1989 – 1993 University of Sussex, Brighton, UK 

BA in American Literature, 2.1 Hons. (4 year course; one year spent in the United States at Rutgers University, New Jersey). 

1995 – 1997 University of Brighton, Brighton, UK 

MA in Cultural Theory/Critical Study 

2008 – 2014 University of Sussex, Brighton, UK 

PhD in American Studies; Thesis on the novels of Cormac McCarthy. 

Dr. James (Jim) O’Sullivan is from England and of Irish descent. He graduated from the University of Sussex in 1994, with a BA Honours in American Literature. In 1995, he went across the road to the University of Brighton to study for an MA in Critical Study (Thesis on the French Marxist philosopher, Louis Althusser). After completing his MA, he temporarily left academia to work in an insurance company. It was a short-lived, unhappy employment. In 2000, he found work as a university ESL teacher in South Korea. For several years he taught at various university faculties until, in 2008, he took the position of non-native associate professor in English Language and Literature at Dongguk University, Seoul. He remained at Dongguk until Wenzhou-Kean came calling in the Summer of 2022. Aside from ESL subjects such as Composition, he has taught several Literature subjects at both undergraduate and postgraduate level; for example, British 20th Century Literature (undergraduate); Postcolonial Literature (Undergraduate); 19th Century Realism.  This background has proved very helpful in his role as composition and world literature instructor at WKU.  

In 2008, he began his PhD on the writings of Cormac McCarthy (Dissertation Title: Cormac McCarthy’s Cold Pastoral: The Dismantling of a National Allegory). This was completed in 2014. During this time, as well as after, he published several journal articles on Cormac McCarthy. In addition, he has presented several papers at conferences, most notably at the Kennedy Institute in Berlin and at the University of Warwick, England. In October 2024, he will be reading a paper at a prestigious conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. The paper is entitled: ‘Understanding Cormac McCarthy through Simone Weil’s Ethics of Suffering.’ This paper will form part of a chapter of a book that he intends to write about Cormac McCarthy.  

James has a wide range of interests. For his pains, he is a lifelong Manchester United fan and has been known to suffer from mild, fleeting depression when they lose. He is also a huge music fan; and, aside from an abiding admiration for Bob Dylan, an admiration that slightly irks his wife Lynn (she just doesn’t get it), he likes to keep up to date with contemporary musical trends. All in all, he is enjoying his time in WKU and China and plans to travel around the country much more in the near future. 

Forthcoming Conference – Knoxville, Tennessee – October 3-5. Conference Title: The Legacy of Cormac McCarthy. Paper: Understanding Cormac McCarthy through Simone Weil's Ethics of Suffering. 

I am currently preparing the above paper for journal publication. The paper will be submitted by the end of this year, 2024.  

1. The Journal of Modern English Drama. Volume. 26: No. 3. 26.3.2013. ISSN 1226-3397. 

‘The Disordering Impulse: Cormac McCarthy’s Anti-Play, The Stonemason. December 2013. ISSN 355-377. 

2. Cormac McCarthy's History Through a Glass Darkly: Blood Meridian as an Aesthetically Rational Response to a Darkening World. Dongguk Journal of Cultural Studies; 2010. ISSN 2005-5862. 

3. The Journal of Foreign Literature Studies. Co-Author with Professor Kim Sung Joong. ‘Did Wordsworth Lie About Lyrical Ballads? 2014.’  ISSN 1003-7519. 

4. The Journal of English Language and Literature. Vol. 62: No. 4. ‘All These Good Men’: Cornelius Suttree as Messiah of the Knoxville Netherworld in Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree. December 2016. Print: ISSN 1016-2283. Online: ISSN 2465-8545. 

5. The Cormac McCarthy Journal Volume 16 No 2. ‘Cormac McCarthy’s Allegories of Fragmentation.’Penn State University Press. 2018. ISSN 2333-3065 (W-ISSN 2333-3065) 

6. The Cormac McCarthy Society. ‘The Road and the Pastoral Dream of Pure Utility.’ To be published in the essay collection: Carrying the Fire: Cormac McCarthy's The Road and the Apocalyptic Tradition. 2020. ISBN 978-1-63315-553-4 

Conference Papers: 

1. Ellak Conference in Suwon, November 2008: Paper: ‘The Importance of Allegory as a Teaching Method in an Asian Classroom.’ 

2. Mapping Oblivion in The Road: America’s Last Adam and the End of American Exceptionalism; 2008. (Warwick University Conference) 

3. Ellak Conference in Gyeongju, November 2009. Paper: ‘No Direction Home: The Picaresque in Cormac McCarthy.’ 

4. The Lee Byeng Ju International Literary Festival, Kyunghee University. (2-4 October 2010): Paper; When History Rhymes: The Borderline Between Literature and History.’ 

5. Berlin Conference July 7-9 (Free University, Berlin) — “Crossroads and Transgressions: Cormac         McCarthy Between Worlds.” Paper: Cormac McCarthy’s Allegories of Fragmentation. 

6. Forthcoming Conference – Knoxville, Tennessee – October 3-5. Conference Title: The Legacy of Cormac McCarthy. Paper: Understanding Cormac McCarthy through Simone Weil's Ethics of Suffering. 

Composition: ENG1300, ENG1430, ENG2403-World Literature.