Maria Tymoczko has an international reputation in three fields: Translation Studies; Celtic medieval literature; and Irish Studies, with a specialty in literature in both Irish and English, including James Joyce. She is one of the leading theorists in Translation Studies, setting new directions for the field.
Her critical studies The Irish "Ulysses" (University of California Press, 1994) and Translation in a Postcolonial Context (St. Jerome Publishing, 1999) have both won prizes and commendations, the former co-winner of the 1995 Book Award for Literary and Cultural Criticism from the American Conference for Irish Studies and the latter receiving the Michael J. Durkan Prize for the best book published in Irish language and cultural studies from the American Conference for Irish Studies and selected by Choice magazine as one of the most important books published in 2000. Professor Tymoczko has edited several volumes including Born into a World at War (with Nancy Blackmun, 2000), Translation and Power (with Edwin Gentzler, 2002), Language and Tradition in Ireland (with Colin Ireland, 2003), Language and Identity in Twentieth-Century Irish Culture (with Colin Ireland, 2003; special issue of Éire-Ireland), and Translation as Resistance (2006, special section in the Massachusetts Review). Her most recent book is Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators (St. Jerome Publishing, 2007), a major reconceptualization of translation theory.
Professor Tymoczko has held grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies and she has been a Fulbright Scholar in France. In 2005-2006 she held a prestigious Samuel F. Conti Faculty Research Fellowship, awarded by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Maria Tymoczko has served as president of the Celtic Studies Association of North America and as a member of the Executive Committee of the American Conference for Irish Studies. She has lectured in many countries of the world including China, Japan, and India, as well as countries throughout Europe and the Americas.
Trained as a medievalist, Professor Tymoczko holds three degrees from Harvard University. She teaches a wide variety of subjects including translation theory and practice, modern and contemporary novel, postcolonial literature, fantasy literature, medieval literature, and early Irish language and literature.