Bradley J. Irish
Teacher and Researcher
early modern neurodiversity studies
early modern emotion
Bradley J. Irish is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Arizona State University.
He has taught and published widely on the literature and culture of 16th and 17th Century England, with a particular focus on the history of emotion.
As a recently-diagnosed autistic scholar, his research is now also considering matters of neurodiversity in early modern literature and culture, via the emerging field of
early modern neurodiversity studies. He also runs literaryneurodiversity.org.
He can be reached at bradley.irish@asu.edu, or by the Contact Form.
Latest Publications:
"Shakespeare, Neurological Identity, and Early Modern Neurodiversity Studies: A Neurological Approach to 'Character.'" Co-written with Melinda Marks. Shakespeare 22.1 (2026): 1-24.
Literary Neurodiversity Studies: Current and Future Directions. New York: Palgrave, 2025.
The Universality of Emotion: Perspectives from the Sciences and Humanities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
The Rivalrous Renaissance: Envy and Jealousy in Early Modern English Literature. New York: Routledge, 2025.
"Words in History of Emotion Research: Some (Slight) Limitations of the Lexical Approach." Emotions: History, Culture, Society (2025). Advance access doi: 10.1163/2208522x-bja10069
"Historical Neurodiversity Studies: A New Paradigm of Experience." History and Theory 64.3 (2025): 470-82.
“Ugly Words, Ugly Deeds, Ugly Faces: Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling and the Dynamics of Disgust.” Modern Philology 123.1 (2025): 24–45.
"Early Modern Neurodiversity: A Preliminary Research Agenda." Co-written with Bridget M. Bartlett. ELH 92.2 (2025): 461-93.
“Early Modern Neurodiversity Studies.” The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Ed. Sonya Freeman Loftis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.
