Kevin Murphy

Lecturer, Literatures in English
School: School of Humanities and Sciences
Phone: 607-274-3551
Office: Muller Faculty Center 332, Ithaca, NY 14850
Specialty: American Poetry and Modern Irish Literature

Kevin Murphy joined the Ithaca College Department of English in 1979 and retired in 2021.  Before coming to Ithaca, he also taught at Cornell University, Universite de Lille (Fulbright Lecturer), Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Seoul National University (Peace Corps Lecturer).  In Spring 2004, he was appointed the Robert Ryan Professor of Humanities and was designated Professor Emeritus in 2022. During his initial years with the department, he focused on courses of American poetry and American studies, offering seminars on Whitman and Dickinson, Modern American Poetry, and an interdisciplinary honors seminar, “The Eye of the Beholder: American Visions in 19th Century Literature, Architecture, and Painting.”   The latter part of his teaching at IC was focused on Modern Irish poetry, with a particular emphasis on W. B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney.  His seminar on James Joyce’s Ulysses was a regular offering as well.   Throughout his four decades in the department, he taught Introduction to Poetry, a survey course open to the entire college.

Courses Taught

  • American Writers Since 1890: The Status of Women in Modern American Fiction
  • Modern Irish Literature
  • The Eye of the Beholder: American Visions in 19th Century Literature, Architecture, and Painting (honors seminar) - Course Web Site
  • James Joyce's Ulysses (seminar)
  • American Poetry
  • Introduction to Poetry

Selected Publications