A graduate of the University of Missouri, Dr. Cairney has an interest in travel, folklore, and cultural studies and has taught at universities in Turkey, Lebanon, Ecuador, and South Korea. He currently teaches courses in Romantic and Victorian Literature and Critical Theory. He has published one book, Clans and Families of Ireland and Scotland, an Ethnography of the Gael (1999), and has published articles on Byron, Conrad, Joyce, Orwell, Irish literature, Scottish literature, and the Gothic novel.