Members
Steering Committee
| Academic members | Eileen Connolly |
| Subrata K. Mitra | |
| Eugene McNulty | |
| Sandeep Rao | |
| Markus Pauli | |
| Cauvery Madhavan (external) | |
| Post-doctoral researchers | Harikrishnan Sasikumar |
| Kusumika Ghosh | |
| Postgrad representative | Nithya Kothenmaril |
Faculty Members
Jivanta Schottli is Assistant Professor, Indian Politics and Foreign Policy and Director of Dublin City University’s Ireland India Institute. Jivanta holds a PhD (Summa cum Laude) from Heidelberg University, Germany, a Masters in Economic History and a BSc in International Relations and History, both from the London School of Economics and Political Science
Publications include Maritime Governance in South Asia (Ed.) World Scientific, Singapore, 2018; Power, Politics and Maritime Governance in the Indian Ocean (ed) Routledge, London 2014; Vision and Strategy in Indian Politics, Routledge, London 2012. She has written articles for Asian Survey, the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region and Irish Studies in International Affairs. Her recently co-authored book Statecraft and Foreign Policy. India 1947 – 2023 was published with DCU Press in 2024.
Research Areas: India’s international relations, maritime diplomacy in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific, statecraft and foreign policy.
Abel Polese is associate professor with expertise on shadow and illegal economies, governance and informality with focus on the non-Western world. He has been a JSPS fellow to Ritsumeikan University in Japan and a visiting fellow at universities in Asia (i.e. Renmin in China, JNU in India), Africa (Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Martyrs University in Uganda) and the Americas (Harvard and Toronto as well as Manizales in Columbia). He is also involved in debates on open science, mental health and science excellence and is the author of “The SCOPUS Diaries and the (il)logics of Academic Survival A Short Guide to Design Your Own Strategy and Survive Bibliometrics, Conferences, and Unreal Expectations in Academia”, a critical reflection on the current academic world that has been already translated into Spanish, Russian and Kyrgyz.
Alicia Castillo Villanueva is an Associate Professor in Hispanic Studies and Gender at the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) in Dublin City University. She focuses on women, conflict, and memory under dictatorships and military regimes. She lectures and researches on the field of Feminist studies with a focus on the social and cultural representation of different forms of gender-based violence and feminicides. Alicia conducts research on both fieldwork and analysis of women representation in literature, film, and other art forms.
Arpita Chakraborty is a post-colonial feminist researcher whose work lies at the cross section of gender, migration and diasporic studies. She is the Principal Investigator of a five-year Irish Research Council project on migrant South Asian women’s experience of accessing support services in Ireland. Arpita is specifically interested in looking at how ideas around gender, masculinities, and caste migrate transnationally and how it effects migrant women of colour in Europe. She is also the Vice Director of DCU's Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities.
Read Arpita Chakraborty's Research Profile
Danny Marks is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Politics and Policy in the School of Law and Government of Dublin City University. Prior to this position, he was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the Department of Asian and International Studies of City University of Hong Kong. He also was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia project at the Munk School of Global Affairs of the University of Toronto. Dr. Marks has spent a number of years conducting research and working in Southeast Asia, particularly in the field of environmental governance. He has worked for a number of organizations in the region, including the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific Governance Hub, the Rockefeller Foundation, ActionAid and the NGO Forum on Cambodia.
David Keane is Associate Professor in Law at the School of Law and Government, DCU. He has acted previously as Lecturer in Law at Brunel University, London, and Associate Professor in Law at Middlesex University, London. He holds a BCL (Law and French) from University College Cork, Ireland, and an LLM and PhD from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, where he was awarded a Government of Ireland scholarship. Dr. Keane's research is in international human rights law, with a particular focus on the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and related aspects of the UN human rights system.
Diarmuid Torney is an associate professor in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. He holds an MPhil and DPhil (PhD) in International Relations from the University of Oxford. His research focuses on climate change politics, policy, and governance. He is also co-director of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society and a lead author on Ireland’s first Climate Change Assessment, commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Torney is the programme chair of DCU’s MSc in Climate Change: Policy, Media and Society. He welcomes applications from prospective research students interested in climate change politics and governance at national, European, and global levels.
Professor (Emeritus) Eileen Connolly was the director of the Ireland India Institute from 2016 to 2020 prior to her retirement. She is a member of that Institute and of DCU's Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction. She has conducted research on gender in India, Ireland, the Balkans, and sub-Saharan Africa. She has recently researched the political impacts of Brexit on the island of Ireland. Currently she is researching public policy aspects of the debate on the political future of the island of Ireland. She is not taking on research students at this time.
Eugene McNulty is Professor in English with special interests in Irish literature and theatre history, postcolonial writing, and the intersections between law and cultural production. He is a graduate of the University of Kent (Canterbury), where he was awarded his MA and PhD by the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Research. Before the formation of DCU's School of English he was a member of the English Department in St Patrick's College (2008-2016), and prior to moving back to Ireland he was a member of the School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies at the University of Portsmouth (2003-2008). In addition to his role in the School of English, he has been the Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (2016-20), and the Chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance (2019-20). Currently he is the co-Chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance's Working Group on the Legal Humanities, and the co-Chair of the Irish Network for the Legal Humanities.
Fiachra obtained a BA in Philosophy and English from University College Dublin. Following this, he completed a Masters in Film Studies in UCD. After working in an academic publishing company, he obtained his doctorate from the school of Politics, International Studies, and Philosophy Queens University Belfast in 2009. He wrote his thesis on the patenting of biotechnological products (GM crops) in order to analyse issues of justice in relation to patenting, technology, international trade, and the environment. He has been lecturing History of Ideas and Philosophy of Science in DCU. He has worked on various aspects of applied ethics, including the ethical and social implications of virtual reality and social networking in association with the EU's Reverie Project, and the ethical implications of human enhancement technologies. He is currently working as a Marie Curie ASSISTID Fellow looking at the ethics of the development, use and distribution of assistive technologies (AT) for people with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder.
Goran Dominioni is an Assistant Professor at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. His primary research interests are climate change law and policy; carbon pricing; and maritime transport. He is currently the PI of a World Bank-funded project on the implementation of a GHG pricing mechanism in international shipping and often provides training to members of delegations to the IMO on carbon pricing for international shipping. He is also a Funded Investigator of the SFI Co-Center Climate + Biodiversity + Water. His research appeared in peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Climate Policy, Journal of Environmental Law, Marine Policy), American law reviews (e.g., Arizona Law Review, Cornell International Law Journal), and policy outlets, and has been awarded prizes from various institutions, including Yale Law School, the MIT Climate CoLab, and the World Bank.
S. Harikrishnan is a postdoctoral fellow with the Ireland North-South Project at the Conflict Institute at Dublin City University. He is the author of Social Spaces and the Public Sphere: A Spatial-history of Modernity in Kerala. Previously, he has taught at DCU, and been a researcher at Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, Johannesburg. More recently, he has been working on spatiality in post-conflict Northern Ireland. Hari is also a founding editor of Ala, a monthly blog on Kerala, and an exhibited photographer. He has published peer reviewed articles and opinion pieces on Southasian politics, culture and history. More recently, his work has focussed on the spatial history of post-conflict Northern Ireland.
Iain McMenamin is Professor of Comparative Politics in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. He is interested in most areas of comparative politics and has published on many topics including political economy, business and politics, political communication, and East-Central Europe. He is happy to supervise PhDs in all these areas.
Iain is has been a recipient of the Dublin City University President's Award for Outstanding Research. He has taught a wide range of courses on comparative politics, European studies and research methods at BA, MA and PhD levels.
Dr Jonathan Harris joined DCU as Assistant Professor in Political Geography in 2024 following posts at King's College London, Stranmillis University College, and his PhD at Cambridge University.
He is a long-term visiting scholar at Queen's University Belfast. Jonathan works broadly on the social dynamics of radical contestation at the margins of national and international politics, with a substantive focus on diplomacy, development and diaspora. His current project, Diaspora Diplomacy and the Migration Development Nexus (Research Ireland Pathway: 2025-29), involves close engagement with the Indian diaspora across the island of Ireland led by his PhD student Revathy Kuttykrishnan Jayakumari.
Jimmy is a hydrologist and Lecturer in Environmental Systems at Dublin City Universities School of History and Geography. He has extensive experience working in India, where he has focused on water resource management in the face of social and environmental change. This resulted in a significant amount of field experience, working on NERC and Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences funded projects, collaborating with researchers from Europe and India, examining water management in the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
Jimmy is lectures on water resources, environmental systems, environmental geography ,and Climate and Environmental Sustainability. His current research centres on natural capital, ecosystem services and water resource projects in Ireland and South Asia, with farmers, developers, regulatory authorities and governments. He has also helped organise Ireland’s Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. He uses interdisciplinary approaches, particularly stakeholder engagement and systems modelling, to improve our understanding of the links and feedbacks between humans and the natural environment.
Kenneth McDonagh is Associate Professor of International Relations in the School of Law and Government. He was the Head of School from 2021-2024 and Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences from 2019-2021. His research is focused on EU Foreign Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy, the role of small states in CSDP, and the gendered impact of CSDP missions. He has published on the EU as a global actor, the gendered impact of CSDP missions and contributed to policy papers and training activities in the area of Women, Peace and Security and CSDP. He was Principal Investigator of the H2020-MCSA-ITN Global India (www.globalindia.eu) which aimed to train a new generation of experts on EU-India relations and empower them with the skills and expertise to contribute to the EU’s engagement with India. Previously, he was PI of an Irish Research Council funded project on the Gendered impact of CSDP missions in the Western Balkans which produced training material and policy reports aimed at the European External Action Service and other stakeholders. Dr McDonagh has over a decade of teaching experience in EU and International Relations at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels.
Kusumika Ghosh is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Ireland India Institute, Dublin City University. Her research centers on feminist activism, citizenship, and the politics of care, with a regional focus on India. Her doctoral work, supervised by Dr Jivanta Schottli, examined how women engage in political participation and collective action through social movements, highlighting the intersection of gender, power, and protest in contemporary India. Kusumika holds a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India, where she received the Institute Gold Medal. Her interdisciplinary background spans political sociology, gender studies, and peace research.
In 2024, she co-edited two volumes of a special issue on Global Anti-feminist Trends in Politics for Politikon. She has also published Landscape of Conflicts and Peace in the Northeast: The Role of Religion (NESRC, 2019) and co-edited Women and Peacebuilding: Perspectives from the Field (NESRC, 2021). Her work contributes to feminist and postcolonial understandings of democracy, care, and citizenship.
Read Kusumika Ghosh's Research Profile
Markus Pauli is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Dublin City University. He has held positions at the National University of Singapore, Yale-NUS, Singapore Management University, and Heidelberg University, Germany. His current research focuses on
- global governance
International Studies Quarterly: Who on earth wants a world government – and why? An international survey experiment (Aug 2024) (with Farsan Ghassim)
- sustainable development
Collaborative Governance for the Sustainable Development Goals (with Ann Florini)
- decarbonization in the EU
Review of the Governance Regulation and the European Climate Law (2024). Sebastian Oberthür, Alina Averchenkova, Helge Jörgens, Kati Kulovesi, Tereza Maarova, Markus Pauli, Leonie Reins, Jeffrey Rosamond, Diarmuid Torney, Alison Hough.
- politics in India
Critical Realignment & Democratic Deepening: The Parliamentary Elections of 2014 and 2019 In India (with Mitra, S.K.; Schottli, S.). In: The 2019 Parliamentary Elections in India.
He studied at the Free University, Berlin, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His co-authored, open-access book “Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India 1947–2023” (with Subrata K. Mitra & Jivanta Schottli), Dublin City University Press, has been launched in January 2024.
Dr Marnie Hay is a lecturer in History and programme chair of the MA in History in the DCU School of History and Geography. She teaches modules on the Irish cultural revival and revolution, the history of Northern Ireland, the history of children and childhood (including adolescence), and research methods for the historian.
She is the author of two monographs published by Manchester University Press, Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Revolution, 1909-23: Scouting for Rebels (2019 & 2021) and Bulmer Hobson and the Nationalist Movement in Twentieth-Century Ireland (2009), as well as many articles. She has co-edited special issues of the journals Irish Economic and Social History (2020) and the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth (Spring 2016) and the essay collection Rebellion and Revolution in Dublin: Voices from a Suburb, Rathfarnham, 1913-23 (South Dublin Libraries, 2016). Her current research focuses on the socialisation and mobilisation of youth within the Irish nationalist movement as well as the experiences of children and adolescents during the Irish Revolution.
Originally from Canada, she completed a PhD in History at University College Dublin, an MA in Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, an MA in Political Science at Dalhousie University, and a BA (Hons) at the University of Winnipeg.
Maura Conway is Paddy Moriarty Professor of Government and International Studies in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University; Professor of Cyber Threats in CYTREC at Swansea University, UK; and founding Coordinator of VOX-Pol (voxpol.eu). Prof. Conway’s principal research interests are in the area of terrorism and the Internet, including cyberterrorism, the functioning and effectiveness of violent extremist online content, and online radicalisation. She is the author of over 60 articles, reports, and chapters in her specialist area(s). Her research has appeared in, amongst others, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Criminology & Public Policy, and Social Science Computer Review. Prof. Conway has presented her findings before the United Nations in New York, the Commission of the European Union in Brussels, the UK House of Lords, and elsewhere. She is a member of the Academic Steering Committee of Europol’s Counter-terrorism Centre’s Advisory Network on Terrorism and Propaganda and the Editorial Board of Terrorism and Political Violence. Previous appointments include membership of the Commission on the Future of the [Irish] Defence Forces (2020 - 2022) and the Advisory Board of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) (2023 - 2024).
Ronan Guilfoyle is the Director of the Centre for Jazz Performance Studies in DCU, is an associate Artist of the Royal Academy of Music in London and is a member of Áosdana. He is a major figure on the Irish jazz scene and has developed an international reputation as a performer, teacher and composer. His groups have toured widely internationally and he has also recorded extensively, including the award-winning “Devsirme” in 1997. As a composer, he specialises in compositions which feature both improvised and written music and has a large body of work that ranges from solo piano pieces, to chamber works, to orchestral compositions.
He has undertaken extensive research in the field of advanced rhythmic techniques for jazz improvisation, and his book, “Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation”, is now seen as a standard text for this area. As part of this research, Ronan has worked extensively with Indian musicians and institutions such as the Karnataka College of Percussion in Bangalore, and the Brhaddvani Institute in Chennai. He has developed music that incorporates Carnatic music and jazz techniques, and in 2001 he undertook the ‘5 Cities’ project, composing a large-scale composition for a septet of Irish and Indian musicians. ‘5 Cities’ was supported by the ICCR and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, toured in India and Ireland, and was the subject of an RTE documentary.
Ross Carroll is an Assistant Professor in the School of Law and Government in DCU. His research interests are mainly in the history of political thought. Within that field he has published on a variety of topics including the political thought of the Irish philosopher-statesman Edmund Burke, the feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft, and the place of ridicule in Enlightenment philosophy. Before arriving at DCU in 2023 he taught for two years at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and for eight years at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Political Thought. His monograph Uncivil Mirth: Ridicule in Enlightenment Britain was published with Princeton University Press in 2021 and won the Morris D. Forkosch prize for the best first book in intellectual history. His second book, Edmund Burke, was published in 2024 as part of Polity's Classic Thinker series. It includes a chapter on Burke’s critique of the East India Company and his attempted impeachment of Warren Hastings, the Governor General of Bengal from 1772 to 1785. He is interested in researching the reception of Burke’s Indian writings within India itself, and particularly among the early leaders of the Indian National Congress.
Ruth McManus is Associate Professor in Geography and Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Before the formation of DCU's School of History & Geography she was Head of the Geography Department in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra. She is the author of Dublin 1910-1940: shaping the city and suburbs (2002, new edition 2021) and Crampton Built (2008), co-author of Building Healthy Homes: Dublin Corporation's first housing schemes 1880-1925 (2021) and co-editor of Leaders of the City (2013) and Creativity from Suburban Nowheres: Rethinking Cultural and Creative Practices (2023). Her work includes articles on various aspects of urban geography, suburban history, population, heritage, tourism and geography education. She is particularly interested in the nature of the urban and suburban landscape and much of her work focuses on the physical and social development of everyday spaces. She has many media appearances, including TV, radio and newspaper articles.
Sandeep Rao is Associate Professor of Finance and Director of MSc in Finance at the DCU Business School. He holds a PhD in Accounting and Finance from the triple-accredited University of Strathclyde and is a UK Commonwealth Alumni. Additionally, he has an MSc in International Securities and Investment Banking from the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, UK, and an MBA from Visveswaraiah Technological University, India
Sandeep is the Associate Editor of the Review of Accounting and Finance, Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investments, and Journal of Risk Finance. He is also a member of the American Finance Association (AFA), Financial Management Association (FMA) and The Indian Econometric Society (TIES). Sandeep’s research has been published in the Journal of Corporate Finance, The British Journal of Management, Annals of Operations Research, Economics Letters, Energy Economics, and Research in International Business and Finance. He is the founding Member of the International Finance Research Collaborative (iFRC), a dynamic group of finance academic networks dedicated to advancing knowledge and driving impactful research in finance.
Read Sandeep Rao's Research Profile
Email Subrata K. Mitra
Prof. Subrata K. Mitra, Ph.D. (Rochester), Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Heidelberg University, Germany and Adjunct Professor at Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin, Ireland was the Head of Department of Political Science, (1994-2014), South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. He has been a visiting professor at Tsinghua University (Beijing), University of California, (Berkeley), National University of Singapore (Singapore), University of Nottingham (UK), University of Paris (France), Central University, Hyderabad (India), Quaid-i-Azam University (Islamabad/Pakistan) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi). Indian and Comparative politics, rational choice, governance, citizenship, political theory and foreign policy are among his main interests.
His recent books include The 2019 Parliamentary Elections in India: Democracy at Crossroads? (Routledge, 2022), Governance by Stealth: The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Making of the Indian State (Delhi: OUP; 2021), Politics in India: Structure, Process, Policy (London: Routledge, 2017, second edition); Kautilya’s Arthashastra: An Intellectual Biography – the Classical Roots of Modern Politics in India (2017); Citizenship and the Flow of Ideas (2012); Reuse: The Art and Politics of Integration and Anxiety (2012); When Rebels become Stakeholders (2009); the Puzzle of India’s Governance (2005). and India: Statecraft and foreign policy (Dublin City University Press: 2024).
Teresa Hogan is professor of entrepreneurial finance at DCU Business School. She is a member of the National Centre for Family Business and is the project manager for the Small Business Charter at DCU. Her research interest lies in SME financing, working capital, venture capital, and acquisitions. Teresa has published in finance and entrepreneurship journals including; the Journal of Corporate Finance, Global Finance Journal, Venture Capital, Journal of Technology Transfer, Journal of Small Business Management and International Small Business Journal. Teresa specialises in teaching high-technology entrepreneurship to multi disciplinary groups. She was the first recipient of the President's Award for Contribution to the University in 1999 and shortlisted for Teaching and Learning Awards in 2006, 2013 and 2014.
She was Director of Doctoral Studies at DCU Business School from 2011 to 2014 and teaches a module on writing for PhD students.
Researcher and Lecturer, Trudy is a staff member of the School of Policy and Practice, Institute of Education, DCU. Founder of the DCU Intergenerational Learning Programme (DCUILP) and one of the co-founders of the DCU Age Friendly University Initiative (DCU AFU). Her research interests are in adult education and lifelong learning. This includes developing Intergenerational Learning as a high quality pedagogical practice in higher education.
Trudy is interested in evaluating intergenerational learning as an integral part of 21st Century Learning in higher education. In addition she is interested in how this innovative pedagogical practice influences teacher education in early childhood, primary and second level schools. This includes using the expertise and experience of retired people as mentors to third level students in developing personal and professional knowledge and skills. Trudy is the principal investigator of an Erasmus Project which is currently evaluating the benefits of smart home technology for older adults. This is to assist in lifelong learning and to facilitate them to live independently in their own homes.
Valesca Lima is Assistant Professor of Politics at the School of Law and Government at DCU. Her research focuses on participatory democracy and the role of citizens in shaping more inclusive and democratic societies. She has been at the forefront of examining how citizens can be more effectively included in decision-making processes, particularly at sub-national levels. Dr. Lima’s expertise in housing and urban studies includes investigating the financialisation of housing, the social mobilisation for housing rights, and innovative policies aimed at creating a more democratic and inclusive housing system. Through research, publications, and active engagement in academic and advocacy groups, Dr. Valesca Lima strives significant contributions to the fields of participatory democracy and citizen social sciences, championing the voices of those often marginalized in policymaking processes. She currently co-convenes the Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI).
Dr. Vidushi Kaushik is a postdoctoral researcher at School of Law and Government, DCU. Her interests are at the intersection of Adivasi/Indigenous politics, everyday peace, localisation and anthropology of peace and security. Her doctoral project, focussed on the ‘(un)intended consequences of the surrender and rehabilitation policy in the case of the Maoist conflict in Chhattisgarh, India’.
Vidushi has worked as in academia and as a practitioner within the space of humanitarian protection with focus on civilian and child protection. She was a Marie Curie Fellow at School of Law and Government, DCU. Prior to her doctoral journey, Vidushi was working in the Mindanao islands, Philippines, with communities, state and non-state armed actors, in preventive methodologies and strategies to minimise impact of armed violence through formation of safe zones, documentation and monitoring of human rights and ceasefire agreement violations. She has an MPhil. in Development Studies and Masters in Disaster Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
In the recent years, Vidushi has extended her understanding of protection mechanisms and qualitative research skills in helping development organisations trace and measure their impact within the child protection ecosystem in India. She has helped grassroot organisations in Northeast India write and win grants on gender, health and conflict. In her spare time, she can be found running and practising yoga inversions.
Vishwas Dohale is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at DCU Business School. His journey in academia is complemented by a wealth of professional experiences that underscore his expertise in the field. Before joining DCU, he worked at Goldratt Consulting in India, an organisation led by the pioneers of the Theory of Constraints, gaining experience across various sectors, including manufacturing, services, and logistics. During his association with Goldratt Consulting, Dr Vishwas was enriched with vast experience in consulting a spectrum of industries ranging from manufacturing and services to supply chain logistics and the food sector.
He also worked as a Research Associate for the project, jointly collaborated by the University of Exeter, UK and the IIM, Nagpur. He holds a PhD from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Mumbai, India.
William Murphy is an Associate Professor, and current Head of School, at the School of History and Geography, Dublin City University. Will works on late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland, with a particular focus on the history of imprisonment, the history of revolution and protest, and the history sport and leisure. His books include Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921 (2014) and Leisure and the Irish in the Nineteenth Century (2016), which was co-edited with Leeann Lane. He has co-authored two books on Michael Collins with Anne Dolan (Trinity College Dublin), a biographical study Michael Collins: the man and the revolution (2018) and Days in the Life: Reading the Michael Collins Diaries, 1918-1922 (2022). He is Director of the Research Group in Biography and Life Writing at DCU.
Postgraduate Students
Ashly Isac is a PhD student at the School of English at Dublin City University. Their academic background includes an MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature at Dublin City University and a BA in English Literature, Psychology, and Journalism at Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru. Their doctoral research involves exploring the appearance of the female ethnic Bildungsroman in South Asian American YA literature through Tanuja Desai Hidier’s works. Ashly’s research interests includes diasporic narratives in YA literature with a focus on South Asian diaspora, queer diaspora in film, and contemporary depictions of coming-of-age in both literature and film. They are a member of the ISSCL (Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature) and YASA (Young Adult Studies Association).
Ashly is also a film programmer (GAZE, Limerick Pride, Wexford Pride) and is a board member of QAPI, QSFF and TITE.
Asma Yaqoob is a PhD candidate at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from University of Karachi (Pakistan); and a Master’s degree in Practising Sustainable Development from Royal Holloway University of London (UK). Her research at DCU seeks to unpack political vulnerabilities of women in the context of floods of 2022 in Pakistan through the lens of feminis political ecology. She has written and published on water conflicts in South Asia particularly Indo-Pakistan transboundary water disputes in national and international journals. Her research interests comprise of climate change, water politics, neo-liberal development policies, urban political ecology and feminist political ecology.
Denise Ripamonti is a PhD candidate at the DCU Conflict Institute (formerly IICRR), School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, specialising in conflict and critical security studies, with regional expertise in South Asia. Her research interests focus on dynamics of armed conflicts and political violence; non-state armed groups, and the interactions between law, armed conflict, and society. In her doctoral research, she explores the use of security legislation in the state’s response to protracted armed conflicts over land rights, governance, and environmental resources in central-eastern India, with particular attention to the implications for conflict resolution processes and practices.
Denise holds a BA in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation and an MA in Languages, Cultures, and International Communication – with a specialisation in institutions and international organisations – from the University of Milan, and an MPhil in International Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.
Isha Smiti Thakur is a doctoral candidate at the School of History and Geography, Dublin City University. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Geography with honours from Miranda House, University of Delhi (India); and a Master’s degree in Geography from King’s College London.
Her research at DCU examines the socio-environmental impacts of large hydropower projects in the Brahmaputra river basin in India. Her PhD study combines stakeholder engagement with systems modelling and will, in particular, examine interlinkages between hydropower development-induced systemic changes and socio-environmental well-being. The Geographical Society of Ireland awarded her the Postgraduate Travel Award in 2024.
Besides her PhD research, Isha has worked on a project titled ‘Science Communication for Water Diplomacy in the Brahmaputra’ supported by the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO-IHE at IIT, Guwahati, and with the Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research at Banaras Hindu University.
Her thesis is being co-supervised by Dr Jimmy O’Keeffe (School of History and Geography) and Dr Susan Hegarty (DCU Futures, School of History and Geography).
Jinan Ashraf is the recipient of the Editing Press Laura Bassi Scholarship (Summer 2021) for research on neglected literary traditions and Ireland India Institute Ph.D. Fellow at the School of English at Dublin City University. Her doctoral study situates itself in the comparative colonial contexts of Irish and Indian Modernisms, focusing on James Joyce, the body, and the domestic novel. Her book chapters and articles are published in specialist journals/anthologies such as the James Joyce Broadsheet (University of Leeds), the Dublin James Joyce Journal (University College Dublin), Joyce Studies in Italy, The Modernist Review, and English Teachers’ Accounts (a Routledge publication on English Studies in India, ed. Nandana Dutta), with a book chapter forthcoming. Jinan has worked as an editor at The Modernist Review, published by the British Association of Modernist Studies, and was featured in the November 2022 issue of the Times Literary Supplement during her editorial role. She has conducted teaching workshops and modules on aspects of modernism and the twentieth-century novel in Trinity College, Dublin and Dublin City University. Her thesis is being supervised by Professor Derek Hand and Professor Eugene McNulty.
Mahesh Kushwaha is a PhD candidate at the School of Law and Government at
Dublin City University and non-resident fellow at the Centre of Social Innovation and Foreign Policy (CESIF), Nepal. He has an International Master in Security,
Intelligence, and Strategic Studies (IMSISS), jointly awarded by the University of
Glasgow, Dublin City University, and Charles University in Prague, and a Bachelor’s
in Liberal Arts from Soka University of America. Mahesh has worked at think tanks in Nepal and India and has published multiple research reports on foreign policy and security issues. His current research explores the securitization of borders and its implications for borderland communities.
Marcel M. Schwarz is a doctoral candidate at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. He earned his Master’s degree in Modern Indian Studies from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, with a study-abroad-term at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Indian Studies from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, having also spent a semester abroad at the Universidad Pública de Navarra in Pamplona.
Prior to commencing his PhD at DCU he worked at the Karl Kübel Stiftung, in Bensheim, Germany, on projects which aim to improve food security and contribute towards poverty alleviation in India, the Philippines and Myanmar. During his occupation at the Bertelsmann Stiftung he was part of the coordination team for editing the study titled “The Indian Social Enterprise Landscape – Innovation for an Inclusive Future”.
His areas of research interest are mainly situated at the intersection of party politics, identity politics and voting behaviour, with a special emphasis on contemporary India.
At DCU he works on assessing party politics in modern India and the extension of the voter base in the case of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His thesis is supervised by Dr. Jivanta Schottli and Prof. Iain McMenamin.
Nikhil Dasari is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Law & Government at Dublin City University. His research thesis is to examine the process of the Indian Foreign Policy Decision Making and the interplay of Domestic Politics on it. He is particularly interested in the cognitive approaches to Foreign Policy Decision Making.
Recently, he was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin, for Hilary term 2023, where he taught about the intersection of technology and international politics, as well as the politics of Artificial Intelligence.
He has an overall work experience of over nine years spanning across multiple sectors, interspersed with higher education. Before his latest Master’s at SOAS, he had initially worked in Retail Banking and then in India’s largest Energy company in Public Sector, IndianOil Corporation. After London, he worked with Gateway House, a foreign policy Think Tank in Mumbai, and with the Indian Music Industry as a policy and management consultant.
He has a Master’s degree in International Studies and Diplomacy from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London; a Master’s in Human Resources Management and Labour Relations from Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, and a B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad.
His research supervisor is Prof. Jivanta Schottli.
Nithya Kothenmaril is a doctoral candidate at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland. With over a decade of experience working with women engaged in community-level organizations in Kerala, India, she began her doctoral research on the experiences of elected Dalit women representatives in Kerala's panchayats. Initially funded by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Dublin City University, her research is now supported by the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship from the Irish Research Council. Her thesis is being co-supervised by Dr. Valesca Lima and Dr. Jivanta Schottli from the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University.
Nithya holds a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She also earned a Master’s degree in Social Work from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India, and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Calicut University, Kerala, India. Prior to pursuing her M.Phil., she worked as a Research Officer at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Priyanka Borpujari is an award-winning journalist with 18 years of experience, reporting on issues of human rights from across India, El Salvador, Indonesia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Argentina and Japan. Her work has appeared in several international publications including Columbia Journalism Review, National Geographic, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Diplomat, TRT World, and several others. She was previously a business journalist in the Indian capital of New Delhi, and a crime reporter with Mumbai Mirror where she also covered the 26/11 terror attacks. She was named the 2012-2013 IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow to recognise her journalism covering issues of forceful acquisition of land owned by indigenous peoples.
In 2015, Borpujari was one of the India-Germany Media Ambassadors and a guest journalist with the German political weekly Die Zeit. In early 2016, she was a Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY, USA, where she taught a course on media and human rights. Previously, she has also taught a course on community media at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Apart from being invited regularly to speak at various fora about her journalism, Borpujari has been granted several reporting fellowships.
Between 2018 and 2019, she has walked 1,200kms across north and northeast India with two-time Pulitzer-winning journalist Paul Salopek, on his 33,000-km Out of Eden Walk, that traces the path of human migration. She is currently researching the intersection of gender, gerontology and social media within the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) at DCU. She is a member of the Creative Anthropology Network, and co-creator of the Ethnographic Tarot Project.
Website: https://priyankaborpujari.com/
Revathy Kuttykrishnan Jayakumari is a Research Ireland-funded PhD student at the Dublin City University School of History and Geography. She is a migration and diaspora studies researcher with research interests in Indian diaspora, labour migration, and intersectional migrant lived experiences. Her research examines diaspora diplomacy and community formation among the Indian diaspora in Ireland within the Research Ireland-funded project "Diaspora Diplomacy and the Migration-Development Nexus" (2025-2029), supervised by Dr Jonathan Harris. She graduated in 2025 with an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s in Migration and Intercultural Relations. Revathy was an intern with the Labour Mobility Division of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in Vienna.
Seán Rainford is a PhD candidate in the School of Law & Government at Dublin City University. His doctoral research focuses on limitations to the scope of constitutional amendment powers‒ how far a constitution can be changed‒ by comparing a number of countries' amendment rules. A vital case study in this project is the 'basic structure doctrine' in Indian constitutional law. His research also includes comparative analysis of the Irish and Indian constitutions, particularly their respective approaches to constitutional amendment. The research project aims to present a civic republican approach to the issue of constitutional amendment. His research is funded by the Irish Research Council and is supervised by Dr Tom Hickey from the School of Law & Government, DCU. Seán holds a BA, an LLB, and an MA (Politics & Sociology) from the University of Galway. His research areas are comparative constitutional law and political and legal philosophy. He has also worked as a constitutional law lecturer and a tutor in public law and politics modules.
Somya Dixit is a doctoral student at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland. My research thesis is titled ‘Realising Rights: Framing Legislative and Policy Reform to Improve the Lived Experiences of Intersex People in Ireland and Malta.’ This study aims to understand the lived experiences of intersex people, their families, and key stakeholders in the context of law, utilising Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenology and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s legal hermeneutics. Her work forms part of the broader research initiative, “Intersex – New Interdisciplinary Approaches” (INIA), which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant.
She holds a master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Leeds, UK, where she developed a strong interest in advocating for the rights of the LGBTI+ community, particularly the intersex community. Her master’s thesis, ‘Protecting Intersex: The Need to Recognise Intersex Status and Their Autonomy by Employing Substantive Equality,’ focused on intersex people’s legal recognition and protection of their rights in Australia and Malta.
During her undergraduate studies in law, she was involved in several rights-based projects, including women’s rights (IGNITE), children’s rights (MAD), and LGBTI+ rights (FLOYDING INDIA). Her broader research interests span the human rights of the LGBTI+ community, women, and children. She is also eager to explore research related to the human rights of migrant and refugee women, children, and LGBTI people.
Research Supervisors: Dr Tanya Ní Mhuirthile (School of Law and Government), Dr Mel Duffy (School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health).
Sukanya Shukla is a PhD candidate in Applied Ethics at DCU. She is interested in the ethics of behavioural interventions targeted at environmental transitions. Sukanya finished her undergraduate degree in Applied Physics at BIT, Mesra in India. She did her postgraduate degree in Philosophy of Science from LSE. Sukanya’s PhD project explores ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of green nudges as a response to the environmental crisis. Sukanya’s research views the psychological foundations of behavioural sciences through normative lenses. She argues for trust as a coherent criterion for designing ethical frameworks for transitioning individual environmental behaviour.
Besides her PhD project, Sukanya has worked on a qualitative assessment of a programme funded through Creative Ireland and an ethical assessment of a project funded by Horizon 2020 by the European Commission. She received a fellowship from the Mercatus Centre at George Mason University in 2023. For the past two years, Sukanya was involved in organising the Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders. In the past, Sukanya has worked with the Centre for Justice, Law, and Society (CJLS) and NITI Aayog in India.
PhD Supervisors: Dr Fiachra O’Brolchain (Primary), Dr Padraig Murphy, Dr Pat Brereton.
Timmayo Thumra is a PhD student at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. She has a Bachelor’s degree with honours in Economics from St. Edmund’s College, (Shillong) India; and holds a Master’s degree in Media and Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai). Presently, she is a fully funded PhD candidate, with Professor John Doyle, as her supervisor at DCU. Her PhD research is on plural governance (of state and non-state structures), looking closely at how people navigate different forms of authority in the Naga areas of Northeast India.
She has worked on two film projects- ‘The Dancing Lion of Mazgaon’ and ‘Na Feriwala Kshetra’ and has an interest in filmmaking.
She is currently involved in a multi-stakeholder food security project in Malawi under the guidance of Prof Philip MacDonagh, with the Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations, DCU as the research partner.
Toshali is a Phd student at the School of History and Geography, Dublin City University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of transportation planning, urban mobility, the built environment, collective memory, political ecology, sustainability and the nuances of everyday life and space. In particular, she seeks to explore the cultural significance of ‘speed’ through the lens of urban transportation systems and how the global fetishism for increased speed is reshaping urban lives and spaces. Before joining the PhD program, Toshali worked as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Community Knowledge (Delhi), where she authored and illustrated a children’s book, supported by Humanities Across Borders (IIAS). She holds a master’s degree in urban studies from Dr B R Ambedkar University, Delhi and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Loreto College, University of Calcutta. As a researcher, she aspires to integrate geographic information systems (GIS), urban sketching, digital storytelling among others to gain deeper insights into urban challenges.
Yameema has been involved in social justice issues, mother tongue education, theatre, Indian classical music, Indian cinema and India Pakistan peace initiatives. She has worked in education, and journalism and worked as Oxfams Country Director in Pakistan. She has been an activist and an educator, a student of music and both acted in and directed theatre. She has worked with bonded workers and labour unions in Pakistan, on women and law, and run Pakistan's only bilingual school. She studied for her M.Phil in Politics from Sussex University and is currently doing her PhD in the School of Law and Government, and is active in the Indian Classical Music Society of Ireland. Her publications include numerous journalistic articles:
Living in Fear – Pakistan’s Unequal Citizens (a report on religious minorities). 2015, by Yameema Mitha, Alyia Bano, Zainab Ali. The Asia Foundation.
Obedience to the Amir: An early text on the Afghan Taliban Movement. 2015, by Michael Semple and Yameema Mitha (2015). First Draft Publishing.
Pakistan – Tradition and Change: Oxfam Country Profile. 1996Yameema Mitha & Khavar Mumtaz (1996). Heinemann.
Another form of Stoning (Women quarry workers). 1989Mitha et al, ASR Publications, Lahore.
Solid Foundations, Solid Contributions (Women in the building trade) 1989 Mitha et al, ASR Publications, Lahore.
Building your dreams (Bonded workers in the brick kilns) 1989 Mitha et al, ASR Publications Lahore.
Agar hai jazba-i-tameer zinda (in Urdu) (Women labour in the informal and formal sector) 1989 Mitha et al, ASR Publications, Lahore.
Alumni/Friends of III
Anish Tiwari
Dr Anish Tiwari is a Manager in the Financial Services Consulting team at PwC Ireland. He is an entrepreneurial economist by training and holds a PhD in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from DCU Business School, Dublin City University. His doctoral thesis examined entrepreneurial acquisitions and post-acquisition growth/degrowth (primarily headcount but also top-line and bottom-line) of Private Equity/Venture Capital-backed Indian entrepreneurial firms. He has also written and published on entrepreneurial ecosystems and entrepreneurship policy.
Anish was a finalist for the Frank Rock Medal, 2022, awarded for research that translates to practical solutions for the industry and promotes business growth. He is an erstwhile Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellow and completed his PhD under the European Commission-funded Global Indian European Training Network. Previously, he was a V.V. Giri Global Excellence Scholar at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin, and was briefly employed as an Associate at Deloitte Ireland.
Buster N. Hartvigsen
Buster N. Hartvigsen is a graduate student on the Erasmus Mundus International Master in Security, Intelligence, and Strategic Studies program, which is co-organised by the University of Glasgow in Scotland, Dublin City University in Ireland, and Charles University in the Czech Republic. He holds an undergraduate degree in International Studies from Roskilde University and a diploma degree in Military Studies from the Royal Danish Defence College.
Previous to starting his master's, Buster spent five years as an active-duty officer in the Royal Danish Air Force as a command and reporting officer. In his last position, Buster served as the director of education for all command and reporting officer cadets in the Air Force.
His research interests centre on military affairs, with a specific focus on nuclear weapons strategy and the dynamics of nuclear dyads, especially the Indo-Pakistani dyad and the effect of missile defence systems on its stability.
Fióna Bolger
Fióna is a poet, creative facilitator, editor and mentor who has lived mainly in Ireland and India. She is interested in plurilingual writing across languages and borders. Publications include poetry in The Brown Critique, Muse India, Chattahoochee Review, Southword and Poetry Ireland Review and collections Compound of Words (Yoda Press, Delhi 2019) and Love in the Original Language (Salmon Poetry, 2022). She has co-edited All the Words Between (Yoda Press, 2017), Dubylon (DCC, 2023) and Kin, Anthology of Roma, Traveller and Nomadic Women Writers (Salmon Poetry 2024). She has received two Agility Awards from the Irish Arts Council. www.fionabolgerpoetry.com
Giovanna Rampazzo
Giovanna Rampazzo graduated in 2017 from TU Dublin with a PhD thesis entitled “Formations of Indian Cinema in Dublin: A Participatory Researcher-Fan Ethnography”. Her thesis explored the emergent and globalising Bollywood film culture in Dublin, offering a timely analysis of the presence of Hindi cinema in the Irish capital in terms of consumption, circulation and production.
She currently works in the TU Dublin Graduate Research School office, where she organises training events for research students, assists the Head of the Graduate Research School in projects relating to the PhD programme, and is Secretary of the Research Programme Committee.
She received her BA in Film Studies from the University of Wolverhampton in 2007 and in 2009 was awarded an MPhil in Film Theory and History by Trinity College Dublin.
Martin O’Donoghue
Dr Martin O’Donoghue is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt where his work examines the Westminster legacy and the establishment of parliament in India and Ireland. Among his publications to date, he is the author of The Legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Independent Ireland, 1922-1949 (Liverpool University Press, 2019), and with Emer Purcell, editor of John Redmond and Irish Parliamentary Traditions (UCD Press, 2024).
Martin was awarded his PhD from the University of Galway and subsequently taught history at the University of Sheffield, Northumbria University, and the University of Limerick. In Spring 2025, he will be a Max Planck Law Exchange Fellow at University College London. He has also been awarded visiting fellowships at the Humanities Institute, University College Dublin, and the Arts and Humanities Institute, Maynooth University. He is a former recipient of the National Library of Ireland Research Studentship and he is the current Director of the Irish Association of Professional Historians.
Mohd. Tahir
Dr. Mohd Tahir is an Assistant Professor at Symbiosis School of International Studies (SSIS), Symbiosis International University, India. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland, and an MA in International Peace Studies from International University of Japan. Dr. Tahir previously served as Assistant Professor at DCU’s School of Law and Government (2019-2020). He is recipient of Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022), Daniel O’Hare PhD Scholarship (2014), and Konosuke Matsushita Memorial Foundation Scholarship (2012).
Dr. Tahir’s research focuses on peace and conflict studies, South Asian geopolitics, Kashmir, social movements, youth politics, and decolonisation of knowledge. His work has been published in Social Movement Studies, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies, The Palgrave Handbook of New Directions in Kashmir Studies, The Routledge Handbook of Critical Kashmir Studies, Irish Studies in International Affairs, among others. He has also contributed to think tanks and media outlets such as Armed Conflict Survey, South Asian Voices, LSE Blogs, The Wire, The Caravan etc.
Currently, Dr. Tahir serves as Associate Editor for Humanities and Social Sciences Communications journal (Springer Nature) and is Guest Editor for the collection titled ‘Politics and the people in India: modern and historical perspectives.’
Nasrin Khandoker
Dr Nasrin Khandoker is a feminist and anthropologist working as a post-doc researcher on the CyberSocial project at UCC. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Maynooth University and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Limerick and Galway University. She was an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University. Her research interests are gender and sexuality, Bangla folk song, migration, gender-based violence, emotion and affect, embodiment and post-colonial critiques.
Oliver Scanlan
Oliver Scanlan is a Research Fellow at Dublin City University’s Conflict Institute. He holds a PhD from Dublin City University, a Masters in Contemporary Asian Studies from the University of Amsterdam and a BA in Modern Chinese Studies from the University of Durham.
His research interests focus on Indigenous Peoples’ land and forest rights in South Asia and Taiwan, and how they relate to global debates concerning economic inequality, gender, race and climate change. His work has been published in Land Use Policy and Geoforum.
Oliver has won competitive research grants from the European Union and the International Labour Organisation. He has held visiting fellowships at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, National Chengchi University, and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
Rabia Qusien
Dr Rabia Qusien is a postdoctoral associate at the Alliance for a Sustainable Future, George Washington University. She worked as a part-time lecturer at the School of Communications, Dublin City University and a research assistant at the University of Lahore, Pakistan. Her research focuses on environmental and climate change communication in the Global South. Her PhD, undertaken at the School of Communications, Dublin City University, examines media coverage of extreme weather events (floods and heatwaves) and environmental impact events (smog) in Pakistan, as well as various structural barriers for environmental reporters in the Global South. Her research also delves into the trade-off between the economy vs. the environment in media discourse in the context of large development projects. Her postdoctoral research is exploring climate-health communication in the Global North and the Global South.
Subhashini Goda
Subhashini Goda is a multidisciplinary artist and an academic specialising in bharatanatyam. She is the recipient of the Emma O'Kane Bursary Award 2024 and one of the Dublin Fringe Weft Studio Artists for 2024-25. She has a Masters in English literature and a Choreomundus Masters (EMJMD) in Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage, and is currently pursuing an IRC-funded PhD in Dance, her research interests centre on migration, place-making, and the politics of identity. Since moving to Ireland in 2021, she has showcased her artistic work at Clonmel Junction Arts Festival 2023, Cashel Arts Festival 2023, Festival of Irish Choreography 2023, Dublin Fringe Festival (“Passports”) 2023, Imagine Arts Festival (Waterford) 2023 and Scene and Heard 2024. As a scholar-practitioner, she has presented her research at the ICTM 2022 annual conference, the 2023 Modes of Capture dance symposium UL, and a research-led performance at the Performance Studies International Conference SA 2023. She has participated in the Doctoral Workshop for Ethnomusicologists at the University of Hildesheim between 18-21 June 2024 and organised UCD School of Music's first-ever Indian Classical Dance Symposium, “Routes Beyond Roots” on 14-15 June 2024. Currently she is working on two articles for publication in 2025.
Tapasya Narang
Dr Tapasya Narang is the first Irish Research Council Enterprise Scheme Postdoctoral Fellow supported by the National Library of Ireland. She is currently based at UCD School of English, Drama and Film. Previously, she worked as Lecturer at the Department of English, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (2022-23); School of English, Dublin City University (2021-22); and Centre for Writing and Communication, Ashoka University, India (2016-17). She also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher under the Intersectional Humanities project at Maynooth University’s Arts and Humanities Institute (Summer 2023). In 2022, she won the Arts Council’s Agility Award to conduct research on Irish women’s small press productions.
Tapasya’s profile combines academic research with social engagement activities. As a researcher, literary editor, and arts administrator, she foregrounds literary contributions of practitioners of radical aesthetics, women, ethnic minority groups, and working-class individuals from India, and Ireland. Her postdoctoral project focuses on little magazines from the 1960s and 70s Dublin and Bombay; it assesses how little magazines provide platforms for alternate literary movements led by minority groups and women.
Tapasya is appointed to various service roles within and beyond the academy. At the National Library of Ireland, she is engaged in outreach activities that draw attention to the Library’s twentieth century periodicals and ephemeral collections. She serves the Advisory Board of Bombay Poets Archive at Kroch Library, Cornell University. She is the social media manager for Irish Association of South Asian Studies. She is also on the Advisory Board of Dedalus Press and is involved in promoting diversity among its contributors. At DCU, she was a member of MELLIE (Migrant English Language, Literacy and Intercultural Education) project and was involved in cultural exchange with sanctuary seekers in Ireland.
Tapasya guest edited the 11th issue of Poetry Ireland’s supplement, Trumpet, that foregrounded social critique in ephemeral and short-lived poetry publications from Ireland and beyond. In 2022, she worked with Cuirt International Festival in conceiving Breaking Ground Ireland, a booklet that celebrates over 90 illustrators and writers from ethnic minorities in Ireland. She also actively participates in literary festivals, including Dublin Book Festival and Cuirt International Festival, to celebrate emerging poets in Ireland. As an emerging critic in the the Diversifying Irish Poetry project, she regularly writes for Poetry Ireland Review and RTE Brainstorm, among other platforms. Her monograph project titled, Dissident Poetics: A Comparative Study of Derek Mahon and Arun Kolatkar, is under review with Syracuse University Press.
She can be contacted on tapasyanarang1@gmail.com.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (PEER REVIEWED)
(July 2024) ‘make way poet, jaywalking’: Play and Irony in Arun Kolatkar’s Work.’ Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 60.4, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2024.2378047 (SCOPUS, Q1 journal)
(November 2022) “Mere Technique and True Vision’: Derek Mahon’s Early Works in Little Magazines.’ Irish University Review, 52.2 <DOI: 10.3366/iur.2022.0571>
(2019) ‘Indian Mythology in Derek Mahon’s An Autumn Wind’ in Nation & Its Margins: Rethinking Communities, Chandra, A. and Chandra, C. (ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, pp. 128-38.
(forthcoming, November 2024) co-authored with Rossane Gallen, Deirdre Flynn, Taylor, Victor Pacheco, J Javier Torres-Fernández, and Sandrine Uwase Ndahiro. ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Irish Studies.’ Irish University Review, 54.2. SCOPUS, Q1 journal
(Forthcoming, 2024) “Memory Unexpurgated’: Teaching Through Ephemeral Productions’ in Teaching Irish Poetry in English. Batten, G and Teekell Hayes, A (eds.) Modern Language Association: MLA Options for Teaching.
(Accepted, 2025) ‘British South Asian Spoken-Word Poetry and Sites of Community Practice’ in In the Event of Poetry: Tradition, Innovation and Meditation in British Poetry Performance, Novak, J (ed.)
(Accepted, 2025) ‘The Poetics and Politics of Emerging Transnationalism: Reading the Dubliner’ in Edinburgh Companion to Irish Literature and Periodical Culture, D’hoker, E and Bouman, P (ed.) Edinburgh University Press.
MAGAZINE EDITORSHIP
(December 2022) Editor of Poetry Ireland’s Trumpet 11.
SELECTED OTHER PUBLICATIONS
(2024) ‘Traveller Poets in their own words’, Books Ireland. (https://booksirelandmagazine.com/traveller-poets-reflect-on-their-lives…)
(2024) Little Magazines from Bombay and Transnational Literary Networks, The Honest Ulsterman. (https://www.huarchive.co/items/show/430)
(2021, among top 5 most read) ‘What do Poets have to Say About Isolation and Quarantine?’ published by RTE Brainstorm. <https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0204/1194999-poetry-covid-19-isolati…;
(2019) ‘Icarus, the Little Dublin Magazine Which Soared’, published by RTE Brainstorm. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1121/1094344-icarus-the-little-dubli…;
(2015) Contributed to information booklets on Body, Alternate Sexualities, Sexual Harassment and Accommodation on Indian University Campuses.
SELECTED BOOK REVIEWS
(forthcoming, 2024) About Meadowlands Dawn for Books Ireland.
(forthcoming, 2024) A Review of Rachel Hegarty’s Wilflowers on the Darndale Roundabout, Katie Donovan’s May Swim and Damien Donnelly’s Back From Away in Poetry Ireland Review 144.
(2024) ‘All in Pieces’: A Review of Amy Abdullah Barry’s Flirting with Tigers, Victoria Melkovska’s for the birds and Sarala Estruch’s After all we have Travelled, Poetry Ireland Review 142.
(2023) ‘Re-Writing’: A Review of Nithy Kasa’s Palm Wine Tapper and the Boy at Jericho, Nandi Jola’s Home is Neither Here nor There, Rachel Hegarty’s Dancing with Memory and Luke Morgan’s Beast, Poetry Ireland Review 139.
(2022) ‘Midnight in Paris’: A Review of Hope Mirrlees’s Paris: A Poem and Gloria Gervitz’s Migrations, The Poetry Review.
(2022) ‘Cultured’: A Review of Grace Wilentz’s The Limit of Light and Bebe Ashley’s Gold Light Shining, Poetry Ireland Review 136.
(2020) ‘Life at its Fragile Cracking’: Book Review of Fiona Bolger’s a compound of words, Anne Tannam’s Tides Shifting and Erin Fornoff’s Hymn to the Reckless in Trumpet No. 9.
POETRY
(August 2024) ‘Transitions’ in Flaire 23.
(July 2024) ‘The Kiss’ in Flaire 22.
SELECTED CONFERENCES AND INVITED LECTURES
‘Irish Women’s Small Press Publications 1970s to 1980s.’ Intersectional Humanities Seminar Series, Arts and Humanities Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 19th October, 2023, Maynooth University, Invited Lecture.
‘Transnational Reading Networks and Little Magazines from Bombay (1960-80).’ Un-disciplining Reading, University College Dublin and Royal Irish Academy, 15th September, 2023, Royal Irish Academy, Conference Presentation.
‘‘make way poet, jaywalking’: Arun Kolatkar’s Irony and Humour.’ College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, University College Cork, 30th November, 2022, University College Cork, Invited Lecture.
‘Play and Irony in Derek Mahon’s Work.’ Annual Conference, The International Association of Irish Literatures and The University of Limerick, 28th July, 2022, University of Limerick, Conference Presentation.
‘Non-Translation/ Adaptation in Derek Mahon’s Late Works.’ Annual Conference, The International Association of Irish Literatures and University of Lodz, 21st July 2021, Online, Conference Presentation.
‘Multilingual Speakers and Poetic Expression’ Ireland India Institute Doctoral Colloquium, 12th February, 2022, Online, Conference Presentation.
‘Establishing Identities: Early Published works of Arun Kolatkar and Derek Mahon.’ School of English, Dublin City University, 20th November, 2019, All Hallows Campus, Grace Park Road, Dublin, Conference Presentation.
‘The Wings of Icarus and ezra: Material Histories of Derek Mahon and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s Early Published Works’, Annual Conference, The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures and Trinity College, 23rd July, 2019, Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin, Conference Presentation.
‘The Aesthetics and Politics of Paratext: Studying Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s ezra and damn you.’ Annual Conference, The British Association of South Asian Studies, 5th April 2019, Durham University, United Kingdom, Conference Presentation.
‘The Poetics and Politics of Cosmopolitan Modernism: Reading the Works of Derek Mahon and Arun Kolatkar’, Mapping Irish Studies in the 21st Century, Université Sorbonne, 9th June 2018, Collège des Irlandais, Latin Quarters, Paris, Conference Presentation.
‘Temporality in Jejuri: Mangling Nationalism and Post-colonial Pieties’, The Second Annual Conference on South Asia, Ireland India Institute, 27th April, 2018, All Hallows Campus, Grace Park Road, Dublin, Conference Presentation.
‘Indian Mythology in Northern Irish Derek Mahon’s An Autumn Wind’, The Eighth Conference on East- West Intercultural Relations, University of California, Merced and Delhi University, 17th March, 2016, Ramjas College, Kamala Nagar, Delhi, Conference Presentation.
‘Magic Reality of the Global South: Reading Marquez’s Chronicles of a Death Foretold’, Other Spaces: Towards the Global South, DAAD and Eberhard Karls Universitat Tuebingen, 7th October, 2015, Brechtbau Wilhelmstraße, Tuebingen, Conference Presentation.