ProfessorJames Kinsella

He began his career as a volunteer worker with an international NGO where he worked as a humanitarian worker in Ethiopia and Somalia and as an agricultural development worker in Tanzania and Kenya. On returning to Ireland in the early 1990s he joined University College Dublin where he completed his PhD on farm household decision making processes. Since joining UCD in 1995 he has lectured on: sustainable agriculture and rural development; communications; agricultural extension; social farming; project planning and management; and strategies for development. He took a sabbatical in 2001-3 and worked as Development Specialist with Irish Aid in Zambia where he was responsible for supporting programmes in health, HIV/AIDS, water, sanitation and agriculture. He has a long association with establishment, co-ordination and delivery of taught masters' programmes including: the MAgrSc Programme in Rural Development and MAgrSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development; and more recently the MAgrSc in Agricultural Innovation Support and MAgrSc in Agricultural Extension and Innovation Programmes which is delivered in collaboration with Teagasc. His research work encompasses: rural livelihoods analysis; rural development policy impact; agricultural extension effectiveness; agricultural innovation; piloting of social farming; and measuring social capital. He currently supervises PhD and MSc studies related to knowledge transfer in agriculture and on-farm innovation. He lives with his family on a drystock farm in south Kilkenny and remains actively involved in his local community through sports coaching and voluntary organisations.