Academic Members

Dr Ngozi Anyadike-Danes

Ngozi Anyadike-Danes is a postdoctoral researcher at Ulster University. Currently, she’s working on a Shared Island Initiative funded project: Consent, Sexual Violence, Harassment and Equality in Higher Education (COSHARE). The overall aim of this project is to produce an all-island strategy to surveying staff about their experiences and perspectives on consent, sexual violence and harassment (C-SVH) in HE across the North and South of Ireland as well as facilitating knowledge exchange between academics and professionals. As part of COSHARE, Ngozi manages the COSHARE Stakeholder Network, an all-island network with academics, teachers, public sector workers and support providers from both sides of the border. This network seeks to facilitate knowledge sharing between academics and professionals concerning the reduction and prevention of SVH in higher education. She also manages the design and distribution of the COSHARE Network newsletter. Her recently completed PhD thesis focused on the unwanted/non-consensual sexual experiences of university students in Northern Ireland, better understanding students sexual consent knowledge and understanding and the relationship between experiences and understanding. Ngozi’s research interests concern sexual consent knowledge and understanding, unwanted/non-consensual sexual experiences, rape myth acceptance and designing measurement tools that explore sexual victimization.

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Dr Sinan Asci

Dr Sinan Asci is a postdoctoral researcher at DCU Anti-Bullying Center, working on the Cilter DTIF project which is to develop a parental controls technology to assist with the detection of cyberbullying, self-harm, and grooming behaviours online. Previously, he was an assistant professor in the New Media Department at Bahcesehir University, and he was working as a PDRA and adjunct professor for the International University SDI München. Sinan completed B.A. in English Language Teaching at Anadolu University (2010) and received M.A. degree in General Journalism at Marmara University (2013) with a thesis on LGBT representation in newspapers. Then, he earned a Ph.D. in Media and Communication Studies with a thesis mainly focusing on “cyberbullying and youth in Turkey” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Michel Bourse from Galatasaray University (2018). Sinan was a researcher for different EU-funded projects, which were “Building Social Research Capacities in Higher Education Institutions in Lao PDR and Malaysia” and “Common Curricula for Diversity: Education in Media and Integration of Vulnerable Groups”. He has taught media studies courses in Turkey and Germany, providing services as an editor and manuscript reviewer of peer-reviewed journals, and doing research on social media, youth culture, cyberbullying, and digital literacy.

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Dr Catherine Baker

Catherine Baker is a postdoctoral researcher with the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Her current research focuses on tracking and building education programmes to counter the algorithmic radicalisation of boys and men into the manosphere. Previously, she completed her PhD at Loughborough University (Online Civic Culture Centre), exploring how misogynist incels use digital affordances to curate and distribute male supremacist ideology to a mass audience. Her research interests include misogyny, online extremism, masculinity, disinformation and digital platforms. Publications include a chapter on post-truth identities in the Routledge Companion to Media Misinformation and Populism.

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Dr. Carol Ballantine

Carol Ballantine is a sociologist, currently employed as a postdoctoral researcher in the school of geography in UCD. Her current research explores day to day experiences of social polarisation related to gender, sexualities and abortion. For her PhD from the school of sociology and politics in University of Galway (2020), she investigated narratives of violence in the lives of African migrant women living in Ireland. She has conducted research for UNHCR on gender and sexuality in the international protection system in Ireland. Carol is interested in day-to-day experiences of changing gender and sexual normativities for minoritised and non-minoritised groups. She uses creative and narrative methods to facilitate energising research encounters and to share research widely. Her creative writing is published in the Stinging Fly and Banshee. 

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Dr Sayani Basak

Dr Sayani Basak is a postdoctoral researcher at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre (ABC) working on the Cilter DTIF project which is to develop a parental controls technology to assist with the detection of cyberbullying, self-harm, and grooming behaviours online. She holds a Doctoral Degree in Social Sciences from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati Campus, India. Her PhD thesis focused on LGBTQIA+ lives and their everyday experiences of harassment and coping in online and offline spaces. Earlier to her PhD, she completed her MPhil in Social Sciences from TISS, India. Her MPhil work explored on lived experiences of Adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and how it impacts their healing process. She has completed her Master degree in Applied Psychology from University of Calcutta, India and Bachelor Degree in Psychology from Bethune College, Kolkata, India. She has worked in diverse research areas like childhood trauma, child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence and online grooming. She has collaborated and been part of different research projects funded by Local NGOs, University of Georgetown, USA and national organisations. She has also presented her paper in National and International conferences and contributed through her writing in peer-reviewed journals & social media forums.

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Dr Lorraine Barron

Lorraine is a lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Bangor University. She completed her PhD at the University of Limerick in 2022 which examined the potential of the use of restorative justice in the aftermath of sexual violence in the Republic of Ireland and Ireland and presented a blueprint for the implementation of a scheme of post-release restorative justice conferencing for cases involving sexual violence in Ireland. Her research interests include post-release responses to sexual violence, restorative justice, and criminological theories of sexual offending. She has published her research in journals such as the Irish Criminal Law Journal and the New Journal of European Criminal Law.

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Ciara Buckley

Ciara is a PhD student in Dublin City University. She is interested in understanding the lived experience of members of the LGBTQ community who experience sexual abuse, and to explore how available services can best meet the needs of LGBTQ survivors. Ciara completed the MSc in Psychology (Conversion) at Dublin City University as well as the MSc in Personal and Management Coaching in University College Cork, both of which involved research projects in LGBTQ mental health and minority stress. Ciara currently engages in volunteer work with several different organisations, some of which include working directly with survivors or perpetrators of sexual abuse with others involving more general mental health support work. Ciara’s long-term goal is to follow up her PhD with a traineeship in Clinical Psychology. She intends to develop expertise in delivering and improving services to the LGBTQ community. Furthermore, Ciara aims to develop as an expert on intersectional research and practice through working with LGBTQ individuals who are also minorities in other ways, e.g., refugees, people with disabilities, religious minorities, members of the travelling community, etc.

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Niámh Burns

Niámh is a PhD student currently studying at the University of Brighton, her research is funded by the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership. This research explores the invisibility of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the Northern Irish conflict (1968 and 1998) and the implications of shedding light on this phenomenon on social policy and policy processes. This study aims to explore the invisibility of SGBV by exploring the perceived ‘public’ and ‘private’ occurrences of this violence, in the context of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Through this, this research explores State perpetuated SGBV as ‘public’ violence, the manifestation of the conflict within ‘private’ forms of SGBV, alongside how the intersections of religious ideology, political identity, and gender impact on this. This research utilises an ‘Oral History’ interview approach, designed with intent of engaging with and paying respect to the longstanding tradition of storytelling in Irish history. Established through Niámh’s previous volunteer work, this research has the support and involvement of various women’s organisations located within the North of Ireland. Niámh has also previously studied a Bachelor of Laws before obtaining her Master’s degree in Human Rights Law with Distinction at Queen’s University Belfast.

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Professor Michelle Butler

Michelle Butler is a Professor of Criminology at the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast. Her research interests include imprisonment, penal policy, restorative justice and social media related crime. She has been involved in a number of studies looking at issues related to violence, order and control in prison, as well as the effect of caregiver imprisonment on children. Additionally, she has been involved in projects looking at the use of restorative justice as a means of responding to crimes, including sexual violence. More recently, she has collaborated with colleagues exploring how social media can be used to enable and facilitate offending and harmful behaviours, which can include the non-consensually sharing of explicit material, harassment and cyberbullying.

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Dr Elaine Byrnes

Elaine Byrnes is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Psychology, Dublin City University. She completed her PhD at the University of Galway. It is the first in Ireland in the communication of sexual consent. Her current research focus is an End Violence against Children (EVAC) and Technology Coalition-funded project to combat the facilitation of OSAEC in the Philippines. ‘Understanding OSAEC Trafficking in the Philippines: Analysis and recommendations for better detection, deterrence and prevention’, is a collaboration between Dublin City University, De La Salle University, Manila, Justice and Care International and the International Justice Mission. Elaine was the 2019 recipient of the Higher Education Authority Making an Impact Award for her research. She has also been nominated for the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Galway. Appointed by the Department of Justice, she has been an Academic Advisor and member of the expert Scoping Group on the content of a national survey of sexual violence with the Central Statistics Office. As a TEDx speaker her key message is that we can reduce the risk of sexual assault and violence globally through comprehensive sexuality education – with consent at its core – for all young people.

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Deniz Celikoglu

Deniz Celikoglu is a doctoral candidate at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre, working on the PARTICIPATE project funded by the Horizon Europe Programme of the European Commission – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA). Her research focuses on parents’ experiences of young boys’ involvement in online gendered and sexual harassment, with a particular interest on the role played by extreme online groups and ideas. Deniz completed her Bachelor of Science in Sociology at Middle East Technical University (2019) and received her MSc degree in Sociology in European Context at Charles University Prague (2022). For her master’s thesis, she conducted qualitative research on the contested agency of battered women who killed their batterers in Turkey.

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Dr Arpita Chakraborty

I am a post-colonial feminist researcher whose work lies at the cross section of gender, migration and diasporic studies from a postcolonial feminist perspective. I am Principal Investigator of an SFI-IRC Pathway project on migrant South Asian women’s experience of accessing support services in Ireland. I am specifically interested in looking at how ideas around gender, masculinities, and caste migrate transnationally and how it effects migrant women of colour in Europe. I have actively sought to collaborate with civil society partners outside academia, narrowly defined, in the co-production of knowledge and the communication of research findings for societal impact My work has been published and accepted for publication in leading international peer-reviewed publications including International Feminist Journal of Politics, Economic and Political Weekly, Religion and Gender, Routledge, and Cambridge University Press. Since finishing my PhD in 2019, I have led three research projects worth more than €500,000 funded by the Irish Research Council, and Ireland India Institute, and collaborated on international research projects with colleagues at Goldsmiths, University of London, Tampere University, Lucerne University, ActionAid Ireland, ActionAid Nepal. As a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dublin City University’s School of Law and Government, I have created and taught modules on postcolonial politics, gender studies and masculinity studies to DCU’s undergraduate and postgraduate students. In my former role as an Editor, I have overseen the production of 13 top rated academic journals from Sage Publications.

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Dr Rosie Cowan

Dr Rosie Cowan is a lecturer in law at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), where she recently submitted her doctoral thesis which explores potential impact of rape myth belief on (mock) juror decision-making in rape trials, the first research of its kind with members of the public in Northern Ireland. The theory behind the project is explained in a chapter in E Dowds, R Killean and A McAlinden (eds), Sexual Violence on Trial: Local and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge 2021) while key findings are included in a chapter in N Monaghan (ed), Challenges in the Jury System: UK Juries in Comparative Perspective (Routledge forthcoming 2024). Rosie also undertook her Master’s in Law at QUB: her dissertation examined the effects of rape complainants pre-recording their evidence and cross-examination rather than testifying in court. Prior to returning to higher education, Rosie was the Guardian Ireland correspondent then crime correspondent. She obtained an MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh before embarking on her journalism career.

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Professor Louise Crowley

Professor Louise Crowley of the School of Law, UCC, is a national voice on intimate partner violence having published widely on the adequacy of legal responses to the challenges of gender-based violence and works with service providers and state agencies to highlight the need for greater targeted investment in service provision. Louise was a member of the Government appointed expert group that developed the National Framework to End Sexual Harassment and Violence at Third Level and continues to advise on law and policy reform. At University College Cork, Louise has developed the campus-wide Bystander Intervention programme which educates and empower staff and students to challenge the normalisation of sexual abuse and to recognise their role as pro-social bystanders to effect change and bring about a new normal of safety and respect. This training is now being delivered in other third level instiutions as well as workplaces and sporting organisations. In 2022, funded by the Irish Research Council, Louise developed a bespoke second level programme, now being piloted in 50 secondary schools nationwide. Louise has just commenced a 14-month partnership with the Irish Defence Forces to deliver Sexual Respect and Ethics training to members of the Army, the Air Corp and the Navy.

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Dr Paula Devine

Dr Paula Devine is Co-Director of ARK (Northern Ireland’s Social Policy Hub), which is a joint initiative across Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University (www.ark.ac.uk). She is director of the annual Northern Ireland Life and Times survey, which has been recording public attitudes to key social issues since 1998. Since 2020, the survey has included questions on coercive control, and gender-based violence, exploring public understanding and opinion related to these issues.

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Nicole Devlin

Nicole Devlin was awarded a Churchill Fellowship (2023) to address gender based violence and misogyny, and was awarded a grant to travel to the US to research the implementation of a gender based violence prevention program. Throughout her time in the US, Nicole has met with universities, colleges, and schools and had the opportunity to speak to coaches and teaches who deliver training to athletes in their respective institutions, on healthy and respectful attitudes towards women. Other topics included: digital respect, consent, responsibility, and mental health practices. Nicole’s aim is to bring this program back to Northern Ireland to have it piloted and rolled out across the education sector. Nicole commences her PhD studies with the School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast this Autumn. Nicole’s PhD will explore how the trauma of the Northern Ireland conflict has impacted social identities and she seeks to apply a gender lens.

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Sharon Etokhana

Sharon Etokhana is a doctoral candidate conducting her PhD research on the subject of sex trafficking of migrant women in Ireland at University College Dublin (UCD). Her research is funded by the Irish Research Council.  This research critically analysis the tensions between human rights, sexual exploitation, dignity, consent and sex work, states sovereignty and the migrant status. She is also the Project Officer for the United Nations Decade for People of African Decent Ireland and the Human Rights Coordinator at AkiDwA. Sharon is a human rights lawyer called to the Nigerian bar in 2018 with a master’s degree specialisation in Human rights in Criminal Justice law (LLM) from the University of Limerick and a bachelor’s degree in law (LLB) from Lancaster University, United Kingdom in 2017. Sharon is a women’s rights activist and a champion against racism. In the course of her research and advocacy for the empowerment of marginalised communities, Sharon conducts consultant research for policy impact and makes submissions as a consultant on issues of gender based violence against migrant women, particularly in the area of sex trafficking. She also volunteers as the co-chairperson of Young Migrant Women Network, Ireland.

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Julie Fetherston

Julie Fetherston is a doctoral candidate conducting her PhD research in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work (SSESW) at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), where she is also a member of the Centre for Children’s Rights. Her research is funded by a DfE CAST studentship, co-partnered by QUB and Northern Health and Social Care Trust. Julie’s doctoral thesis examines the harms of conflict-related sexual violence during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with specific investigation of the impacts of this type of CRSV on victim-survivors. Prior to PhD study, Julie attained her MSc (Distinction) in Psychological Science at QUB, PGCE in Secondary Level Business Education at the University of the West of England (UWE) and BSc in Business and Psychology from the University of Ulster (UU). Outside of teaching, she is experienced in working with children and young people with trauma backgrounds navigating mental and physical health barriers to education.

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Dr Margaret Fitzgerald-O’Reilly

Dr Margaret Fitzgerald-O’Reilly (BCL, LLM, PhD) is an Associate Professor in the School of Law at UL. She has an LLM in Criminal Justice and was awarded a scholarship to undertake her PhD entitled The Usual Suspects: The Legal Marginalisation of Ex-Prisoners in Irish Society, which she graduated from in 2012. She is a Course Director and the Director of Marketing and Recruitment in the School of Law. Her research interests are primarily in the field of criminology, penology and criminal justice, in particular, issues pertaining to criminal records, criminal information sharing and disclosure issues, post-release management of offenders, sentencing and management of sex offenders, social and legal exclusion, techniques of punishment, sentencing, and crime control policies. She is the author of Uses and Consequences of a Criminal Conviction: Going on the Record of an Offender (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and co-author of Sexual Offending in Ireland: Laws, Procedures & Punishment, (Dublin: Clarus Press, 2018). She is currently working on a research monograph towards an International Criminal Records Database: Implications for Risk, Security and Human Rights (Forthcoming 2023: Palgrave Macmillan) and a socio-legal book on Human Rights Law in Modern Policing (Forthcoming 2023: Clarus Press). She has published in national and international peer reviewed journals, presented at international conferences and is a member of the Centre for Crime Justice and Victim Studies.

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Dr Mairead Foody

Dr Mairéad Foody is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at University of Galway. She has a PhD in Psychology and several years of international applied and research experience with young people. Dr Foody has published in the area of developmental psychology and is particularly interested in the impact of cyberbullying and bullying on psychological development. She holds several prestigious awards for her research such as the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship, the James Flaherty Scholarship and the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie COFUND Research Fellowship.

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Dr Conor Hanly

Conor Hanly is an expert on criminal law, and has published extensively in the area of sexual and domestic violence. He is the author of a leading textbook, An Introduction to Irish Criminal Law, which is currently in its third edition (2015). He was the Principal Investigator and lead author of the ground-breaking attrition study, Rape and Justice in Ireland (2009). He was a lead researcher and co-author of the Safe Ireland report, In Search of Justice: Women and the Irish Legal System (2016). The Rape Crisis Network Ireland appointed Conor a member of their Expert Inter-Agency Group on Vulnerable Witnesses in 2017, which contributed to the report, Hearing Every Voice – Towards a New Strategy on Vulnerable Witnesses in Legal Proceedings (2018). In 2019, the Central Statistics Office appointed him to their Data Expert Group in respect of the follow-up study to the SAVI Report. In 2021, the Department of Justice appointed him Principal Investigator on a funded study on the processing of rape cases. Conor was a national expert on victims of crime for the Fundamental Rights Agency between 2016 and 2022. He is a Board member of the Galway Rape Crisis Centre, and offers a free legal information service to clients of the Centre. Outside of his interest in sexual and domestic violence, Conor is also a prize-winning legal historian with a particular focus on the jury. 

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Chloe Hanna

Chloe Hanna is a PhD researcher at Queen’s University Belfast, School of Law. Her doctoral research focuses on reform within the law surrounding sexual offence trials in Northern Ireland, specifically considering anonymity for defendants in light of the recent Gillen Review. Her thesis is exploring the arguments around extending anonymity until the point of conviction within the unique context of Northern Ireland, utilising a theoretical framework of stigma and shame and a comparative analysis with the Republic of Ireland. Dr Eithne Dowds and Professor Anne-Marie McAlinden supervise this project which is funded by the Department for the Economy. Her thesis is entitled: ‘He Who Shall Not Be Named? Rethinking Northern Ireland’s Approach to Defendant Anonymity in Rape Trials.’

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Lorraine Hayman

Lorraine (Lorrie) Hayman is a Global Women’s Studies doctoral researcher at the University of Galway. Her interdisciplinary research, funded by the Irish Research Council, Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, explores the lived experiences of people who identify as women concerning unwanted negative, sexually-based behaviours/actions occurring online and/or via Internet-connected devices. Lorrie aims to offer evidence-informed recommendations for better supporting victim-survivors of these behaviours/actions in Ireland. She applies Feminist Research Practice in her mixed-methods research design, drawing on the characteristics of feminist research whilst recognising there is no one feminist methodology per se. Lorrie is also a Hardiman Research Scholar (2022-2023), Rotary Peace Fellow at International Christian University in Tokyo (2019-2021), and qualified teacher. She moved to Ireland in 2022 after six years living and working in Japan. Lorrie volunteers at Galway Rape Crisis Centre as a Psychological Supporter and is the founder and organiser of the Peer Support Group network for early career researchers at the University of Galway. 

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Dr Susan Lagdon

Dr Susan Lagdon is a Lecturer in Psychology (Mental Health) at Ulster University and a fellow of the UK higher education academy. Susan’s research interests include domestic and sexual violence and abuse, particularly the mental health implications of interpersonal trauma and the availability and types of support for victims.  Susan completed her PhD during 2016 which focused on intimate partner violence, mental health and service experience in Northern Ireland. Susan’s research often involves the use of multiple mix methods with a particular focus on participatory and stakeholder engagement to guide research process.  Current projects include the Healthy Young Adults Relationship (HYAR) Project funded under the Medical Research Council’s Public Health Intervention Development (PHIND) fund, as well as the COSHARE (Consent, Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Equality in Higher Education) project in partnership with NUI Galway funded under the HEA’s North-South Research Programme. Susan is co-chair of Northern Ireland Forensic Managed Care Network and COSHARE network as well as being a member of the British Psychological Society. Susan is also the external examiner for DkIT’S Certificate in Fundamentals of Understanding and Responding to Domestic Abuse and a steering committee member of RiVeR Project  (DkIT responding to the impacts of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence:  multi-agency education, research and training initiatives – More info here: https://rb.gy/cbfqf ). 

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Dr Cheryl Lawther

Cheryl Lawther is a Reader in School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast and a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. Her research interests are in the fields of transitional justice, truth recovery, victims, conflict related sexual violence and the use of atrocity sites. She is the author of ‘Truth, Denial and Transition: Northern Ireland and the Contested Past’ (Routledge 2014), ‘Constructing Victimhood: Beyond Innocence and Guilt in Transitional Justice’ (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2024) and lead editor of the ‘Research Handbook on Transitional Justice’ (Edward Elgar 2017, 2023). Cheryl is the previous recipient of the Brian Williams Article Prize by the British Society of Criminology, a Fulbright Ireland Scholarship and a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship.

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Professor Maria Lohan

Maria focusses on gender equality and engaging men and boys to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Her research aims to generate sustainable and effective interventions to reduce gender inequality and enhance health and education. To meet this aim, she engages in systematic evidence reviews, the co-design of evidence-based interventions with key stakeholders, and the conduct of programme evaluations, including randomised trials and qualitative research. Maria is currently a consultant to World Health Organization, Human Reproduction Programme. As part of this role she is leading a systematic scoping review of the evidence on violence against women and girls during the Covid-19 pandemic. She is also leading a programme with WHO on masculinities and SRHR. Maria has led multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary research studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, and the National Institute of Health Research to develop early intervention sexuality education in schools and prison settings. She has contributed to global collaborations underway to co-design similar interventions in Uruguay, Colombia and South Africa and in 2022 joined the UNSECO/UNFPA global partnership in comprehensive sex education.

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Professor Anne-Marie McAlinden.

Anne-Marie McAlindenis Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. She  is the author/editor of five books, including three sole-authored monographs, and over 70 articles/book chapters on sexual violence including restorative responses, ‘grooming’, offender reintegration, peer abuse and historical abuses. Two of her books have been awarded major prizes – The Shaming of Sexual Offenders (Hart, 2007) won the British Society of Criminology Book Prize 2008; and Children as ‘Risk’ (CUP, 2018) won the Kevin Boyle Book Prize 2019. Her research has been supported by awards from the ESRC, the AHRC, the British Academy, the Higher Education Academy and NOTA. She has provided advice to governments locally, nationally and internationally. She gave oral and written evidence to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017) and has provided advice to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (2021). In March 2022, her research formed the basis of the first state apology to victims/survivors of historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland. She has been interviewed for a range of international media including The New York Times, The Economist and The Sydney Morning Herald.In 2023, she was conferred as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

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Dr Siobhan McAlister

Dr Siobhán McAlister is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology, and a member of the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research focuses on the intersections between criminal justice, social (in)justice and children’s rights. She has extensive experience in designing and carrying out research with children and young people on criminal justice processes and interventions, experiences of violence and victimisation, and conflict legacy. She has recently completed two large projects – one examining the transgenerational legacies of the Conflict in Northern Ireland (funded by the Commission for Victims and Survivors Northern Ireland), the other on enhancing child-rights responses to victims of violence (funded by the European Commission). She led the team commissioned by The Executive Office to examine girls’ and young women’s views and experiences of violence in N. Ireland, which informed the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls. Siobhán is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Youth Studies.

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Dr Mary McAuliffe

Mary McAuliffe is a historian and Director of the Gender Studies Programme at UCD and holds a PhD from the School of History and Humanities, Trinity College Dublin. Her latest publications include as co-editor with Miriam Haughton and Emilie Pine, Legacies of the Magdalen Laundries; Commemoration, Gender, and the Postcolonial Carceral State (Manchester University Press, 2021) and as sole author, Margaret Skinnider; a biography (UCD Press, 2020). She is co-editor with Jennifer Redmond of Sexual Politics in Modern Ireland (2nd edition, Indiana Press 2024), as well as We were there; 77 women of the Easter Rising (with Liz Gillis), and Kerry 1916; Histories and Legacies of the Easter Rising on which she was a co-editor. Throughout the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 she has been conducting extensive research on the experiences of women during the War of Independence and Civil War and is currently completing her book based on that research, Gendered and Sexual Violence in the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, 1919-1923 (forthcoming 2024). She is a past President of the Women’s History Association of Ireland and is a member of the Humanities Institute, UCD.

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Dr Claire McCartan

Dr Claire McCartan is the Senior Researcher for the Regional Trauma Network (RTN) and honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast. The RTN is a specialist regional psychological trauma service, involving statutory, community and voluntary sector partners, for victims and survivors of the Troubles conflict in Northern Ireland. Involving over 50 delivery partners, Claire is responsible for oversight of the research agenda for the RTN, undertaking high quality research and supporting clinicians and practitioners to build research capacity within the field of trauma, including conflict-related sexual trauma. Before joining the RTN, Claire was a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast. Recent research includes the first mental health prevalence study of children, young people and their parents in Northern Ireland. Claire has considerable experience of qualitative and quantitative evidence synthesis, co-production and participatory research methods.

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Kirsten McGregor 

Kirsten is a third year PhD candidate at Queen’s University Belfast researching the feasibility and viability of the use of a victim-led restorative justice system for cases of serious sexual violence in Northern Ireland. This research is a qualitative study seeking to listen to the voices of the relevant stakeholders including victim-survivors, offenders and professionals who work in criminal justice, the support sector and restorative justice organisations. The project comes as a reaction to the Gillen Review and as such is in partnership with the Department of Justice and Queen’s University Belfast. Previous to moving to Belfast, Kirsten studied for a MRes in Criminology at the University of Glasgow in 2019, receiving a Merit. Her dissertation, which received a Distinction, consisted of a policy analysis using Carol Bacchi’s WPR framework to assess Scotland’s current policy regarding the use of restorative justice and how it would affect cases of gender-based violence. Kirsten also competed her undergraduate degree at the University of Aberdeen doing a joint honours in Sociology and Politics between 2015-2019.

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Dr. Ronagh McQuigg

Dr. Ronagh McQuigg is a Reader in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast.  Her research interests are in the area of international human rights law, with a particular focus on violence against women and domestic abuse.  Ronagh has published a number of books including Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Abuse in Northern Ireland (2022, Routledge), The Istanbul Convention, Domestic Violence and Human Rights (2017, Routledge) and International Human Rights Law and Domestic Violence (2011, Routledge).She is also a co-editor (with Professor Vanessa Bettinson) of Criminalising Coercive Control – Challenges for the Implementation of Northern Ireland’s Domestic Abuse Offence (2023, Routledge), and she has published widely in international peer-reviewed journals.  Additionally, Ronagh is a qualified solicitor and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

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Dr Gail Neill

Dr Gail Neill is a Lecturer in Community Youth Work within the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at Ulster University. Her research interests focus on gender, sexuality, youth and identities. With a practice background in Youth Work she has extensive experience in designing and carrying out action based, participatory research with young people. Most recently she was involved in commissioned research to examine girls’ and young women’s views and experiences of violence in N. Ireland, which informed the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls.

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Carmel Nolan

Carmel Nolan is a PhD researcher based at Dublin City University where she is exploring gender-based violence and South Asian migrant women. She is working on an Irish Research Council/Science Foundation Ireland funded project titled “They are Here Too: Gendered Violence in the South Asian Immigrant Community in Post-COVID Ireland”. Carmel’s academic journey commenced with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Archaeology & Geography from University College Dublin. This degree sparked Carmel’s passion for gender studies which led her to pursue a Master of Science in Development Geographies in 2018, where she conducted fieldwork on gender norms and the tourism industry within the Hmong ethnic minority group in Vietnam. This international perspective and hands-on experience have enriched Carmel’s understanding of the diverse facets of gender studies, solidifying her commitment to exploring the intersections of gender, migration, and violence. She has since presented at conferences in Ireland and abroad on the Irish government’s policies on gender-based violence and how they impact migrant women. In addition to her academic pursuits, Carmel is currently creating a podcast titled “ASHA: Crossing Borders, Breaking Silences” which amplifies the powerful narratives of migrant women, shedding light on the invaluable contributions these extraordinary women make to our society.

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Dr Jennifer O Mahoney

Dr Jennifer O Mahoney is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the South East Technological University in Waterford, and a Chartered Member of the Psychological Society of Ireland. As the Co-Director of the Crime and Justice Research Group at Waterford Institute of Technology and a Senior Researcher at INSYTE (The Centre for Information Systems and Techno-culture) at SETU, she actively contributes to a participant-focused research agenda aimed at fostering social change. Jennifer’s research revolves around the narration of victimology and trauma, exploring the interplay between memory, social change, and the digital humanities. She is the primary investigator for the Waterford Memories Project, which examines historical institutional abuse in Ireland. With a background in narrative psychology, Jennifer emphasizes the significance of personal stories during times of trauma. Additionally, Jennifer actively engages in international collaboration on research projects examining sexual violence and trauma narratives. In her latest publications, Jennifer explores the intersection of social change, digital humanities, and storytelling. She examines how technology serves as a dual force – acting as a catalyst for social change while simultaneously contributing to the exclusion and marginalization of certain groups in society in a dynamic process. Jennifer is dedicated to making academic research accessible and comprehensible to the public, addressing societal issues and platforming marginalized voices.

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Dr Catherine O’Sullivan

Dr. Catherine O’Sullivan, a senior law lecturer in U.C.C., is a graduate of U.C.C. (B.C.L, LL.M.) and completed a Ph.D. at Osgoode Hall Law School, Canada. Her main research interests lie in Criminal Law, Criminology, Gender and the Law, Children’s Rights and Law and Popular Culture.  She is the Chair of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork (SVCC) Board of Directors and has trained to provided Bystander Intervention workshops and Consent workshops for third level students.  She is a regular contributor to student-run LawSoc and FemSoc events on the issue of sexual violence.  She has co-authored the first national survey on stalking in Ireland (2023) and two leading student texts, Criminal Law in Ireland: Cases and Materials, 2^nd ed(2021) and Fundamentals of the Irish Legal System (2016).  She has authored articles in a variety of national and international publications including the Irish Jurist, Dublin University Law Journal, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, Legal Studies and Human Rights Quarterly.

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Dr Sarah Bryan O’Sullivan

Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Law at The Open University Law School, specialising in criminal law and criminal justice, with a particular interest in  gender-based violence, sexual offences and gender and crime. Sarah’s PhD research considered the issue of personal cross-examination of the complainant by the defendant in rape and sexual offence trials and examined the potential for prohibiting or restricting such cross-examination in Ireland. Since then, Sarah has continued her research in the field and has worked on projects concerning reform of prostitution law, rape myths and stereotypes, and juries in sexual offence trials. Currently, Sarah is co-authoring a text due for publication with Clarus Press that will bring together criminal law, criminal justice, criminological research and scholarship to explore how gender affects crime, victimisation, trial, and punishment in Ireland.

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Professor Andrew Percy

Andrew Percy is Professor of Quantitaive Criminology, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, QUB. His background is in large scale survey research. In particular, he was involved in the first national estimates of the extent and nature of sexual victimisation in GB (with Pat Mayhew, 1997). He has a long-standing interest in the application of survey methods and statistical modelling to the study of sensitive issues and behaviours such as alcohol, drug use, and sexual behaviour.  He is currently supervising doctoral students examining the role of restorative justice in sexual offences, adolescent sexual health, and online self-disclosure and cybervictimisation.

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Dr David Prendergast

Dr David Prendergast researches and teaches in criminal law and jurisprudence (legal philosophy) the Trinity College Dublin School of Law. Research interests include the concept of consent in sexual offences and publications include ‘Limiting Consent in Criminal Law: DPP v Brown [2018] IESC 67’ in the Irish Supreme Court Review 2020; ‘Recklessness Without the Risk’ in Criminal Law and Philosophy 2020; and ‘Criminal Culpability and Sexual Offences Reform’ in Criminal Law and Practice Review 2018. Current research investigates the structure of criminal liability, culpability, and criminal law defences. David has an LL.B. from Trinity College Dublin, an LL.M. from University College London, a PhD from Trinity, and is a non-practising barrister. He was formerly editor of the Dublin University Law Journal and co-founded the Irish Jurisprudence Society. David was legal researcher for the Law Reform Commission on the inchoate offences project and the first Pathways to Law Liaison Officer with Trinity Access Programmes. He is currently Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning at Trinity School of Law. 

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Dr Megan Reynolds

Dr Megan Reynolds is a postdoctoral researcher at the Anti-Bullying Centre at Dublin City University. She is working on the Cilter DTIF Project, which focuses on the detection of cyberbullying, self-harm, suicide-related and grooming content for the development of Cilter technology. Previously, Megan was a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Psychology at University College Dublin, where she worked on a project investigating COVID-19 misinformation. She obtained her PhD from Queen’s University Belfast and her PhD thesis investigated unwanted sexual experiences, mental health impacts, alcohol use and consent on university campuses in Northern Ireland. Prior to her PhD, Megan obtained an MSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Central Lancashire. Megan has publications in peer-reviewed journals, such as Trauma, Violence & Abuse, Journal of Sex Research and Journal of Sexual Aggression.

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Dr Sinead Ring

Sinéad’s work considers how law responds to the problem of sexual violence. She has recently published (with Kate Gleeson and Kim Stevenson Child Sexual Abuse Reported by Adult Survivors. Legal Responses in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia (Routledge, 2022). The book traces how child sexual abuse has been understood and governed by law since the Victorian period until the present and explores how criminal law, civil law, inquiries and redress schemes have sought to do justice to adult survivors reporting childhood sexual abuse. Sinéad is currently working on a project in partnership with Rape Crisis Network Ireland examining the law on sexual experience evidence in rape and sexual assault trials in Ireland. The project is funded by the Irish Research Council under its New Foundations scheme. Sinéad has made several interventions into law reform processes, such as the 2018 referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, and the State’s responses to survivors of Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Industrial Schools. You can find out more about Sinéad’s work here: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/sin-ad-ring

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Dr Scott Ronis

Dr Scott Ronis is a visiting scholar in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen’s University and a full professor in Psychology at the University of New Brunswick (Canada). His research interests include youth involvement in the criminal justice system, with particular emphasis on family relationships and sexual aggression; developmental patterns of typical and atypical sexual interests and behaviour; sexual consent; intimate partner sexual coercion and violence; restorative justice practices; and serious youth mental health challenges and family members of youth and adults who are suspected or convicted of committing sexual offenses. He is leading funded projects on understanding and working with non-perpetrating, secondary victims of sexual aggression and on the use of restorative justice practices to help those harmed and individuals who have caused harm.

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Ann Ryan

Ann Ryan is a UCD doctoral student on a work-based scholarship, funded by Irish Research Council. She is employed in the Tusla: Child and Family Agency as a Coordinator of Sexual Violence Services. Her doctoral research focuses on adult disclosure of child sexual abuse and Irish statutory social work responses. Ann has worked with exploited children and sex trafficking in her role as child protection social worker in the UK. Her work with asylum seeking children spanned advocacy, with the Refugee Council, to co working with ECPAT on trafficking cases. Work with the South African Gender Commission focused on female empowerment, while inclusion and participation were the focus with the Alberta Municipal Affairs, Legislative Team. She is a former member of the working group of a national survey of sexual violence with the Central Statistics Office.

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Dr Meg Ryan

Dr. Meg Ryan is an Assistant Professor in Trinity College Dublin, and Director of the MSc in Global Mental Health. Her research interests are focused on reproductive justice, sexual and gender-based violence and LGBTQIA+ health and mental health, with a particular focus on qualitative methodologies. Meg is TCD PI for a research partnership with International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the Moroccan Family Planning Association (AMPF). This project is funded by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), and explores the experience of reproductive violence among Moroccan women and refugee women accessing health care in Morocco. Meg received a BA(Hons) in Psychology from TCD, where she also completed the Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology. Her doctoral research explored the experience of providing crisis pregnancy counselling in Ireland during a period of legislative changes regarding abortion provision. Meg is a practicing Chartered Counselling Psychologist and works from a feminist psychotherapy perspective incorporating both humanistic and psychodynamic principles. Meg is a founding member of the PSI Special Interest Group for Human Rights and Psychology and is Chair of the Research Advisory Committee for Mental Health Reform.

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Dr Sandra Sanmartín Feijóo

Dr Sandra Sanmartín Feijóo is a postdoctoral researcher at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a Master specializing in Social Psychology and another Master’s Degree in Methodology of Behavioural and Health Sciences. Her doctoral research “Problematic Internet use and online risky behaviours. An analysis from the gender perspective” at the University of Santiago de Compostela was funded by the Government of Galicia (Spain) through a competitive grant dedicated to pre-doctoral training. She has participated in Spanish and international research projects linked to children and young people wellbeing, online behaviour and engagement in peer violence. Her research interests include exploring pornography usage and its relationship with attitudes towards gender roles and violence amongst adolescents.

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Professor Dirk Schubotz

Dirk Schubotz is Professor of Youth and Social Policy in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast. Dirk has been research-active in the area of sexual health for 25 years, and this includes research on coercive control and involvement in the development of the policy to prevent violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland. Dirk is a member of ARK, Northern Ireland’s Social Policy Hub, and the QUB Centre for Children’s Rights. He has been a member of the Gillen Education and Awareness Group. At institutional level, Dirk was involved in the establishment of the Report and Support services at Queen’s University. Dirk was also involved in an advisory capacity in the QUB and Ireland-wide studies on consent. Dirk is a member of the Board of Trustees of Common Youth, Northern Ireland’s sexual health charity for young people.

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Dr Ciara Staunton

Dr Ciara Staunton has been lecturing on the topics of forensic psychology and criminality at UCC for over 15 years. She designed the Diploma in the Psychology of Criminal Behaviour https://www.ucc.ie/en/ace-dpcb/ for Adult Continuing Education (ACE) at UCC in 2006. This two-year Special Purpose Level 7 award is very popular with law enforcement personnel. She also delivers a short course on the Criminal Mind for those who are simply true crime fanatics. Ciara is a graduate of UCC (BSc. Applied Psychology, 1999; HDip Computer Science, 2001) and Leicester University (MSc. Applied Forensic & Legal Psychology). She completed her Ph.D. doctoral studies at UCC in 2009. My research focus has always been around the topic of sexual violence. For my MSc., I investigated the crime of rape and contributing factors to attrition rates within the Irish Criminal Justice System. My PhD research was more focused to methods of assessment for deviant sexual arousal patterns. This investigated the use of psychophysiological forms of assessment of sex offenders, focussing specifically on the detection of deception as well as the sexual arousal patterns of females with a view to developing an assessment tool for female sexual offenders. My current research interest centres on the crime of stalking with a particular focus on the behaviours that constitute the stalking process, reasons for reporting or not the crime to An Garda Siochana as well as the impact on those who have experienced it.

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Georgia Stanley

Georgia Stanley is a second-year PhD researcher at Ulster University’s School of Law. She studied Law (Single Honours) at Queen’s University Belfast from 2017 – 2020 before obtaining her Master’s degree in Gender, Conflict, and Human Rights Law with Distinction at Ulster University’s Transitional Justice Institute (2020 – 2021). Georgia’s PhD thesis centres around the idea of ‘The Second Rape’ through an investigative analysis of rape myth discourses in courtroom and media rape trial narratives. Her doctoral research employs a theoretical feminist framework and critical discourse analysis of rape trial transcripts complemented by an analysis of media reports on rape, to examine the courtroom and newsroom as discursive sites of juridogenic harm through the implicit and explicit rape mythologies that are deftly woven into the legal fabric of defence counsel arguments to ultimately create a victim-blaming narrative of rape scaffolded by rape myths and stereotypes. Georgia is involved in various academic and research activities both within and outside Ulster, including co-organising and hosting a conference at Queen’s on Law, Gender, and Feminism in June 2023. She is the PhD representative for Ulster’s School of Law and is currently working with representatives from other Irish universities to organise an all-Ireland PhD Law conference.

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Daniela Suárez Vargas

Daniela Suárez Vargas is a PhD candidate (near completion) at Queen’s University Belfast School of Law. Her doctoral thesis is titled: “The Subversive Victim: victimhood and Sexual and Gender-based Violence inside Non-State Armed Groups in Colombia”. In her thesis, Daniela examines the engagement of female fighters who experienced sexual, reproductive and gender-based violence within guerrilla and paramilitary groups in Colombian transitional justice. She also explores how the narrative of the “ideal victim,” the vilification of enemies, politics of victimhood, and individual agency influence the acknowledgement of these women as victims. Daniela holds an LLM with Distinction in Law (QUB) and is a practising lawyer in Colombia (Universidad del Rosario). Daniela has authored some publications covering topics such as SGBV, transitional justice, international criminal law, human rights, decolonial feminisms and criminology.

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Professor Aisling Swaine

Aisling Swaine is Professor of Peace, Security and International Law at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin. Prior to joining UCD, she was Associate Professor of Gender and Security, Department of Gender Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Associate Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University, Washington DC. Aisling holds a PhD in law from the Transitional Justice Institute, School of Law, Ulster University. Aisling was awarded a €2million European Research Council Consolidator Grant in 2023 for a research project that expands understanding of gendered harm, and specifically coercive control, in contexts of armed conflict and transitional justice. Her research is interdisciplinary engaging with the fields of conflict-related gendered violence, feminist legal theory, transitional justice, gender peace and security and gender in global governance. In the context of the UN Generation Equality Forum in 2021, Aisling was named by A-Political as one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People in global gender policy (and top ten on violence against women). Aisling’s scholarship is driven by an intent towards applied impact, influenced by previous professional experience leading large-scale humanitarian and peacebuilding programmes globally, and advancing global policy in roles such as with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and UN Women HQ, New York.

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Chloe Templeton

Chloe is a second year PhD student in the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast, conducting research on the use of previous sexual history (PSH) evidence in sexual offence trials in Northern Ireland (NI). Her research has been commissioned by, and is in collaboration with, the Department of Justice, following the publication of the Gillen Review in 2019. The study focuses on prevalence (how common this type of evidence is), impact (what effect this has on complainants’), and possibilities for reform. Currently, there are little to no statistics available on the usage of PSH evidence in NI, despite figures in similar jurisdictions suggesting that it is routinely being admitted during trial. This research, therefore, provides a timely and contextual NI perspective on this issue, by reviewing the current law of evidence and how it is being applied in practice. Importantly, the study is grounded in feminist sociology and feminist legal scholarship, with an aim to produce recommendations that will promote positive change in the criminal justice process. Prior to PhD study, Chloe obtained a Masters of Research, with Commendation, and Bachelor of Arts, with First Class Honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, both from QUB.

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Dr Aine Travers

Dr Áine Travers is an Assistant Professor at the DCU School of Psychology. She is interested in interdisciplinary research with social justice applications, including gender-based violence prevention and expanding access to evidence-based intervention for under-served groups. Her research addresses issues at the intersection of psychology, human rights, global health and sustainable development. Áine completed her Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD fellowship in Psychotraumatology at the University of Southern Denmark in 2020. She also holds a BA in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin, and an MA in Human Rights and Democratisation from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, Italy. She previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Trinity Centre for Global Health on the USAID-funded Missing Link project, developing new guidance for the supervision of mental health workers in humanitarian settings, in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Áine has worked for several NGOs, advocating on areas such as gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and gender-based violence prevention. She has also worked in the public sector in research leadership to promote evidence-based policymaking.