Political Science Faculty

Sean McGraw is a Comparative Political Scientist specializing in Irish politics. He earned his BA and MDiv from the University of Notre Dame, MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and his PhD from Harvard University. He currently teaches Irish and Comparative Politics at Boston College every fall semester. He has published three books on Irish politics including How Parties Win: Shaping the Irish Political Arena (University of Michigan Press, 2015), co-edited with Eoin O’Malley One Party Dominance: Fianna Fáil and Irish Politics 1926-2016 (Routledge, 2017) and co-authored with Jonathan Tiernan The Politics of Irish Primary Education: Reform in Era of Secularisation (Peter Lang, 2022). He has also published articles in numerous journals, including European Journal of Political Research ,Government and Opposition, Parliamentary Affairs, Irish Political Studies, Research in Comparative & International Education,  and Eire-Ireland: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies.

McGraw is the co-founder of the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program, which has formed thousands of teachers and leaders for service primarily in the United States, but also in Ireland, Chile, Haiti, Bangladesh, and East Africa. He has been partnering with the Benedictine Community at Kylemore Abbey in County Mayo, Ireland, for over ten years to create opportunities for Irish and American students and young adults to deepen their faith and spirituality in this place of deep peace and renewal. McGraw and his wife, Kristine Trustey, are active philanthropists in the mental health and educational sectors.