DCU Academic wins Basil Chubb Prize

The annual award for the best PhD in political science at an Irish university in 2012 has gone to Dr Walt Kilroy of the DCU School of Law and Government.  The Basil Chubb Prize was awarded by the Political Studies Association of Ireland at its annual conference in TCD.

The chair of the adjudication committee said the field had been extremely strong but the decision was unanimous.  Walt’s thesis looks at the process of reintegrating ex-combatants into civilian life following the wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.  It found that those who had been more involved in the process and given a greater sense of ownership had better outcomes in terms of work and their economic situation.  His thesis was supervised by Dr John Doyle.

Walt is Associate Director of DCU’s Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, and has a longstanding interest in conflict.
He previously worked in development and in journalism, having been Deputy Foreign Editor for RTE.  Previous winners of the Basil Chubb Prize on the staff in DCU include Dr Michael Breen and Dr Eoin O’Malley.  This is the first time a PhD supervised in DCU has won the award.

Click here to read Dr Kilroy’s thesis in full.