Research Support

I am an Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Human Development, DCU, where I teach courses across the range of programme offerings on the Humanities (Human Development) and Education programmes. I am also Research Convener within the School of Human Development, a post which I have held since 2016. My academic background spans the fields of Comparative and International Education, Sociology, Applied Social Research and Psychology.  I hold a PhD in Comparative Education/Sociology from Columbia University, New York, as well as Masters Degrees in Sociology (MSc. in Applied Social Research) from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the Sociology of Education (EdM) from Teachers College, Columbia University. My undergraduate degree was in (Single Honours) Psychology from University College Dublin (UCD). 

My main teaching responsibilities are in the Sociology of Childhood and the Sociology of Education.  In addition to DCU, I have taught at Teachers College, Columbia University, University College Dublin, and SciencesPo University in Paris, as a visiting Professor. 

My research interests lie in an exploration of the subjective experiences of those who are ‘othered’ or marginalised by inequitable and discriminatory educational structures, relations, and practices, and with the broad pedagogical and ethical question of what it means to educate for social and global justice.   Much of my work to date has been concerned with disrupting comfortable assumptions about the role that education plays in resolving conflict, in fostering tolerance, or in promoting development.  I have published nationally and internationally on issues relating to racism and anti-racism, gender and sexuality, climate change and citizenship education.  Some of my most recent publications include an exploration of global citizenship education as a public pedagogy, the challenges of teaching ‘difficult’ or emotionally complex knowledge and the complexity of suicidality discourses among sexually minority youth.  

I am the DCU partner of a collaborative study conducted in partnership between students and staff from University College Cork, Dublin City University, and Maynooth University called "Disciplines Inquiring into Societal Challenges (DISCs).  Launched in early 2019 with funding from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, the project aims to better understand the views and experiences of staff across disciplines regarding their professional development in the themes of gender consciousness, interculturalism, and community. By examining the ways in which Third Level educators in the Irish context attempt to incorporate social justice principles into their pedagogical practices as well as within their wider academic engagements, this project seeks to create a basis of support for the greater professional development of teaching staff in these areas and design a viable national strategy for further training across all disciplines in Ireland. See discs.ie for further information about the project. 

My forthcoming book 'Affective Pedagogies, Emotion, and Social Justice' (to be published by Routledge) examines the centrality of feeling, emotion and affect in educating for social justice and global citizenship, with a particular emphasis on forms of knowledge that are ‘difficult’ or in some way traumatic or destabilising for learners (Britzman, 1998). Affective Pedagogies is premised on an understanding of learners as ‘feeling-thinking beings’ for whom cognition and emotion are two sides of the same coin, resulting in complex psycho-affective responses to learning.  The text provides a conceptual and analytical apparatus as well as practical insights to advance our understanding of the role that emotions play in teaching and learning and offers a blueprint for how various social, economic and ecological injustices can be meaningfully addressed through education.