduate Studies Dubrovnik, Goethe Institut, Renner Instiut Vienna, Brecht Forum, NY Marxist School, Socialist Scholars Conference, Philosophical Society of Southern Africa, Science and Society (journal) , Irish Labour History Society, Society of Socialist Social Scientists, People's College, Kilkenny VEC, Media Association of Ireland, Irish Film Institute, RTE, Irish Philosophical Society, Philosophical Association of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Forfas, Comhlamh, Irish Writers Centre, Liberty Hall , European City of Culture (lecture series), Dublin Institute for Adult Education, Teacher's Club, Ballymun Job Centre, Peadar O'Donnell Centre for the Unemployed Galway, Arthouse Temple Bar, Association of Irish Humanists, Irish School of Ecumenics, University of Wales Cardiff, Princeton University, University of London, University of Paris, Ireland Institute

During the 2000-2001 academic year I was on sabbatical leave. During October 2000 I was in the USA (Philadelphia and New York) and November 2000 in Cuba (Havana) visiting universities and attending conferences. From February to April 2001 I was in South Africa at University of Cape Town as a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of the Humanities and a visiting associate at the Centre for Higher Education Development and in residence at All Africa House. I was doing research on academic transformation in South Africa. I produced a multimedia research report that I presented at DCU in Oct 2001. My interview with Jeremy Cronin, MP done in April 2001 and follow up interview done in January 2002 have caused considerable controversy within South Africa. I returned to South Africa for further research trips in 2002 and 2005. I was based at the University of the Witwatersrand in July-August 2002. During 2007 I was again on sabbatical at University of Cape Town. Based on this research, I have written "Contradictory transformations: observations on the intellectual dynamics of South African universities". I also spent time in Berlin and Dubrovnik investigating the fate of marxism in Eastern Europe.