People
Prof James O’Higgins Norman is a clinical sociologist with interests in school bullying, cyberbullying and online safety. He is a Professor of Sociology and holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair on Tackling Bullying in Schools and Cyberspace at Dublin City University where he is also Director of DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. James is a co-founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Bullying Prevention and in 2019 he was Chair of the World Anti-Bullying Forum. He is widely consulted by the media and Government on educational and social issues and in 2018 he was appointed as a member of the Government of Ireland’s National Advisory Council on Online Safety. He has also led a number of large scale national and international funded research projects on bullying, cyberbullying, and migration.
Research Areas
School Bullying, Cyberbullying, Parents and Cyberbullying, Workplace Bullying
Darran Heaney is Director of Engagement & Innovation with DCU Anti-Bullying Centre, responsible for increasing engagement and innovation with other units in DCU, as well as with external organisations, industry and other stakeholders.
He was responsible for development and roll out of the FUSE Anti-Bullying and Online Safety Programme for schools, a project which began in 2019 and is now running nationally. Prior to this, Darran spent five years working as part of the DCU Access Service and was overall coordinator of the Access TY programme working with 20 DEIS schools in North Dublin. Darran has over sixteen years’ experience in Event and Project Management, Marketing and Public Relations. He is a graduate of DCU, completing a Masters in Education and Training Management, eLearning Strand in 2012 and qualified as an Executive & Life Coach in 2016.
Research Areas
Project management, eLearning, social media, education.
Dr Sinan Asci is a postdoctoral researcher at DCU Anti-Bullying Center, working on the Cilter DTIF project which aims 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 Department of New Media at Bahcesehir University, and he was working as a PDRA and adjunct professor for the International University SDI München.
Sinan completed his BA in English Language Teaching at Anadolu University (2010) and received his MA degree in General Journalism at Marmara University (2013) with a thesis on LGBT representation in newspapers. Then, he earned his PhD 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 courses related to media studies at associate and undergraduate level both in Turkey and Germany, providing his services as an editor and manuscript reviewer of peer-reviewed journals, and doing research on social media, youth culture, cyberbullying, and digital literacy.
Research Areas
Cyberbullying, social media, youth culture, digital literacy
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 under the supervision of Prof Kalpana Sarathy. Her PhD thesis focussed 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 the lived experiences of adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and how it impacts their healing process. She has completed her Master's degree in Applied Psychology from the University of Calcutta, India and Bachelor's 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, the University of Georgetown, USA and national organisations. She has also presented her papers at National and International conferences and contributed through her writing in peer-reviewed journals & social media forums.
Research Areas
childhood trauma, online grooming, mental health and LGBT inclusions
Dr Ashling Bourke currently holds a Deans’ Research Fellow at the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. In this role she is conducting research on the role of social dominance orientation and its interaction with cognitive empathy in the perpetration of cyber-bullying.
Ashling is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Human Development at the Institute of Education, DCU. Her research and teaching interests include the processes that impact on child and adolescent wellbeing. She has an active research profile on the intersection of Psychology, Rights, and Education, with a specific interest in children’s rights, relationships and sexuality education, the psychological influences and impacts of climate change, and developmental forensic psychology.
Audrey Bryan is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Human Development, DCU and is a Research Fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. As a sociologist of education, her research is concerned with the role that schools play in creating and sustaining the conditions that produce bullying and with sociological perspectives on bullying more generally. She has a long-standing interest in gender and sexuality-based forms of bullying and has published nationally and internationally on this topic.
Her most recent work interrogates the discursive and material effects of anti-homophobic bullying interventions that depict gender and sexual minority youth in terms of vulnerability and “at riskness.” Collectively, her work seeks to deepen our understanding of how educational settings function as both agents where the structures and practices of schooling serve to define gender and sexuality for teachers and students and as settings where social actors act as critical agents in the production of gender and sexual identities.
audrey.bryan@dcu.ie +353 01 700 9265
Research Areas
Gender, sexuality, anti-homophobic interventions, identity
Sophie Butler is a Research Assistant at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre and is working on the SNAW Erasmus project (Say No To Age Discrimination within the workplace) aimed at promoting age diversity, addressing the need for digital solutions to support workers promoting inclusion in the workforce funded by the European commission.
Equality, Access and inclusion are at the heart of Sophie’s ethos. Sophie is a part time lecturer under the School of Human Development and Policy and Practise delivering various psychology and advanced teaching practice modules. She is currently working directly with autistic children as an educational assistant and has a passion for creating a neuro affirmative, engaging, stimulating and fun learning experience for children. Sophie has vast clinical experience in which she worked as a radiology department assistant (SSC) in MRI working directly with patients, lead radiologists and radiographers (2019).
Sophie has a range of qualifications such as an MSc in psychology PSI accredited (2022) from DCU and a BSc in Education and training (2019). She is currently working on multiple projects involving autistic students in Higher Level education such as “..Fallen through the cracks..”: A Co-Produced Qualitative Exploration of Autistic Student Experiences at an Irish Higher Education Institution funded by the human rights commision and ASIAM Ireland (Publication 2024). Furthermore, she is a key author and part of the April 2024 launch of “Future Expectations: A qualitative research study exploring the perceptions and expectations of Autistic young adults Gheel services IMPACT Programme” funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission aiming to explore the perceptions and experiences of Autistic people of the challenges for them when seeking employment.
Edoardo Celeste is an Associate Professor of Law, Technology and Innovation at the School of Law and Government of Dublin City University. He specialises in EU and comparative digital law, focusing in particular on digital rights and constitutionalism, privacy and data protection, social media governance, and digital sustainability. Within ABC, Edoardo co-supervises PhD student Karolin Rippich’s work on anti-gender movements and the protection of LGBTQI+ children online.
Edoardo is the Programme Chair of the Erasmus Mundus Master in Law, Data and Artificial Intelligence (EMILDAI), the Deputy Director of the Dublin European Law Institute, the coordinator of the DCU Law and Tech Research Cluster, and a founding member of the Digital Constitutionalism Network.
Edoardo has been involved in numerous competitively-won research projects securing funding both by public and private institutions. He was the principal investigator of the project ‘Cross-Border Data Protection Network‘ funded by the Irish Research Council and the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and of the project ‘Digital Constitutionalism: In Search of a Content Governance Standard‘ funded by Facebook Research.
Edoardo is the author of the monographs ‘Digital Constitutionalism: The Role of Internet Bills of Rights‘ (Routledge 2022) and ‘The Content Governance Dilemma‘ (Palgrave 2023). He published his works in leading legal journals and edited the books ‘Data Protection Beyond Borders‘ (Hart 2021), ‘Constitutionalising Social Media‘ (Hart 2022) and ‘Data Protection and Digital Sovereignty Post-Brexit‘ (Hart 2023).
Edoardo is the Deputy Editor of the European Journal of Law and Technology (EJLT) and a member of the Executive Committee of the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association (BILETA). He is currently affiliated with the ADAPT Centre and the UCD Centre for Human Rights, and he is a member of the Ethics, Politics, Law and Philosophy Committee of the Royal Irish Academy.
Edoardo holds a PhD from University College Dublin and previously studied law at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, at the University of Paris II ‘Panthéon-Assas’, and at King’s College London.
Edoardo won the Irish Research Council Early Career Researcher of Year Award 2022.
Deniz Celikoglu is a doctoral research fellow 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 the involvement of both victims and perpetrators of online sexist and sexual bullying, with a particular interest in the role played by online anti-women movements.
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) where she conducted qualitative research for her thesis on the contested agency of battered women who killed their batterers in Turkey.
Research Areas
Gender, Masculinity, Misogyny, Victimhood, Agency, Cyberbullying
Dr Irene Connolly is a lecturer in Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology in Co. Dublin and a Research Fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Irene lectures on the BSc. in Applied Psychology in Developmental and Lifespan Psychology & Educational Psychology. Irene is the Irish representative on the European Federation of Psychologists Associations consultation group ‘Psychology and Internet’; a member of the Coalition to Make the Internet a safer place for Children; chairperson of the organising committee of “Dealing with Cyberbullying: A Practical Approach” conference 2013, and a co-chair of conference “Bullying at School: Sharing Best Practice in Prevention and Intervention” 2011. Her research interests are in the field of educational and developmental psychology, specifically cyberpsychology and bullying as well as dyslexia and learning difficulties, motivation in the classroom, E-Learning, M-Learning.
Research Areas
Cyberpsychology and Bullying
Alessio Cornia is Assistant Professor at Dublin City University, where he is chair of the MA in Social Media Communications, and Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford.
His research interest is comparative research on political communication and journalism, with a focus on the relationship between media and politics, social media platforms, news industry developments, digital news, media coverage of corruption, and EU journalism.
He is the DCU research team lead for the EU-funded project ‘CO.R.E.: Corruption Risk indicators in Emergency’ and Co-PI for the H2020 project ‘MEDIATIZED EU: Mediatized Discourses on Europeanization and Their Representations in Public Perceptions’.
He was previously Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute and Researcher at the University of Perugia, where he completed a PhD in Social and Political Theory and Research.
He has published a monograph on EU journalists in Brussels and several articles in academic journals including Media, Culture and Society, the International Journal of Press/Politics, the European Journal of Communication, Journalism, Journalism Studies, and the Journal of Risk Research.
Research Areas
Comparative research on political communication and journalism, with a focus on the relationship between media and politics, social media platforms, news industry developments, digital news, media coverage of corruption, and EU journalism.
Dr Trudy Corrigan is an Assistant Professor at the DCU School of Policy and Practice and a Research Fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Trudy has studied for a Professional Doctorate in the School of Education Studies. Her research interests are in adult education and lifelong learning, and include ageism and bullying in learning and workplace environments. The aim of her research is to develop intergenerational learning as a high-quality pedagogical practice in higher education, through exploring the reciprocal benefits of teaching, learning and research between generations through experiential and social learning, and her research has already developed into a successful programme integrated into the DCU and the wider community. Trudy is currently working on creating and developing innovative projects that will be of benefit in educational and/or training contexts in the workplace.
trudy.corrigan@dcu.ie +353 01 700 9251
Research Areas
Ageism and Bullying in Learning and Workplace Environments
Professor Paul Downes is Professor of Psychology of Education, and Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Ireland and Affiliate Professor, University of Malta, Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health. With over 110 peer reviewed publications in areas of education, psychology, sociology, philosophy, law, anthropology and social policy, he has given keynote lectures and invited presentations in 30 countries and for 16 countries’ official ministries. He has been involved in various expert advisory roles for the European Commission, including the Pathways to School Success Working Group, and European Education and Training Expert Panel to support the EU’s post-2020 Strategic Cooperation Framework.
He has led and co-authored a range of monographs published by the EU Commission, including How to tackle bullying and prevent school violence in Europe: Evidence and practices for strategies for inclusive and safe schools (2016) and Strengthening social and emotional education as a core curricular area across the EU (2018). A contributor to Jimerson, SM. Swearer, and DL. Espelage (Eds.), Handbook of Bullying in Schools (Routledge 2009) on relational spaces in school systems, his book Reconstructing Agency in Developmental and Educational Psychology: Inclusive Systems as Concentric Space (Routledge 2020) was nominated for the American Psychological Association’s (APA) William James Book Award.
paul.downes@dcu.ie + 353 1 700 9245
Dr Audrey Doyle is an assistant professor in the School of Policy and Practice at the Institute of Education, DCU. She has spent most of her career as a post-primary teacher and as principal of an all-girls post-primary school in Dublin.
She is currently chairperson of a post-primary school in Dublin. She is secretary of the ESAI SIG on curriculum in Ireland and has attended and presented at many national and international conferences on curriculum reform and the role of the teacher. Her main interests are related to curriculum ideology and pedagogy and how it translates into the educational encounter in the classroom.
Her PhD research mapped how Junior Cycle curriculum reform in lower secondary education in Ireland has begun to emerge through its new purposes, processes and pedagogy.
audrey.doyle@dcu.ie +353-17009234
Research Areas
Education
Dr Maeve Dupont is an Assistant professor in the School of Human Development and a Research Fellow in DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Maeve lectures in Educational and Developmental psychology across a number of programmes in DCU at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
During the course of her doctoral studies at Cardiff University, Maeve examined prejudice towards Travellers amongst primary school children in Ireland and tested the effectiveness of a psychological intervention (using stories) to improve attitudes towards marginalised groups. Having worked as a primary school teacher in areas of disadvantage, and an educational psychologist in the greater Dublin area, Maeve’s research interests include: inclusion, ethnicity-based bullying, and psychological approaches to reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations among young people.
Currently, Maeve is part of a DES-funded project investigating bullying towards Traveller and Roma pupils in Ireland.
maeve.dupont@dcu.ie +353 01 700 9263
Research Areas
Traveller and Roma based bullying, inclusion, education, prejudice
Dr Mairéad Foody is an Assistant Professor in Psychology in NUI Galway and Honorary Research Fellow in the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre. She has a PhD in Psychology and several years of international applied and research experience with young people. Dr Foody has published widely in the area of child and adolescent mental health 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
Research Areas
Cyberbullying, On-line Safety, Sibling Bullying, and Mental Health
Yseult Freeney is a Professor of Organisational Psychology in DCU Business School and a Research Fellow in DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. She completed her PhD in Psychology at University College Dublin as a UCD Scholar. Yseult was awarded an IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2009 to continue her work at Trinity College Dublin. Her research agenda is driven by a passionate interest in the well-being of employees and in helping them to thrive at work. More specifically, her research contributes to understanding how organisations can foster sustainable work engagement and work-life enrichment for employees against a backdrop of increasing work intensification, as well as a particular interest in the important role of positive workplace relationships. Yseult has worked with multiple organisations in both a research and training capacity in assisting them with leadership and engagement challenges. In line with her expertise in the area, Yseult serves on the Editorial Board of Human Resource Management Journal. Yseult Freeney’s publications to date include Human Relations, Human Resource Management Journal, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Learning and Individual Differences, Journal of Health Organization and Management and the British Educational Research Journal. She also co-edited the Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Management: Organisational Behaviour with her colleague, Prof. Patrick Flood.
Yseult is currently Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in DCU Business School. She has won awards for her excellence in teaching, winning the DCU President’s Excellence in Teaching Award while she was awarded a regional teaching fellowship by the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance. Yseult also acts as one of the Chairing Judges at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.
yseult.freeney@dcu.ie 353-1-700 7170
Research Areas
Work Engagement , Employee well-being, Work-life interface Workplace relationships, Career and Return-to-Work Transitions, Women at work and Work-Life Enrichment
Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University, Ireland. She teaches and researches on gender, sexuality and digital media, with a focus on digital hate, online anti-feminist men’s rights politics, the incel subculture and radicalisation of boys and men into male supremacist ideologies.
Debbie’s research also addresses youth experiences of gender-based and sexual abuse online and educational interventions to tackle this issue. She is co-editor of Gender Hate Online: Understanding the New Anti Feminism (Routledge, 2019) and has published widely on the manosphere, incels and online misogyny. Debbie is Ireland Corresponding Editor of the journal Men and Masculinities and is a member of the editorial boards of New Media and Society and Feminist Media Studies.
debbie.ging@dcu.ie 01 700 7729
Research Areas
Social Media and Cyberbullying & Harassment, LGBT Inclusion & Bullying in Second-Level School
Dr Alan Gorman, BEd, MEd, PhD, is a Research Fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre and is an Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Practice, DCU Institute of Education. He teaches across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and he is the Area of Professional Focus Leader for Professional Learning and Teacher Education on DCU’s Doctor of Education programme. He was the recipient of the DCU President’s Medal for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2022.
Alan has specific expertise in policy analysis and teaches critical policy analysis at doctoral level. He has also published in high-ranking journals in policy analysis, professional learning, and teacher education, alongside supervising doctoral students to completion in these areas. As PI, he has recently completed funded research of early career principals’ identity formation across the island of Ireland.
His work in ABC is specifically around policy analysis, enactment, and impact of anti-bullying policy in schools. With colleagues in the centre, he has made oral submissions to the ‘Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health’. He has made numerous presentations to the Department of Education around policy development and enactment. Alan has also provided written submissions to the ‘Report on the Review of the 2013 Action Plan on Bullying and the Development of Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying’, published by the Department of Education in late 2023.
He has just completed research on how primary school principals are enacting the ‘Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools’ (DES, 2013). He welcomes international collaborative research opportunities in the areas of anti-bullying policy and/or leadership for anti-bullying.
Research Areas
Policy analysis, enactment, and impact of anti-bullying policy in schools
Dr Anastasios Karakolidis is a research associate at the Educational Research Centre and an Honorary Research Fellow in DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. He holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ioannina, Greece, an M.Sc. in Quantitative Methods and Statistical Analysis in Education from Queen’s University, Belfast and a PhD in Assessment from Dublin City University. Anastasios has been involved in a number of research projects in Ireland and Greece and has given lectures on research methodology and advanced statistical techniques to postgraduate students and academic staff. His research interests include research methodology, statistical analysis, measurement, assessment and testing. Anastasios has published papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and presented at various international conferences.
Dr Seline Keating is an Assistant Professor at the DCU School of Human Development and a Research Fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre.
Since 2015 Seline has been lecturing in Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) and Wellbeing in DCU Institute of Education. Prior to this position, she taught for ten years in a variety of primary school types and settings. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Education with History and specialism in Dance from Mary Immaculate College, Limerick (2006), a Master of Education in Aggression Studies from Trinity College Dublin (2009) and a PhD from Trinity College Dublin (2012).
Seline’s Masters in Aggression Studies focussed on developmental psychology, aggressive/bullying behaviours, bullying prevention/intervention strategies and, formulating and assessing a school’s Anti-bullying policy and Code of Behaviour. Her thesis topic examined the effects of television on aggressive behaviours among primary school children. Seline’s Ph.D research explored child development in the context of mass media specifically that of an electronic nature exploring computer consoles (x-box, PSP), music devices (iPods), the Internet (online gaming & social networking sites like Facebook ) and their effects on a child’s psychosocial development and well-being.
She was awarded The Heffernan Bursary (Trinity College, 2009) and the INTO Bursary (2011) for her Ph.D research. Currently, Seline is the PI of three research projects:
- Exploring the Frixos Sexuality Programme and its relevance to the Irish RSE primary school context (IRC funded).
- Gender Equality Matters (GEM) tackling gender stereotyping, gender-based bullying and gender-based violence in schools (EU funded)
- Nuts + Bolts: An Anti-Bullying Policy Audit Tool (IoE)
Seline was the lead author on the research paper for the Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) review, commissioned by the NCCA. She was also recently appointed to the NCCA SPHE and RSE Development Group.
In addition to teaching on BEd and PME modules and tutoring students on School Placement, Seline is a Research Fellow of the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC). She also designs and delivers CPD courses for both primary and post-primary school teachers on bullying prevention and intervention.
Seline’s other roles include:- Chairperson of The SPHE Network; Teaching and Learning Convenor for the School of Human Development; Social Personal Health Education (SPHE) and Social Inclusion in Education Thematic Coordinator for the Educational Disadvantage Centre; Steering Committee of the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education; Member of DCU Healthy Committee (Mental Health Working Group); Member and Reviewer for AERA; Member of ESAI; Member of the Irish Childhood Bereavement Network (ICBN); Reviewer for Sexuality Education.
Her research interests include: Wellbeing; Bullying Prevention and Intervention; Media Education; Child Protection; LGBTI inclusivity; Relationships and Sexuality Education; Child Development; Children’s Rights, Equality, Mindfulness; SPHE Policy
+353 01 700 9256
Research Areas
LGBT Inclusion and Bullying in Primary Schools
Neil Kenny is an Assistant Professor in the DCU School of Inclusive and Special Education and a Research Fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre (ABC). Dr. Neil Kenny has a range of qualifications in Education and Psychology, including a B.A. (psych) from U.C.D. (2000) and a PhD. from Maynooth University (2010). In addition, he has over ten years applied experience in special education settings, working directly with families and children with complex learning needs. This experience involved utilizing a range of psychological assessments to design, supervise and deliver evidence-based education programs to individuals ranging in age from early intervention services for young children to adult residential services.
Additionally, Neil has experience in teaching and research across a number of higher education institutions in the domains of Education and Psychology. He has previously held lecturing positions at the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown (2011-2012), the University of Limerick (2012-2015) and Limerick Institute of Technology. He has a number of qualifications in teaching and learning in higher education, including Dublin Institute of Technology (2011), Waterford Institute of Technology (2012) and a Specialist Diploma from the University of Limerick (2014).
Finally, Neil completed an IRC-funded post-doctoral research project at the University of Limerick (2015 – 2016) and has been principal investigator across a number of other funded collaborative research projects. He has an active research agenda and has published his research across a range of international peer-reviewed journals.
+353 01 700 9071
Research Areas
Autism Spectrum Disorders; SEN School Bullying
Geraldine Kiernan is an administrator with DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Geraldine is primarily the first point of contact with DCU Anti-Bullying Centre and holds a main role in organising the centres conferences and seminars, in particular the international scholarly conference held in DCU in 2016; Bullies, Bullied and Bystanders. Geraldine joined DCU in 2011 attaining her primary degree in Education Studies and her research experience is in the area of bullying in the workplace. Geraldine’s research is concerned with the profile and outcomes of workplace bullying legal judgements, contributing to the publication of an Examination of Cases at The Employment Appeals Tribunal in relation to the Unfair Dismissals Acts (1977-2007)
+353 01 700 9139
Research Areas
Centre Administrator
Angela Kinahan works on the FUSE team as an Education Officer sharing responsibility for the development of training and engagement with schools. Prior to joining the FUSE team, Angela provided support for a number of projects in the Centre including those focused on preventing bullying against Roma and ethnic minorities in schools in Ireland and Cyprus, gender and violence education in primary schools, and another on the use of AI as a mechanism for preventing cyberbullying and online harassment against young people.
01 700 9004
Research Areas
Primary school bullying, teacher education
Derek Laffan MSc. is a Researcher on the Apps Against Abuse project in collaboration with Vodafone Ireland Foundation. Prior to his work on this project, Derek’s past ABC work involved assisting on national and international projects in the areas of: gender equality, educational games, adolescent sexting, giftedness and inclusive religious education. Derek has an applied psychology background and published research on the topics of: digital gaming, adolescent mental health, cyberbullying, Internet fandom, and education. He also teaches gaming and multimedia psychology to postgraduate students in Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, has a graduate membership of the Psychological Society of Ireland, and participates in events that promote psychology and science such as the ESB Science Blast and the Annual Congress of Psychology Students.
+353 01 700 9003
Research Areas
Entertainment Technologies, Gaming and Wellbeing, Research Methods, Teaching Psychology
Isabel Machado Da Silva is a Research Fellow and PhD student at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. She is part of the Doctoral Network “PARTICIPATE” Project, funded by the Horizon Programme of the European Commission – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). Her research explores how to enhance family-school partnerships in order to reduce and prevent online and associated offline forms of bullying.
Isabel completed an MSc in Education with International and Comparative specialisation at Stockholm University. For her master’s thesis she conducted a qualitative interview study on student’s sense of belonging while transitioning from middle school to high school during the COVID-19 pandemic. She earned a Bachelor of Laws and Political Sciences from the University Nice Sophia-Antipolis.
Isabel has collaborated with school leaders, students, NGOs and public agents in projects aiming at co-creating inclusive spaces in and out of schools. During her exchange year at Keio University, she was involved in an ethnographical service-learning program in a Japanese part-time high school aiming at empowering pupils to co-create spaces and activities that could enhance their sense of belonging at school.
Research Areas
school bullying, student’s sense of belonging, safe spaces, social stratification, power dynamics
Dr Angela Mazzone is a Postdoctoral Researcher at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. After completing her PhD in Psychology, Angela was a visiting researcher at several European Universities, where she was involved in international research projects focused on bullying in various contexts. Currently, she is collaborating on the implementation of the FUSE Anti-Bullying and Online Safety Programme, with a special focus on tackling identity-based bullying. Her main research interests encompass workplace bullying, school bullying, bullying towards immigrant youth, peer relations and socio-moral development. She published in the field of school bullying and adolescent development.
01 700 9092
Research Areas
Workplace Bullying; School Bullying, Peer Relations and Adolescent Development
Marian McDonnell is an honorary research fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Marian is a lecturer at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design. With a background in computing, Marian lectures and supervises research projects on the M.Sc. in User Experience Design in IADT.
Marian’s current research interests are focused on the role of design, technology and psychology in User Experience and Interaction Design. She is particularly interested in the area of designing, developing and evaluating instructional technologies for individuals with cognitive impairments. To address this need, she co-founded the Lets Go Skills (www.letsgoskills.com) research centre at IADT with educational psychologist Dr Irene Connolly. Recent innovative projects include creating the platform and instructional multimedia materials for the Erasmus + project Disabuse with the ABC to educate young adults with special educational needs (SEN) to protect themselves from bullying and cyberbullying (see www.disabuse.eu). Recent international and national HCI conferences at which Marian has presented papers have focused on interface design recommendations for individuals with cognitive impairments.
See recent publications at https://iadt.ie/about/staff/marian-mcdonnel
Research Areas
User experience research and design, special educational needs, cyberbullying, instructional application design, emerging technologies.
Darragh McCashin is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at DCU, and is interested in digital youth mental health, and clinical/forensic applications of technology. Previously, Darragh was a Marie Curie Fellow/PhD student at UCD, examining technology-enabled youth mental health within the EU H2020-funded TEAM-ITN project, specifically the role of technology-assisted cognitive behavioural therapy for children. A second strand to Darragh’s research is that of forensic/criminal psychology. With an MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology, Darragh has previously worked in the UK on the psychology of internet sexual offending, and is interested in exploring innovative ways to advance prevention efforts.
With respect to policy-making, Darragh is currently the task force leader for Mental Health of Researchers within the Policy Working Group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), and co-founded the researcher mentoring programme Referent. Darragh also sits on two COST Actions: Researcher Mental Health Observatory (CA19117; Working Group Chair), and the European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet (CA16207; management committee member for Ireland).
01 700 7383
Research Areas
Mental Health, Policy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Dr Amalee Meehan is an Assistant Professor in DCU School of Human Development and a Research Fellow in DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Amalee is on the management team of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) project TRIBES Transnational Collaboration on Bullying, Migration and Integration in Second-Level Schools. Before joining DCU, Amalee was an executive member of CEIST (Catholic Education, and Irish Schools Trust), exercising the trustee role and providing counsel to schools in areas of leadership and management. She continues to work with the Irish Jesuit Province as a member of the Board of Management of Crescent College Comprehensive SJ. Amalee holds a PhD in Theology and Education from Boston College, USA and a Master of Education from Trinity College, University of Dublin. She is a member of the Religious Education Association, an international Association of Professors, Practitioners, and Researchers in Religious Education.
+353 01 700 9229
Research Areas
Management, School Bullying, Religious Education, Theology
Dr Tijana Milosevic is an Elite-S Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (MSCA COFUND programme), jointly appointed with ABC and ADAPT SFI, focusing on social media policies and digital media use among children and youth. She is the PI on a Facebook-funded project “Co-designing with Children: A Rights-based approach to fighting Cyberbullying” and her most recent work examines the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI)-based interventions on social media from children’s perspective. She is also a member of the EU Kids Online research network and she has coordinated data collection for the EU Kids Online project in Serbia (nationally representative survey on children’s digital media use).
Her first monograph “Protecting Children Online? Cyberbullying Policies of Social Media Companies” was published in The MIT Press Information Society Series and she authored and co- authored a number of articles on children’s media use, among other topics. At ABC, Tijana also led the Irish data collection for “Kids Digital Lives in Covid-19 Times (KiDiCoTi),” an international project coordinated by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC). The project in Ireland included a survey on a national sample of children aged 10-18 about their digital media use and online risks during the Covid-19 lockdown. On behalf of ABC, she has testified about children’s digital media use and online safety in front of the Irish Parliamentary Committees (Oireachtas) three times since 2019, and has given numerous media interviews to the Irish and international media.
Previously, Tijana also researched young children’s privacy, especially from commercial data collection, as a member of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) DigiLitEY project. Tijana Milosevic completed her PhD at American University in Washington DC’s School of Communication. She obtained her MA in Media and Public Affairs from The George Washington University, also in DC. Before coming to Ireland, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, Norway, Department of Media and Communication. She previously researched media coverage of cyberbullying in the US mainstream media and a range of topics from media coverage of the War in Iraq to climate change, public diplomacy, and the effect of copyright policies on the visual arts community in the US. Milosevic interned and worked at media organizations, such as the BBC and Radio Free Europe; public affairs and public diplomacy organizations like Fleishman-Hillard and The Public Diplomacy Council; and finally as a teacher at the French International School in Belgrade, which sparked her interest in understanding children’s behaviour, especially in relation to digital media.
You can follow her on Twitter.
+353 01 700 9111
Research Areas
Cyberbullying, social media, policy, communication
Meghmala Mukherjee is a doctoral research fellow 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 the role of technology with the support of parental mediation particularly for the females and others who are more vulnerable to victimisation of cyberbullying.
Meghmala completed her MSc in Applied Psychology from the University of Calcutta, India (2018) and received her MPhil degree in Forensic Psychology from National Forensic Sciences University, India in the year 2020. Her MPhil work involved the effect of perceived cyberstalking, internet addiction and cyber awareness on young adults’ well-being.
After her MPhil graduation Meghmala was working as a research assistant under a Department of Science and Technology – Cognitive Science Research Initiative Project which explored the effect of Neurofeedback intervention programme on emotional regulation, impulsivity and aggression in juvenile offenders.
Research Areas
Cyberbullying, Cyber awareness, Wellbeing, Intervention Programme
Dylan Pidgeon is a Research Assistant at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Dylan pursued his BA in psychology from National College of Ireland and graduated in 2021. Dylan worked as an Employee Relations administrator after completing his undergraduate degree, and specialised in workplace investigations/disciplinaries, where his interest in workplace bullying developed. Subsequently, Dylan pursued his MSc in Psychology and Wellbeing in DCU and graduated in 2023. His research project focused on the psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with overuse injury in runners. Dylan is currently collaborating on numerous projects in the Anti-Bullying Centre.
Research Areas
As well as the psychology of sports injuries, Dylan's research interests include bullying in the workplace and student bullying within higher education associations.
Dr Vasiliki Pitsia is a research assistant at the Educational Research Centre (ERC) and an Honorary Research Fellow in DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. She holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ioannina, Greece, an MSc in Quantitative Methods and Statistical Analysis in Education from Queen’s University Belfast, UK and a PhD in Assessment from Dublin City University, Ireland. Vasiliki has worked as a researcher, data analyst, and psychometrician on various projects in Ireland and Greece and as a consultant at the World Bank. She has also given lectures on research methodology, measurement, assessment, and statistics to postgraduate students and academic staff in academic institutions across Europe. Vasiliki’s research has attracted grants, such as the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, and it has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and presented at national and international conferences. Her research interests include research methodology, statistical analysis, psychometrics, measurement, and assessment.
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 and Journal of Sex Research.
Research Areas
Unwanted Sexual Experiences, Sexual Consent, Mental Health and Online Safety
Antonio Rial is associate professor of Psychology and Criminology at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He is an expert in Social Research Methodology and author of more than 130 papers in Spanish and international scientific journals, supervisor of 20 doctoral thesis and responsible of several research projects in the field of children and youth. He directed some of the largest studies conducted in Spain on the topics of Problematic Internet Use, online risk behaviours and Cyberbullying. He is in charge of elaborating the teaching material for the course of the General Council of Psychology of Spain on the Problematic Use of Internet in Adolescents; coordinator of the course Technological Addictions in the Galician Health Ministry in which Spanish psychiatrists, paediatricians and psychologists are trained yearly; coordinator of the course Prevention, Detection and treatment of School Bullying and Cyberbullying in the Galician Education Ministry, for teachers and school counsellors; as well as of different courses on Minors, Internet, Addictions and School Bullying in the Galician Police Academy. He was the scientific director of the Study on the Impact of Technology on Adolescence, carried out by UNICEF-Spain (2021).
Research Areas
School Bullying, Cyberbullying, Online Risks and Cyberbullying
Dr Sandra Sanmartín Feijóo is a researcher on the Apps Against Abuse project and the FUSE Anti-Bullying and Online Safety Programme for schools. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a Master's 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 collaborated in several Spanish and international projects in the fields of addictions and bullying among adolescents.
Research Areas
Bullying, Cyberbullying, Behavioral Addictions, Online Safety, Gender
Aikaterini Sargioti is a Research Assistant with DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Primary Education (BEd) and a Master of Science (MSc) in Educational Sciences with a specialism in natural sciences in education. Aikaterini’s field of expertise is research methodology and quantitative data analysis. She has participated in several research projects that required specialized data analysis techniques.
Research Areas
Research methodology, statistical analysis, data analysis, science education.
Beatrice Sciacca is a research assistant in DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Beatrice pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology of personality and interpersonal relationships, and holds a Master’s degree in Community psychology at the University of Padua. She wrote her Master’s thesis about adolescents’ online behaviour based on her internship within the Digital Youth Project at Utrecht University. After graduating, Beatrice completed her internship in different European research centres, among which DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Currently, she is still collaborating with the ABC in a number of projects. Her main interests concern prejudice and early interventions in school bullying and cyberbullying.
Research Areas
Community psychology, adolescent wellbeing, prejudice, early anti-bullying interventions
Kanishk Verma is the Irish Research Council (IRC) Research Scholar, working on developing a Data-driven Toolkit to tackle Cyberbullying on social media platforms among Teens. He is the Google Online Content Safety Policy scholarship awardee and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the School of Computing, DCU, jointly mentored by Dr Brian Davis and Dr Tijana Milosevic at DCU and Dr Rebecca Umbach at Google. Kanishk is also an Associate Researcher in the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre, a member of the UNESCO Chair on Tackling Bullying in Schools and Cyberspace, and a member of ADAPT SFI. Previous to this appointment, Kanishk worked as a Research Assistant on a project funded by Facebook Instagram Content Policy grant to combat cyberbullying by using Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Leaning (ML), Human-computer interaction (HCI) and Social Network Analysis (SNA). He graduated from the School of Computing, DCU with a First Class Honours in Computing with specialization in Data Analytics. His area of interest has been in the amalgamated disciplines of Social Science, ML, NLP, HCI and SNA. Apart from academia, he remotely volunteers to teach underprivileged children in his home country.
Research Areas
Social Science and Bullying
Kristine VU is a doctoral researcher at NUI Galway and an associate researcher at the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. She is originally from Canada with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy. As a mental health counsellor, she is interested in merging her counselling and research skills to develop as a researcher in the areas of youth mental health and school support. Her PhD research will look at adolescents’, teachers’, counsellors’ and parents’ perspectives on school support for cyberbullying. She is particularly interested in qualitative research methodologies and using these to understand how support for cyberbullying and bullying can be improved for victims. She is also interested in participatory approaches to research.
Dr Sebastian Wachs is an honorary research fellow at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. Dr Wachs is a Deputy Professor for Media Education at the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Potsdam.
He studied Educational Science at the University of Bremen where he also earned his doctorate in Media Education. Sebastian has led several international projects on the emotional and social development of adolescents, adjustment, well-being, risky behaviour, and aggression (e.g., bullying in schools and cyberspace, hate speech, cybergrooming), with particular attention to development in context (e.g., family, school, and culture). His research has been published in various high-impact journals (e.g., Computers in Human Behavior, Computers & Education, Journal of Adolescence, Journal of Interpersonal Violence).
Research Areas
Bullying, cyberbullying, hate speech, cybergrooming
Isobel Walsh is a Research Assistant at the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre, and is contributing to a mixed-methods research project seeking to understand and prevent online racism in Ireland. Prior to working with the Anti-Bullying Centre, Isobel worked as a Research Assistant in the DCU School of Psychology supporting the development of an innovative new postgraduate programme.
Isobel completed her Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin (2021) and received her MSc Psychology from DCU (2023). As part of her Masters degree, Isobel conducted a participatory design research project which explored stakeholder views on problematic gaming and produced co-designed solutions seeking to promote healthy gaming behaviour at individual and organisational levels.
Research Areas
Cyberpsychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Mental Health, Therapeutic Innovations
Michelle F. Wright, PhD, is a research associate at The Pennsylvania State University and DePaul University. Her research focus is on the contextual factors which influence children’s, adolescents’, and young adults’ involvement in aggressive behaviours, with a special interest in social goals, peer status, and cultural values. She has published on these topics, with her most recent work focused on culture and anonymity, and their role in cyberbullying among adolescents. Her more recent research focuses on using innovative technologies for data collection and to deliver technology-based interventions.
Research Areas
Cyberbullying, Behaviour, Social Goals, Peer status, and Cultural Values