Richard B. Finnegan

Professor of Political Science; Director of the International and Irish Studies Programs

A.B., Stonehill College
M.A., Boston College
M.Ed., Harvard University
Ph.D., Florida State University

E-mail: rfinnegan@stonehill.edu
Phone: (508) 565-1135
Office: Martin Institute 219

A native of Boston, Richard Finnegan attended Stonehill College. His interest in Ireland developed in his early years at Stonehill and he subsequently spent two sabbatical leaves in Ireland in Dublin and in Galway.

He taught for Boston University in their overseas graduate program in International Relations teaching in Brussels, Berlin and Heidelberg. With generous grants from donors Finnegan and Professor James Wiles assembled and archive of Irish government documents from 1922 to the present the only such collection in the United States.

A Senior Fulbright Specialist 2001 he has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and University College Dublin. He has taught a course on Irish Politics at Harvard.

His grants include a Fulbright Award to China in 2006, A National Science Foundation, a Department of Education Title VIB, six National Endowment for the Humanities, and support from the Whiting Foundation twice.

He was awarded the Moreau Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the College on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary.

Fulbright Distinguished Chair, Department of Political Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic, Spring 2011.

Visiting Research Professor, Center for the Study of Religion Culture and Society, Catholic University of Leuven, Fall, 2010.

Outstanding Alumnus of the College, Selected by Alumni Council for 2010.

The author or coauthor of six books on Ireland.

Research Interests:
The development of democracy in Ireland in the twentieth century; the effects of education policy on Irish political development, a book on Irish politics since 1960 for Lynne Reinner Press.

Courses Taught:

PS 245 American Foreign Policy
PS 354 Irish Politics
PS 340 European Politics
PS 331 War
PS 249 Contemporary Global Conflict
Senior Capstone course