JAMES M . SMITH  is an Associate Professor in the English Department and Irish Studies Program at Boston College. He has published articles in Signs, The Journal of the History of Sexuality, Éire-Ireland and ELH. His book, Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries and the nation’s architecture of containment  (U of Notre Dame Press) was published in 2007 and awarded The Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book by the American Conference for Irish Studies. Together with Maria Luddy, he recently co-edited a collection entitled Children, Childhood and Irish Society: 1500 to the Present (Four Courts, 2014). And, he edited Two National Tales: Maria Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent and Sydney Owenson’s The wild Irish girl (Houghton Mifflin, 2005 ). Smith serves on the Advisory Committee of Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR).