Academic biography

I am Associate Professor in Philosophy and Education at the IOE and have taught in Drumcondra since 2001. From 2015-2019, I was seconded as Project Officer on the first state curriculum in values/multi-belief education for primary schools in Ireland (there are currently 30 such Community National Schools). Research interests currently are focused on existential and postmodern philosophy and their links to education and my previous books are on Paulo Freire, Jacques Derrida and Slavoj Žižek.  I am developing a new co-edited text, with the Slovak philosopher Barbora Badurova, Ethical Education Across European Systems: Concepts, Practices, Dilemmas (Peter Lang, Berlin/Geneva) alongside completing a work long in gestation, a monograph entitled Religion After the Death of God (Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group). New projects are also in process on Philosophy as a Foundation (with Sicily) and on Student Protest (with Uni of Thessaloniki). I am co-editor of the Peter Lang series (with Dr Stephen Cowden) New Disciplinary Perspectives on Education, which is into its tenth volume and significant work for 2025/26 is publishing a Reader for this series. I also write poetry and fiction and am resident Poetry Critic with the journal, Red Ogre Review. As co-supervisor with colleagues, I am working with doctoral students on the specific topics of vulnerability, existential philosophy and theology, educational disadvantage, community antiracism and critical librarianship. Main teaching work is across BEd, BECE and GDSPHE/RSE and I am Thematic Co-ordinator for Critical Theory and Community Development with the Educational Disadvantage Centre.