Bill Kissane was born in the Republic of Ireland in 1966 and lives in North London. After receiving a BA in Modern English and Sociology from Trinity College Dublin (1984-88), he received an MSc in Sociology (1992), and a PhD in Political Science (1998), from the London School of Economics.  Between 1988 and 1991 he worked as an English language teacher in Ireland, Spain, and Turkey. Since 1999 he has been a lecturer in Political Science at the Government Department of the London School of Economics.  He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006. He has also taught for Greenwich University, Helsinki University, the University of Notre Dame, and New York University.  His research interests lie broadly within the areas of comparative and Irish politics.
He is currently writing a book on  the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy in the Irish Republic, as well as undertaking a comparative study of regime formation after civil wars.

Website

Selected Publications

Books

• Explaining Irish Democracy. (University College Dublin Press: Dublin)
• 2005. The Politics of the Irish Civil War. (Oxford University Press: Oxford)

Articles

• 'Eamon de Valera and the survival of democracy in inter-war Ireland' Journal of Contemporary History, (forthcoming, 2008).
• 'The Comparative Study of Civil War: Toward a Dynamic Model', Centre for European and Asian Studies Report (2006/01), (co-authored with Nick Sitter), Norwegian School of Management.
• 'Civil Wars, Party Politics and the consolidation of regimes in twentieth century Europe', Democratization 9/2 (April, 2005) (co authored with Nick Sitter), pp. 183-202.
• 'Defending Democracy?: the legislative response to political extremism in the Irish Free State 1922-39', Irish Historical Studies, 124, (November 2004), pp.156-174.