Academic biography

Kevin Rafter is Full Professor of Political Communication at DCU and a specialist in the politics and media of contemporary Ireland. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in 2024. 

His books include Dillon Rediscovered (2025), Taoisigh and the Arts (2022), Resilient Reporting: Media & Elections in Ireland since 1969 (2019; co-authored) and The Irish Presidency: Power, Ceremony & Politics (2014; co-editor; new edition 2026). He has also written several  political biographies and histories of Sinn Féin, Fine Gael, Clann na Poblachta and Democratic Left.

Since joining DCU in 2010, he has been Head of the School of Communications, Faculty Associate Dean for Research and Chair of the MA Political Communication programme. He is also the Irish contact for the international Worlds of Journalism project and oversees DCU’s annual journalism scholarship programme at the Washington Bureau of Arizona State University. He is a member of the editorial boards of Administration and Journalism Practice, and has edited special editions of both journals as well as The Irish Review.

He has chaired the two national bodies responsible for the arts in Ireland, the Arts Council and Culture Ireland, and has served as a board member of commercial and not- for-profit organisations including Chair of Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (now Media Commission). His contribution to Irish public life has also included chairing  an independent expert taskforce on civil service reform as well as facilitating government formation negotiations as an independent rapporteur/facilitator.