Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice

I am Emeritus Full Professor of Social Work in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. Before then I was Professor of Social Work in the School, Professor of Social Work in Goldsmiths, University of London, and taught and researched in Queens University Belfast. Prior to becoming an academic I was a mental health social worker in Northern Ireland.

I have two, broad teaching and research interests. The first is examines the fields of mental health social work and policy, with a particular focus on related socio-legal studies. The other is a longstanding interest in exploring the relationships between social work and political conflict, initially in the context of the Northern Irish conflict but latterly in wider,comparative terms. These interests are reflected in my publications profile on this site. 

Over my academic career I have gained considerable journal board and editorial experience. I was a member of the board of Social Work Education for around ten years, then the British Journal of Social Work for five years. From 2010 to 2015, I was co-editor of the British Journal of Social Work (with Professor John Pinkerton, Queens University Belfast). I am currently a board member of the Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Social Development. 

I have considerable past experience as external examiner for a number of social work programmes: University of Edinburgh, University of Birmingham University, University of Malta and the postgraduate programme in Trauma Studies, University College Cork. I am currently the external examiner for the Certificate in Peer Support Working in Mental Health, Dublin City University. In addition I am Departmental Academic Advisor of the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. I am also a member of the Assessment Panel for the Hong Kong Social Workers Registration Board.

I have been involved in a number of international research and teaching activities over these years, including co-leading on teaching exchanges between Queens University and Boston College, and Queens University and the University of Muenster. In 2016 I was international visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and in 2017 the University of Baroda, India. Crrently I am a member of the Flanders FWO Review College and evaluator for University of Helsinki funded doctoral doctoral scheme. In addition I  am a member of the quality assurance committee of Tusla (Irish Child and Family Agency) and trustee of the Northern Irish charity, Threshold. 

Dr Ausra Cizauskaite is a temporary Assistant Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at the University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. She received her PhD in social policy from University College Dublin. Prior to joining UCD, she worked as a Project Specialist/Adviser at the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania and as a Junior Researcher at Vilnius University. Her research focuses on childcare, family policy, work-life balance issues, and gender inequality by applying a social investment framework. 

Dr Micheál L. Collins is Assistant Professor of Social Policy and Head of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. Prior to joining UCD, he was Senior Economist at the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI). His research interests and publications are in the areas of income distribution and poverty, taxation, fiscal welfare, pensions, economic evaluation and public policy.

He was a member of Ireland’s Commission on Taxation (2008-2009), the Irish Government’s Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare (2011-2014) and served as the external member of the Irish Government’s interdepartmental group examining the reform of Ireland’s income tax and social insurance system (2017-18). He is a former member of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (2015-2021) and a former chair of the Irish Social Policy Association (ISPA) and the Regional Studies Association (RSA) of Ireland. Micheál is current coordinator of the European Social Survey Round 11 in Ireland and the Irish representative on the EU-wide Cost Action PROFEEDBACK (Policy Evaluation EU COST action 20112).

Micheál is currently a member of the TCD Pensions Policy Research Group, Ireland’s Living Wage Technical Group and a fellow of the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy. He is a fellow of the Regional Studies Association (FeRSA)

Follow me on twitter: @MLGCollins

I qualified as a professional social worker in 1998 and began my social work career as a Residential Social Worker in the North of Ireland before moving on to work as a Resettlement Officer with Dublin Simon Community. I began work as a Medical Social Worker in Tallaght University Hospital in 2000, where I worked as a Senior Social Work Practitioner for 3 years and as a Social Work Team Leader/Research Social Worker for 6 years, primarily specialising in Neurology and Age-Related Healthcare.

 In 2007, I was seconded to carry out research for Trinity College Dublin/Tallaght University Hospital on behalf of the 'Care and Connect Project'. This research contributed to the completion of a PhD which was part-funded by the Living with Dementia Programme, TCD (Atlantic Philanthropies) and the Adelaide Society, Tallaght University Hospital. A major output from the Care and Connect Project was the development and publishing of a booklet, 'Care Planning Meetings: Best Practice Guidelines for Healthcare Professionals'. 

In February 2013, I was awarded Research Associate status at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, TCD.

 I have been employed as an Assistant Professor of Social Work in UCD since 2014 and was awarded tenure in August 2016. In February 2024, I was promoted to Associate Professor.

 I am the Academic Advisor on adult safeguarding to the Irish Association of Social Workers, Coordinator of UCD's Ageing Network (UCAN) and a Board Member and Research Committee Member of Care Alliance Ireland.

 I welcome applications from Masters and PhD Students, particularly relating to the following topics/areas: Ageing, Dementia, Palliative Care, Adult Safeguarding, Family Carers, Capacity and Decision-Making, Action Research, Practitioner Research, Participatory Action Research and Care Planning Meetings.

I am an Assistant Professor of Social Policy (formerly an Ad Astra Fellow). My previous roles include Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy, University of Oxford and Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the FP7 Funded project RESCuE: Citizens’ Resilience in Times of Crisis.

My research is centred on three core, interconnected themes: socio-economic resilience the politics and ideology of social citizenship, and the political economy of modern welfare states. My area focus is Ireland, the UK and Europe (EU and continent). In my work, I explore how individuals, communities, and governments respond to – and construct – crises of various scales and subjects, and what these responses reveal about the changing nature of social rights and social/public policy. My current research agenda has two core elements: shaping the scholarly and policy discourse on resilience, and developing novel perspectives on Social Citizenship in Europe, both in the context of the EU and the European continent.

Current and recent funded projects include a study on “Just Resilience” in Ireland and internationally, and research that examined the dynamics and prospects of Public Participation Networks on local policymaking and democratic participation in Ireland. I am currently editing a book entitled A Research Agenda for Resilience in Social and Public Policy (Edward Elgar, 2026). Recent work on resilience, social cohesion, social citizenship and the political economy of welfare has appeared in journals such as West European Politics, New Political Economy, The Journal of Social Policy, Critical Social Policy, Journal of European Social Policy, Social Policy and Society, The Sociological Review, and Political Studies. I also co-edited the open access book Whither Social Rights in (post-) Brexit Europe? (Social Europe Publishing).

My record of impact and public engagement includes providing evidence to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection on auto-enrolment of pensions; Covid-19 social impact scenario planning for the UK Cabinet Office, a review of social cohesion policy for The British Academy, and engagement with the UK’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. My public engagement activities also include engaging with print, television and online media, including The New York Times, ABC Australia, NPR, Sky News, and CBS.

I would be delighted to discuss potential PhD projects with prospective applicants who share any of the above interests.

Anastasia obtained her PhD from the University of Konstanz, Germany in 2018, where she developed expertise in European Union governance and institutional analysis. She subsequently spent two years at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Fellow in the Department of Government, contributing to modules on comparative politics. Following this, she joined the prestigious Horizon 2020 project "EUINACTION" as a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University, the Netherlands, where she investigated the dynamics of European integration and institutional responsiveness.

Prior to joining UCD as an Ad Astra Fellow, Anastasia held a lectureship in Public Policy at Queen's University Belfast, where she taught courses on International Public policy, policy-making and policy analysis while developing her research portfolio.

Her research broadly focuses on three interconnected areas: policy responsiveness to public opinion across different institutional contexts, delegation dynamics between the EU and member states, and the complex relationship between policymaking effectiveness, efficiency, and politicization processes.

Anastasia's work combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine how democratic institutions respond to citizen preferences and how delegation mechanisms shape policy outcomes. Her research has contributed to understanding the evolving nature of European governance, particularly regarding how institutional design affects both policy effectiveness and democratic accountability.

Marie Keenan is Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Restorative Justice at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin. She is a criminologist, restorative justice practitioner, forensic psychotherapist and was previously a registered social worker. She is Member of the HEA Advisory Group on Sexual Violence and Harassment in Higher Education Institutions;  Member of the Institutional Abuse Working Group and the Law and Restorative Justice Working Group of the European Forum for Restorative Justice and a Member of UCD's Geary Institute for Public Policy. She was Chair and Principal Investigator for UCD's Sexual Exploitation Research Programme until 2024. Previously Prof Keenan worked as social worker in child protection, in adult and adolescent mental health and in the Irish Probation service (based at the Training Unit, Mountjoy Prison); as a forensic and systemic psychotherapist at the Rutland residential addiction treatment centre and in independent practice with victim /survivors of sexual crime and their families. She was one of three people instrumental in establishing the Granada Institute in Dublin for the treatment of men who had perpetrated sexual abuse against minors, where she was a consultant and Coordinator of the Treatment programme. She has served on several statutory boards and professional bodies in Ireland and internationally in relation to sexual violence and abuse. She is recognised as a leading international scholar on Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church; Sexual Violence and Restorative Justice and Institutional Abuses. Her scholarship is multi-disciplinary and international. She has taught and led specialist workshops and presented her research in Ireland, The United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland, Estonia, Spain, Italy, The United States of America, Australia and South Africa.

Her main publications include:

Keenan, M (2012) Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organisational Culture, New York: Oxford University Press;

Keenan, M. & Zinsstag, E. (2022) Sexual Violence and Restorative Justice: Addressing the Justice Gap, OUP;

McAlinden AM., Keenan, M & Gallen J. (2025), Transforming Justice Responses to Non-Recent Institutional Abuses (OUP), Winner Book Prize European Society of Criminology, 2026;

Claffey P. Egan. J. & Keenan, M. (Eds.) (2013) Broken Faith: Why Hope Matters? Peter Lang;

Keenan M. (2014) Sexual Trauma and Abuse: Restorative and Transformative Possibilities? Dublin: UCD;

Zinsstag, E. & Keenan, M. (2017) (Eds). Restorative Responses to Sexual Violence: Legal, Social and Therapeutic Dimensions, Routledge. 

Aersten, I., Keenan, M., Mazzucato, C. & Varona Martinez, G. (Eds) (forthcoming 2026). Abuse in Organizations and Restorative Justice. Leiden:  De Gruyter Brill

She acted as clinical and restorative justice consultant to an award winning full length feature film on sexual violence and restorative justice, based on a true story, 'The Meeting' see www.themeetingfilm.com.

She also advised on a theatre play 'Stronger' on one woman's journey through criminal justice and restorative justice after a sexual assault, inspired by a true story, see https://dublintheatrefestival.ie/programme/festival-plus/stronger

Prof Keenan was a recipient of a Teaching Excellence Award, College Social Science and Law, UCD, 2020
She was Runner Up, Research Impact Case Study Competition, UCD, 2020

Orla Kelly is an Assistant Professor in Social Policy at the UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. She specialises in studying sustainable human well-being, eco-social policies, sustainable development, and the social dimensions of climate change. She has expertise in quantitative research and in mixed-methods research.

Dr Kelly is the Principal Investigator of a research pilot exploring the economic, social and environmental impacts of reduced worktime in Ireland. She is also part of the international academic research team investigating the impacts of reduced worktime trials being led by the 4-day Workweek Global campaign across the UK, USA and Australia. 

In 2020, Dr Kelly received funding from the Worldwide Universities Network to lead an international consortium of academics investigating how universities can drive climate action.

She previously worked as a Research Associate (2010-2015) and a Research Fellow (2015-2020) at the FXB Centre for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University.

She received her PhD in environmental sociology from Boston College. She holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, and an MSc in International Business from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as Social Forces, Sustainability Science, International Journal of Educational Development, and Human Rights Quarterly.

Dr Mary Kennedy is an Assistant Professor in Social Work and Programme Director of the Professional Master of Social Work in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at University College Dublin (UCD). She is also a member of the UCD Child Safeguarding Committee. Before joining UCD, Mary was an Assistant Lecturer in Social Care in the Department of Humanities at South East Technological University (SETU), Carlow Campus. She has also taught in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where she additionally held several research posts within the Trinity Research in Childhood Centre and the School of Psychology. Mary completed her PhD in Social Work in Spring 2023. Her doctoral research comprised a case study examining the use of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) survey to inform service development within a social care organisation.

A graduate of UCD’s social work programme, Mary has extensive post-qualification practice experience across a range of settings, including acute adult inpatient and outpatient mental health services, crisis intervention, child protection, and general medical and palliative care social work. Her qualifications include a Professional Master of Social Science in Social Work, a Postgraduate Diploma in Child Protection and Welfare, and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Applied Social Studies (Social Care). Before qualifying as a social worker, Mary worked in several social care roles, including cultural integration services, children’s residential care, intellectual disability services, and project work. These experiences continue to inform her teaching, research, and professional practice.

In June 2023, Mary was appointed to Ireland’s multi-professional health and social care regulator, CORU, as a member of the Social Work Registration Board, where she holds the position of person engaged in the State in the education and training of persons in social work practice. In this role, she works with fellow Board members to establish and maintain the register for the social work profession, recognise qualifications obtained outside the State, and approve and monitor education and training programmes for entry to the register.

Nao Kodate is Professor in Social Policy and Welfare Technology. He will resume the Directorship role for the UCD Masters of Public Policy (MPP) Programme in January 2027. In UCD, he is a Research Fellow of the Geary Institute for Public Policy, UCD Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Education and Innovation in Health Systems (IRIS Centre), UCD Centre for Integrated Community Care, and the AI Healthcare Hub. He co-founded the UCD Japan Group, which led to the establishment of the UCD Centre for Japanese Studies in 2020, and served as its Director between 2020 and 2027. Nao is currently serving on two university-wide committees - the UCD Languages for Life Committee & the UCD East Asia Engagement Working Group.    

Nao holds a BA (International Relations, College of Arts and Sciences) and LL.M (Graduate School of Law and Politics) from the University of Tokyo (UT), and MSc in European Politics and Policy, and a PhD in Political Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His PhD thesis "Institutional logics and responsive government: hospital sector reforms in England, Japan and Sweden 1990-2006" (supervised by Profs. Martin Lodge (LSE) & Simon Hix (European University Institute)) investigated various patterns of policy-making in healthcare with a particular focus on risk, regulation and political accountability.

Outside of UCD, he is Adjunct Research Professor at the Center for Frontier Medical Engineering, Chiba University, Japan and a research affiliate with the Centre for Studies in Population and Development, Christ University, ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು (Bengalūru), India and the Institute for Regional Symbiotic Welfare, Nagano University, Japan. He is also affiliated with the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives, Hokkaido University's Public Policy Research Center as well as the Universal Accessibility & Ageing Research Centre, Nishi-Tokyo (UA アーク). 

His research straddles comparative healthcare politics and policy, and science & technology studies (STS). Key themes include: care and caring, health services research, systems thinking, safety & care quality, social robotics, welfare technologies, implementation science, and organizational learning. His recent research projects have been looking at the impact of digitalization and eHealth (e.g. robots) on care, patient safety regulation (e.g. incident reporting systems), and gender equality in science and technology education. His books include "Japanese Women in Science and Engineering: History and Policy Change" (Routledge, 2015), "New International Handbook on Social Welfare in UK & Ireland" (旬報社, 2019, in Japanese), and "Systems Thinking for Global Health" (Oxford University Press, 2022). He co-produced a documentary film "Circuits of Care: Ageing and Japan's Robot Revolution" (2021). He has successfully obtained competitive research funding and led international and interdisciplinary research projects, working with engineers, scientists, healthcare professionals, social scientists, anthropologists, linguists and historians.

Nao is a member of the Advisory Group, which is part of the Cambridge and RAND Europe National Evaluation Team (CARE-NET) Programme, the UK, the Dementia Research Network Ireland, the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) and the Board of Academic Directors, the Japanese Society for Wellbeing Science and Assistive Technology (日本生活支援工学会). He has been contributing to various international research projects on robotics-aided care systems, one of which is funded by the Toyota Central R&D Labs. He is taking part in a project "Research and development of a human resource education/training program for assistive welfare devices" funded by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2024-).

Nao led the Japan Foundation-sponsored project "Ireland-Japan Social Science Symposia: Sharing knowledge, shaping the future of the welfare society in Europe and Japan" (2014-15), which brought together researchers from UCD, UT and Trinity College Dublin. He was also the PI on several other multidiciplinary & international research projects such as "Comparative analysis of patient safety systems: from the perspective of life cycle of incident data" (2016-20) funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and "Harmonization towards the establishment of Person-centered, Robotics-aided Care System (HARP: RoCS)" (2019-22) funded by the Toyota Foundation. 

Between February 2021 and August 2024, Nao was the Director of Research for the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. Prior to that, he served as the Director for Internationalization for the School, and brought many new academic partnerships to the School, College and University including UT. He was successful in obtaining Erasmus+ICM with the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2018) and Hokkaido University twice (2018 & 2022). In the area of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Nao contributed to the university's Athena SWAN Steering Group, and its subgroup ‘Organizational Culture’ (2015-17), and represented the College of Social Sciences and Law on the EDI Group, and its subgroup ‘Ethnic Diversity’ (2015-18). Nao was the Social Science lead on the Asia-Pacific Research Network Group in the university (2019-2021). 

Before joining UCD, he was a researcher at the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Research (King's Patient Safety and Service Quality Research Centre - Risk Programme), and the University of Tokyo, Japan. He studied at Monash University, Australia, worked as a DAAD researcher (Universität Potsdam, Germany), and a visiting researcher at EHESS (l'Institut de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux sociaux, IRIS, France), SCORE (Stockholms centrum för forskning om offentlig sektor, Sweden) and HSMC Health Services Management Centre, the University of Birmingham, the UK.

He has taught at King's College London, LSE, Universität Potsdam, Hokkaido University, University of Tokyo, EHESS (the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, France), Trinity College Dublin, Nihon Fukushi University (University of Social Welfare in Japan), Meiji University, Seijo University, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga University of Medical Science and Nagano University. He was a recipient of the UCD College of Social Sciences & Law Teaching Excellence Award in 2024.

Anyone interested in pursuing research in the above-mentioned research areas is warmly welcome to contact him.

Nao's current PhD students are working on the following themes: psychosocial impact of living with rare diseases in the island of Ireland, assistive technologies in rural Japan, use of digital technologies to support intergenerational relations in India and Ireland, and professional regulation of veterinary nursing in Ireland.

Former PhD/DGov students:
Dr Matthew Lynch: ‘How can the Pharmacy Profession be “Better Regulated”? Perceptions of Pharmacists in Community Practice’
Dr Anne Gallen: ‘Quality Improvement and Safety Competence of Practising Nurses and Midwives in the Health Service Executive Ireland’
Dr Carol Ellis: ‘A Sociological Exploration of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Ireland’
Dr Sarah Craig: ‘The State of Health Information in Ireland: A Socio-technical Analysis’

My office hours during term times are usually Thu 14-15. Book your time slot up to 45 days in advance here. https://calendar.app.google/GD8ToMdU7Ae7ZUqk6

I have joined UCD after having worked in the UK (Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Dundee) and Germany (University of Bremen) as well as research visits in Sweden (University of Stockholm, Linnaeus University/Växjö). I had held visiting professorships at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland, 18/19) and Trinity College Dublin (Spring 22). During 2022-23 I had been Senior Research Fellow at the HWK Institute for Advanced Study (Bremen, Germany).

Currently, I am the co-director of the Issue Network on Housing and Social Policy, funded by the German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research. Since 2026 I am member of the Ethics, Politics, Law and Philosophy multidisciplinary committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

I teach across the social sciences in our flagship undergraduate programme BSocSc Social Policy & Sociology (DN750) and the international Master of Public Policy (www.ucd.ie/publicpolicy).

My research interest lies in the area of comparative social policy with in-depth knowledge of the welfare states in Ireland, Germany and Sweden. A particular focus of my research is in the privatisation of social policy and welfare markets which ranges from private pensions to housing wealth, asset-based welfare and private school choices. In my PhD I have compared the governance, politics and regulation of welfare markets. Since then, I have moved towards studying the individual and household behaviour in markets and responses to the demands of choice, such as choosing between private schools, managing private pension portfolios, planning for long term care or considering occupational welfare. This also includes how intergenerational transfers are used over the life course and how families fall out over inheritances.

More recently, I have been researching the implementation of active labour market policies, paternity leave, the Irish Fair Deal and benefit non-take-up in the context of the Working Family Payment. 

I welcome applications of PhD students in these areas and will facilitate visiting fellowships and guest researchers. Before reaching out, I recommend to read my publications in the areas you are interested in.

You can access most of my recent publications as open access, but older publications are often behind a paywall. You can access most of these via ResarchGate or simply write a brief email and I will send you the pdf.


Deutsch / German
Seit 2015 forsche ich am Institut für Sozialpolitik, Sozialarbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit des University College Dublin. Dort lehre ich vergleichende Wohlfahrtstaatsforschung in den Themenbereichen soziale Sicherung, soziale Ungleichheit, soziale Dienste und Politikfeldanalyse. Außerdem lehre ich qualitative und quantitative Methoden in unserem Bachelor Sozialpolitik und Soziologie ebenso wie unserem Master Politikfeldanalyse und öffentliche Verwaltung. 
Meine Forschung beschäftigt sich mit Wohlfahrtsmärkten und der Privatisierung von Wohlfahrtsprogrammen. Dabei untersuche ich sowohl politikwissenschaftliche als auch soziologische Fragestellungen. Einerseits interessieren mich Marktreformen und wie Wohlfahrtsmärkte reguliert werden, anderseits untersuche ich die Verteilungseffekte von privaten Wohlfahrtsprogrammen. Meine sozialpolitische Expertise erstreckt sich über mehrere Politikfelder (Rente, Bildung, Schulen, Wohnungswesen), Länder (Irland, Großbritannien, Schottland, Deutschland, Schweden) und Methoden (qualitativ und quantitativ, Sequenzanalyse, Diskursanalyse, Netzwerkanalyse).
Meine aktuellere Forschung untersucht Mehrkindfamilien, Familienpolitik (u.a. Vätermonate beim Elterngeld) und Nichtinanspruchnahme von bedarfsgeprüften Leistungen.
Doktoranden, die an obigen Themengebieten arbeiten, sind bei uns immer herzlich willkommen, sowohl zum kompletten Studium als auch für Gastaufenthalte, gerne auch für Forschungsanträge wie z.B. MSCA. Ich empfehle einfach meine aktuellen Veröffentlichungen oder Vorträge zu lesen und mich dann zu kontaktieren.
Medienanfragen zur politischen Situation in Irland sowie allgemeinen gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Fragen sind auch willkommen. Meine Schwerpunkte liegen naheliegend im Bereich Wahlen, (sozial-)politischen Reformen und sozialer Ungleichheit. 

Dr Chrysi Kyratsou currently works as a Researcher on the EU-funded project Equal House, University College Dublin School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. She was previously a Postdoctoral Researcher Fellow at the Research Ireland funded MUSPACE project, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, and before that, she held an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University College Dublin School of Music. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Queen’s University Belfast (research project funded by a Northern Bridge DTP-AHRC Studentship), and degrees in Musicology & Music Education, and Ethnomusicology. Her research interests comprise musicking, encounters, (im)mobilities, (non)belonging, inclusion and inclusivity, (non)citizenship, refugeehood, asylum seeking, and creative practices. She works with qualitative, ethnographic, and arts-based methods.

Chrysi’s fieldwork research into refugees’ sheltering in reception centres explores how refugees’ aesthetic agencies are informed by their shifting backgrounds in which they live, how they shape their sociality, and how they can foster and enact potentials for multiple inclusions.

Mary McAuliffe is a historian, lecturer, and Director of Gender Studies at UCD. She specialises in Irish women's / gender history, trauma histories of gendered and sexual violence of Ireland's revolutionary period, and histories of sexualities. She completed her BA (Hons), MA, and PhD at the School of History and Humanities, Trinity College, Dublin (TCD). Her most recent publications are 'The Civil War in Kerry and Beyond; Histories, memories and legacies' (Four Courts Press, 2025, co-edted with Bridget McAuliffe and Owe O'Shea, Jennifer Redmond & Mary McAuliffe (eds) The politics of gender and sexuality in modern Ireland; A Reader (Four Courts Press, 2024) https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2024/the-politics-of-gender-and-sexuality-in-modern-ireland/ and Mary McAuliffe & Harriet Wheelock The Diaries of Kathleen Lynn - A Life Revealed through Personal Writing, UCD Press 2023, https://www.ucdpress.ie/display.asp?isbn=9781910820018&

She also published a biography of the feminist, trade union activist, and revolutionary woman, Margaret Skinnider (UCD Press, 2020). She is co-editor, with Emilie Pine (UCD) and Miriam Haughton (NUIG), of 'Commemoration, Gender and the Postcolonial Carceral State', published by Manchester University Press in November 2021. She is the co-author on 'We were There; 77 Women of the Easter Rising' (Four Courts, 2016) and co-editor of 'Kerry 1916; Histories and Legacies of the Easter Rising' (IHP, 2016) and has published widely on aspects of Irish women's history, gendered and sexual violence in war, memory, and history, social and political history, public history.

Other publications include 'Irish Homes and Irish Hearts' (Fanny Taylor, 1867) -edited and introduced (UCD Press Classic series, 2013). She co-edited the 'Palgrave Advances in Irish History'. (2010) and she published a biography on 'Senator Kathleen Browne 1876-1943' (2009)., 'Richmond Barracks 1916: We Were There, 77 Women of the Easter Rising' was chosen by Dublin Public Libraries as its featured book of the 2016 commemoration of the 1916 Rising. Her ongoing project is on gendered and sexual violence during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, and that will be published in 2022. 
She has been involved in several public history projects, including the 1916 exhibitions and commemorative quilt project at Richmond Barracks and the 1916 centenary exhibition at the Royal College of Surgeons. She coordinated the 2014 commemoration conference of the centenary of the founding of Cumann na mBan (1914) in association with the Dept of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and the WHAI. She was a member of the National Museum of Ireland Decade of Centenaries Commemoration Advisory Committee. She co-organised WHAI2021 at UCD - 'Besieged bodies: Gendered violence, sexualities and motherhood' which featured 4 keynote addresses, 12 panels, and 50 papers on Women's and Gender Histories.
She was President of the Women's History Association of Ireland (2011-2014) and continues on as a committee member of the WHAI (https://womenshistoryassociation.com/ ). She is also a member of the UCD Humanities Institute
( https://www.ucd.ie/humanities/people/academicmembership/#d.en.70638) and is on the executive committee of the UCD Centre for Gender, Feminisms, and Sexualities (CGFS - https://cgfs.ie/).

She is on the advisory committee on the representation of women's stories in the National Cultural Institutions. She is also on the advisory board of the Irish Association of Professional Historians (www.iaph.ie) and is a past President of the Women's History Association of Ireland (WHAI).

As well as publications, she contributes to documentaries, radio, TV, news media, and has an active online presence at @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social and on LinkedIn.  She was most recently a consultant and contributor to the groundbreaking documentary on gendered and sexual violence against women in the Irish War of Independence and Civil War - 'Cogadh ar Mhna/War on Women' and Croíthe Radacacha/Radical Hearts, a TG4 documentary on 8 queer female couples at the heart of the Irish revolutionary period. 

 
Mary is module leader on SSJ20110 Gender, Power and Politics,  Gender War and Violence (SSJ30070), and SSJ10070 Exploring Gender, and at the postgraduate level, Gender, Sexuality, and the Body; The Politics of Belonging (GS40110),

She would welcome proposals from potential PhD students on topics including: Irish gender/women's history, feminism and feminist histories, memory studies, social and political history, war and revolution, feminist activism, and politics.

 
Professional work: Historical/ Heritage Research. Documentary (Film, TV, Radio) Research.

Joe is Assistant Professor of Social Work at University College Dublin and has a specific focus on child welfare and protection social work. He is a professionally qualified and CORU registered Social Worker with previous professional backgrounds in both child protection (holding an MA in Social Work from University of Galway) and law (holding an LLB in Irish Law from Griffith College Dublin). Joe was awarded his PhD at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre under the supervision of Professor Caroline McGregor (Skehill) and externally examined by Professor Ramona Alaggia of the University of Toronto. He aslo holds a PG Dip in Teaching and Learning. 

Joe maintains a strong research and publication track record in the areas of child protection and disclosure of sexual abuse and trauma. His research agenda over the past decade involves adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, disclosure, and child protection practice, policy, and law.

Joe adopts a value-led approach to his research and teaching, working from a strong belief in social justice, and heavily influenced by an ethic of care, empowerment of humanity, and taking a socio-ecological and life course perspective on issues impacting society. He is committed to value-led research excellence and impact within a specific research signature and conducts research at NGO, State body, Departmental, and international consortium levels. 

His research interests include disclosure of childhood trauma; child sexual abuse; child welfare and protection systems, practice, policy and law. 

Joe is the current Director of Teaching and Learning for the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. He sits on the exectuive board of the journal, Child Care in Practice, and is a former Co-Chair of the UCD Humanities Research Ethics Committee and former Board Member of One in Four. 

Joe's current work focuses on the production of a monograph which presents the thesis of examining disclosure through a social model. He also currently supervises PhD candidates in the areas of adult dislcosures and sytemic child protection responses, humaniatrian responses to child abuse and exploitation, and school-based social work responses to bullying.

Marie Moran is Associate Professor in Equality Studies at the UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, and Director of the UCD Equality Studies Centre. Her work focuses on theorising equality as both a subject of critical inquiry and a practical imperative for education, politics and public life. She has published on a wide range of contemporary political and cultural issues from an egalitarian perspective, including identity and identity politics, the return of elites, populism, the cultural politics of inequality, and the role of universities in in reproducing or resisting inequality.

Marie is the author of Identity and Capitalism (Sage, 2015), and is currently working on two further books: No Kings! Elites and Left Politics (Verso, 2026) and Equality in the 21st Century (Polity). Her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including The Sociological Review, European Journal of Social Theory, Historical Materialism, British Journal of Sociology of Education, and European Journal of Cultural Studies. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2021–22, and returned as a Havens Wright Visiting Fellow in 2025.

At UCD, Marie teaches across the Equality Studies and Social Justice programmes, with a focus on critical social theory, social movements, and egalitarian political thought. She has held several leadership roles in Equality Studies, including Head of Subject, Director of Graduate Programmes and Director of the Equality Studies Centre. In these roles she has led curriculum development, expanded interdisciplinary collaboration, and built an active university-wide network of scholars working on equality-related research. With her colleague Judy Walsh, she has won a College Teaching Award for embedding Social Justice as a university-wide subject.

Marie is a member of a number of international research networks, including the Critical Political Economy Research Network, and is currently co-convenor of the People, Work, Society Research Cluster at the UCD Earth Institute. She previously served as the co-convenor of the Political Theory Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association of Ireland, and was a executive member of the British and Irish Association for Political Thought, including co-convening the BIAPT Oxford Political Thought Conference in 2022. She is an editorial or advisory board member of The European Journal of Cultural Studies, the Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, and Global Political Economy.

Marie has an interdisciplinary background, with a degree in English Literature and Psychology from Trinity College Dublin, and an MSc and an IRC-funded PhD in Equality Studies, combining sociology, political theory, cultural studies and political economy. Marie is interested in supervising doctoral research across these areas, with a focus on in/equality, with a special interest in working with students on critical social theory, elite studies, ideology and discourse in capitalist societies, social movements, and egalitarian political thought.

Dr Sarah Morton is Director of the Community Partnership Drugs Programme and Assistant Professor in Community Engagement in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin. She holds a PhD from the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice, University of Bath. She has extensive experience in policy, practice and outcome evaluation in relation to addressing complex issues including substance use and domestic and sexual violence. Over the previous ten years, she has focussed on the interplay of domestic violence and substance use in families, as well as leading organisation-based and international research and practice development in relation to drugs, alcohol and policy development. In 2020 she was joint recipient of the European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities and Vice Principal for Teaching and Learning for the College of Social Science and Law 2021-2024.  Recent policy development contributions have included; joint author of the Council of Europe Implementing a Gender Approach in Drug Policies (2022) handbook; and a member of the National Oversight Committee for Ireland’s National Drug Strategy (NDS) from 2022 to 2024; and chairing the Strategic Implementation Group on Evidence and Evaluation as part of the NDS implementation.  Her research interests include the intersection of substance use and violence, policy development and creative and participative research methodologies.

Dr. Muireann Ní Raghallaigh is a Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor of Social Work at UCD whose teaching and research interests primarily focus on refugee populations and forced migration, both within the field of social work and beyond. 

Upon qualifying as a social worker Muireann worked with Ireland's Child Protection Team for Separated Children Seeking Asylum where she developed a keen interest in issues related to and affecting asylum seekers and refugees. Muireann subsequently undertook her Ph.D research in Trinity College Dublin. Her Ph.D., which was partly funded by the National Children's Office, was a qualitative study of the experiences of unaccompanied minors living in Ireland. It focused in particular on the coping strategies used by these young people. Subsequently, Muireann served as Director of the Bachelor of Social Studies Degree Programme in Trinity, where she lectured and supervised both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She also worked as a research fellow with the Trinity Immigration Initiative and as a lecturer in social care in the Dublin Institute of Technology. Muireann also worked, on a part time basis, as a Family Worker with the Daughters of Charity Child and Family Services. She began working as a lecturer in Social Work at University College Dublin in 2008. She was a member of the Board of the Irish Refugee Council between 2012 and 2017.

Muireann welcomes applications from Masters and PhD students, particularly relating to the following topics: Integration of Migrant and Refugee Children; Unaccompanied Minors / Separated Children; Cross-cultural social work; Cultural Diversity in social work; Experiences of asylum seekers and refugees

Muireann is committed to undertaking research that has the potential to have a strong social impact. She has a track record of writing policy relevant reports, making submissions to relevant task forces/working groups based on these reports, using research to advocate for change in policy and practice, whilst also writing high quality peer reviewed articles in international journals.

Muireann teaches across various modules on the  UCD Professional Masters in Social Work, including Social Justice &  Human Rights and Group Work & Community Work. She also coordinates an undergradute 'discovery' module on Refugee Displacement, an interdisciplinary module taken by students from across the university. In 2025 she established the Working with People of Refugee Background microcredential course, in partnership with the Irish Refugee Council.  The module aims to upskill professionals from various disciplines who are working with refugees and international protection applicants. 

I am director of the Geary Institute for Public Policy and full Professor of Social Policy

My research interests focus on housing policy and urban regeneration, particularly on:
- the management and financing of social housing
- the regeneration of social housing estates and inner urban areas
- comparative analysis of housing provision in Europe
- the history and socio-economic implications of Irish housing policy and its relationship with the welfare state.
I am interested in recruiting PhD students who would like to research any of these topics.

I have led over 30 research project on these issues since 2000 and produced over 170 publications on the results. In 2023 I led a consortium of 12 universities, research institutes and non governmental organisations from across Europe that was awarded €3.4 million in funding from the EU's Horizon Europe programme for research on measures to combat housing inequality in Europe. The project is entitled EqualHouse - From Housing Inequality to Sustainable, Inclusive and Affordable Housing Solutions and will be implemented between 2024 and 2028. In 2025 I was part of a consortium that was awarded €6 million from Horizon Europe for resesrch on housing led regenation of rural communities.  This project called Ruralise is due to comemnce in September 2026.

I am a member of the advisory boards of the two main journals in the housing studies field: the International Journal of Housing Policy and Housing Studies. I am also co-conveynor of the European Network for Housing Research's Working Group on Comparative Housing Policy which brings together researchers that compare housing policy developments in different European countries.

I have strong links with policy makers in Ireland and internationally. In 2011 and again in 2016 I was appointed by an Taoiseach as an independent member of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) which advises the Irish government on economic, environmental and social policy. In 2012 and again in 2017 I was appointed by the Minister for Housing as chair of the Housing Finance Agency (hfa.ie). The Agency raises finance on international markets which it lends on to local authorities and housing associations for the provision of housing to low income households. In 2018 I was appointed by the Minister for Housing to the interim board of the Land Development Agency. The Land Development Agency (LDA) is a commercial State-sponsored body that has been created to coordinate land within State control for more optimal uses where appropriate, with a focus on the provision of new homes. In 2022 I was appointed by the Minister for Housing to the Housing Commission established to review housing policy in Ireland and identify a programme for its reform.

In 2020 I was appointed as an expert advisor to the Housing 2030 project which is funded by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, UN Habitat, Housing Europe and the governments of 56 countries. It aims to improve the capacity of national and local governments to formulate policies that improve housing affordability and sustainability (see: https://www.housing2030.org/).

In recognition of the impact of my research on policy I received University College Dublin's research impact award in 2015 and the Irish Research Council's research impact award in 2021.  In 2025 I was elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy.