People

• ‌Ann Byrne
• Vesna Malesevic

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•  Áine Macken-Walsh

Áine Macken-Walsh is a Research Officer at Teagasc’s Rural Economy and Development Programme (REDP). Her primary interests are in cultural sociology with a specific focus on agriculture. Áine’s research activity is centred on exploring the socio-cultural dimensions of questions such as farm-level disease management; joint farming ventures; and multi-actor participatory processes in agricultural extension. Áine is collaborating with Teagasc extension personnel, industry stakeholders, and international and national academic partners in this funded research programme.

Áine is Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway contributing post-graduate modules on gendered perspectives on agriculture and qualitative methods. She is currently co-supervising five PhD research projects funded by Teagasc’s Walsh Fellowship Scheme.

• Una Murray ‌‌

‌‌Dr. Una Murray is a part-time Lecturer and an International Development Consultant. Since 1995, Dr. Murray has been providing consultancy services for a range of international development agencies, particularly amongst the specialised agencies of the United Nations (e.g. ILO, FAO, UNICEF etc). In addition to NUI Galway, Dr. Murray also lectures on international development in UCC, NUI Maynooth, MIC Limerick and has lectures for UCC in two universities in Ethiopia.

Dr. Murray’s research interests and work ranges from development policy processes to mainstreaming issues in development institutions, to facilitation in farmer field school initiatives. Key areas of specialisation include: gender analysis, gender mainstreaming, gender audits, rural development, child labour, project monitoring and evaluation, microfinance and small enterprise development in rural areas. In recent years, Dr. Murray has undertaken many evaluations of programmes, including those focused on UN inter-agency work and joint donor programmes. Dr. Murray also develops training programmes for UN staff and project staff, and is an experienced facilitator. Dr. Murray has worked in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana, Laos, Iran, Thailand, Sri Lanka, The Philippines and central Europe. Outside the university sector, Dr. Murray has worked as a consultant for Irish Aid, the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN in Vienna, UNICEF, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNCTAD, the EC, The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the International Federation of the Red Cross, The Irish Consortium on Gender Based Violence, Trócaire, Dtalk, Comhámh.

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Oluwatumininu Adebayo (2019-present)

Project title: The Portrayal of Gender Stereotypes and its Impact on the Career and Social Life of Professional Female Artistes in Nigeria

This PhD research aims to empirically investigate and draw attention to the life experiences of female practitioners in the Nollywood Film industry. The study will analyse the impact of negative stereotypes on film actresses and how it influences their career trajectory. The research will further investigate the experiences of the women in balancing work and family responsibilities, as women and professionals in a male dominated industry in Nigeria.

• Funding: PhD International Merit Scholarship
• Project Supervisor: Dr. Stacey Scriver

Jennifer Byrne (2020  – present)

Jennifer's research explores the relationship between gender and disability in the Global South, focusing specifically on the opportunities available to women with disabilities in terms of education and employment. Through using a mixed methods approach, she aims to spotlight the voices of women themselves, to share empirical evidence of the marginalisation and discrimination they face, as well as how best they can be supported to overcome this. She further aims to use recommendations made by participants to influence inclusive NGO programming both in Ireland and abroad. 

• Funding: NUI Awards Travelling Doctoral Studentship in Sociology, Disability & Gender Studies.

• Project supervisor: Dr. Stacey Scriver

Kowsalya Duraisamy (2021-present)

Project title: Working Women, Health and Development: A Gendered Health-Framework for Sustainable Development in Sri Lanka

Kowsalya’s PhD research intends to study gender dimensions of occupational health and the significance of health promotion of working women in stimulating sustainable development in Sri Lanka from a Feminist Political Economic perspective. This study treats labour laws and occupational health legislations as areas of prime importance through which gender-based health equity and women’s occupational health, safety and wellbeing can be appropriately addressed. Therefore, it aims to explore the ways to incorporate gender analysis into the country’s labour laws and occupational health legislations to increase women workforce efficiency and Productivity.

• Funding: Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development Operation (AHEAD), Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka (Funded by the World Bank)
• Project Supervisor: Dr. Nata Duvvury

Sheryl Fairchild (2016 – present)

Project title: Global Women’s Studies in the American Community College Classroom: Theory, Pedagogy and Student Identity

Commencing in 2016, the purpose of my doctoral research project is to theorize the complex and contradictory learning environment of the global women’s studies classroom in the United States, bringing together feminist theories, activist perspectives, and considerations of the material conditions of women’s day-to-day lives. Rooted in my own teaching practice, the project will consider not only how theory and practice map onto the classroom, but also how “global women’s studies” influences student knowledge and identity. I am particularly interested in the community college classroom where a majority of students live materially in the Two-Thirds World (Mohanty, 2003), inhabiting their own transnational refugee and immigrant family histories and identities, while situated in the privileged location of being “so lucky to live in the U.S.”

• Project supervisor: Dr. Niamh Reilly 

Lorrie Hayman (2022 – present)

Project title: Cyber-located Sexual Violence: Exploring Women's Experiences in Ireland

Lorrie's research explores women’s lived experiences of unwanted negative, sexually-based behaviours/actions occurring online and via Internet-connected devices, including nonconsensual image-based behaviours/actions and unwanted comments/threats/sexual requests, collectively referred to as Cyber-located Sexual Violence. She applies Feminist Research Practice in her mixed-methods quantitative-qualitative research.

• Funding: Irish Research Council, Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship (from 2023), formally a Hardiman Research Scholar (2022-2023)
• Project supervisor: Dr Stacey Scriver

Muhammad Sabir

Project title: National Economy and Violence against Women and Girls in Pakistan: In Search of Policy Choices for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth

Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) is generally treated as a social issue and a significant violation of human rights. However, there are various dimensions of VAWG, which have serious macroeconomic implications that have serious consequences for inclusive economic growth. This PhD research aims to empirically investigate these macroeconomic implications based on Social Accounting Matrix and Computable General Equilibrium model and offer policy choices for sustainable and inclusive growth in Pakistan.

• Funding: UK Department for International Development (2015-present)
• Project supervisors: Dr Nata Duvvury

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Bina Agarwal

Visiting scholar (April 2023)

Bina Agarwal is Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK. She has been President of the International Society for Ecological Economics; President of the International Association for Feminist Economics; and visiting professor at Cambridge, Harvard, and Princeton. She holds several honorary doctorates.

Her over 100 academic papers and 13 books, include the award-winning book: A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge University Press 1994); Gender and Green Governance (OUP, 2010) and Gender Challenges (OUP, 2016), a three-volume compendium of her selected papers. Her pioneering work on gender and land rights and on environmental governance has had global impact. In 2005 she led a successful civil society campaign to make India’s Hindu Inheritance law gender equal. She is currently working on group farming in Asia and Europe.

Agarwal’s many awards include a Padma Shri from India’s President; several book prizes; the Leontief Prize ‘for advancing the frontiers of economic thought’; the Louis Malassis International Scientist Prize for ‘an outstanding career in agricultural development,’ and the International Balzan Prize 2017. She is only the second woman from the Global South to win the Balzan prize since its inception in 1961. See also, www.binaagarwal.com.

Audrey Rousseau 

Visiting scholar (April 2023)

Audrey Rousseau is an Associate professor in sociology at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Canada. She specializes in the study of contemporary memorial processes, including the politics of recognition and redress of historical injustices in relation to colonial and gender-based violence experienced by Indigenous peoples in Canada, as well as the confinement and forced labour of thousands of women in religious institutions in Ireland (18-20th centuries). Aside from two book chapters (University Press of Florida and Manchester University Press), she has mostly published in French-speaking journals such as Études Irlandaises, Études Féministes, and Criminocorpus 

Professor Haroon Akram Lodhi, Trent University

Visiting scholar (April 2023)

Haroon Akram-Lodhi is Professor of Economics and International Development Studies at Trent University, Peterborough, Canada. An Associate Editor of Feminist Economics, his most recent (co-edited) book is Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies (Edward Elgar, 2022).

Rosaleen McDonagh

Visiting scholar practitioner (November 2015)

Rosaleen McDonagh is a writer, playwright and leading feminist in the Traveller community who has been involved in many initiatives on Traveller women’s issues.  She is currently a doctoral candidate at NorthumbriaUniversity, reading for a PhD titled "An Exploration of the Relevance of the Affirmative Model in Relation to Traveller Identity."  Rosaleen earned a BA degree in Theology at Trinity College Dublin, followed by an M.Phil in Ethnic and Racial Studies.  Before embarking on PhD research, she worked in Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre for ten years, managing the Violence against Women programme.  

Vanesa Camacho

Global Women’s Studies and Gender Arc Visiting Researcher (2015-16)

Vanesa Camacho is a Language Assistant in Spanish at the University of Limerick and a visiting researcher associate with the Centre for Global Women’s Studies at NUI Galway for the 2015-2016 academic year. Her research interests include post-feminist and queer theory and Beatriz Preciado´s political theory of the body. She is currently working on her PhD, supervised by Dr. Pilar Cuder-Domínguez of Huelva University

Mayesha Alam

Joint Global Women’s Studies & Moore Institutes Visiting Scholar (June-July 2014)

Mayesha Alam is Assistant Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women Peace and Security Washington, DC, and in this role, manages the Institute's various projects. Mayesha co-teaches a graduate seminar on Women, Peace and Security with Ambassador Melanne Verveer in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is the author of Women and Transitional Justice: Progress and Persistent Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Caroline Bettinger-Lopez

Visiting scholar (May 2013)

Caroline Bettinger-López is an Associate Professor of Clinical Legal Education and Director of the Human Rights Clinic at the School of Law, University of Miami. Her scholarship, advocacy, and teaching focus on international human rights law and advocacy including the implementation of human rights norms at the domestic level. Her main regional focus is the US and Latin America, and her principal areas of interest include violence against women, gender and race discrimination, immigrants' rights, and clinical legal education.

Erin Eife

Visiting Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar  (2012-2013)

 I have always been greatly interested in gender and injustices faced by women. This interest led me to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research on women reentering into society after being incarcerated. After graduating from Fairfield University, I was granted this scholarship and subsequently, the opportunity to execute my own research project with the support of the Fulbright Commission and the Centre for Global Women’s Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway. During my time at the NUIG, I was fortunate enough to be advised by Dr. Niamh Reilly who guided me in my first original research project.  Dr. Reilly also offered the support of the Centre for Global Women’s Studies, wherein I was able to take courses that greatly helped in the formulation and execution of my project. The Centre offered a supportive environment and an engaging intellectual community. Thanks to the support of Dr. Reilly and the Centre for Global Women’s Studies, I was accepted to the University of Chicago, where I received a Master’s degree. I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As I continue on my academic journey, I will undoubtedly and continually use the skills I learned from my year as a Fulbrighter and as a member of the Centre for Global Women’s Studies

Odette Clarke

Global Women’s Studies and Gender Arc Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher (2011-2012)

Odette Clark’s primary research areas include a gender in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland, gender and emotional management in history and feminist pedagogy. She holds PhD in History from the University of Limerick, as well as a Diploma in Adult Education and a MA in Women’s Studies (also from the University of Limerick).

Rachel Pokora

Visiting Scholar (2010-2011)

Rachel Pokora is a Professor of Communications and Gender Studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She holds a PhD in Communications from Purdue University.  Her research areas include: organizational communication, focusing on gender, culture, dialogue, religion, power and authority. While in Galway, Rachel completed work on her book, Crisis of Catholic Authority: Faith and Power in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, which addresses power, authority and structure in the Roman Catholic Church.

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