Bio

Graham Gill-Emerson is a lecturer at Munster Technological University where he teaches on Counselling & Psychotherapy and Social Care programmes. He has over 20 years front facing experience in the fields of social inclusion, homelessness, addiction and mental health recovery, having worked in community and statutory services within these arenas. He holds a MSc in Psychotherapy, BA in Outdoor Education as well as various undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in counselling and clinical supervision. Graham has published on the subjects of trauma contagion, trauma informed care, and addiction recovery. He is passionate about understanding and developing systems of care and service delivery. His current research will examine the andragogical underpinnings of counselling training in Ireland.

Proposal

There is much research evidence identifying the core aspects of effective therapy (Moloney, 2016) and qualities of effective therapists (Heinonen & Nissen-Lie, 2020; Bernes, 2005). There is however limited literature examining the training of therapists. McLeod (2019) highlights that unlike other clinical fields there has been little research focus on therapist development and as a result that it is not known whether current training practices of therapists are in any way optimal. Given the centrality of counselling training in representing the requirements of best practice therapy and ensuring that therapists are appropriately skilled up to deliver it, research into what is optimal and effective in this domain is central to the profession as a whole. Guiffrida (2005) notes how there has been much recent debate on the pedagogical methods by which counsellors are trained, many of which date back to the 1920’s. He points to learning theory of approaches not offering enough depth for the counsellor in training. This research will examine the history of counselling training and the rationales for its component parts. It will examine the andragogical underpinnings of core counselling training in Ireland offering a systematic review of current counselling training literature, a comparative analysis of Irish counselling training programmatic offerings, and a qualitative enquiry into how and why counselling programs are delivered in Ireland through interviewing both professional and regulatory governing bodies. As counselling and psychotherapy transitions from its traditional roots in self-regulation to statutory regulation through CORU, this study will yield a roadmap for achieving an evidence based andragogical process for effective counselling training.

Bio

Shelley Etkin is a transdisciplinary researcher and educator as well as an artist, gardener and herbalist.  She has been a guest lecturer in the Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of the Arts Helsinki. Shelley holds an MA in Ecology & Contemporary Performance, BA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Proposal

'Herbologies of Repair' is an ethnobotanical research through archival and socially-engaged methodologies centering medicinal plants in Palestine-Israel as liberatory allies towards socio-ecological repair. The research articulates pedagogies of land stewardship and peace-building initiatives through multispecies justice frameworks and queer feminist decolonial epistemologies of intersecting ancestral herbal knowledges and practices. Engaging locally-rooted decolonial, queer feminist, ecological, and anti-zionist lenses, I ask how cultural encounters and collisions mediated through plants take place in this context. Recognizing the structural violence embedded into life on this land given the conditions of war, occupation and apartheid regimes, the research re-imagines particular local and culturally significant plants as allies, teachers, ancestors, witnesses, mediators, and healers in liberation, repair, and peace-building. The work departs from a re-reading of my grandfather's archive of medicinal plants, situating the research in my perspective coming from a Jewish-Israeli family from the land of historic occupied Palestine, while also in dialogue with Palestinian-led community organising on the ground through immersive field work in several key sites of socio-ecologies of change. This research maps 'medicinal encounters' in solidarity with processes of repairing injustices and harms to peoples and environments through emancipatory and embodied pedagogies, environmental ethnographies, eco-theologies, indigenous, and climate justice scholarship.

Bio:

M. A. Anton holds a Masters in Museum Studies and a BA in Anthropology, both from University College Cork. They are passionate about accessibility as a whole and particularly in museums, and about raising awareness and care about neurodivergence and other invisible disabilities. Their hope in the continuation of their studies is to work toward making the museum sector more accessible allowing more people to share in the joy of museums.

Abstract:

Neurodivergent Accessibility to the museum space is a relatively new subject and is largely lacking from current academic literature regarding access to museums. In the museum sector, accessibility for neurodivergent people takes a back seat, and when it is present in a museum it is generally only aimed at, or caters to, autistic children specifically. The issue with this lies in two main considerations. The first issue is that neurodivergent is an umbrella term which covers various conditions and disorders, including autism spectrum disorder/conditions (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).  The second issue is that neurodivergence is not restricted to children, and by not making spaces that can accommodate neurodivergent adults, we are excluding them from visiting museums, which should be accessible to all. The aim of this PhD is to investigate the current offered neurodivergent accessibility of museums and to research what neurodivergent accessibility options are most effective and would be best to introduce in museums more widely. This PhD builds on the initial research carried out in the researcher’s Masters dissertation which compared the available accessibility options for neurodivergent visitors to museums in both Ireland and Britain.

Bio

Gabrielle Dufrene is originally from the American South. She attained her undergraduate degree at Loyola University Chicago before moving to Cork to pursue a MA in Creative Writing, for which she achieved a First Class Honours. She enjoys reading, writing, and blogging about literature. She is a current PhD student in the Department of English under the supervision of Dr. Alan Gibbs and Dr. Adam Hanna. 

Proposal

In her memoir, Are You Somebody, Nuala O’Faolain states that “contemporary Ireland floats on a sea of grief.” Women’s writing in the genres of fiction and life-writing, especially in recent years, has foregrounded issues of gendered trauma, pushing against the nation’s long-standing tradition of suffering in silence. My research investigates the representation of collective trauma in contemporary Irish women's literature. In the first section, Sex, Shame, and the Catholic Church, I examine Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, and Niamh Mulvey’s The Amendments, exploring how the Catholic Church has caused and perpetuated women’s suffering, considering sexual abuse, the Magdalene Laundries, and the psychological effects of enforced silence. In the second, The Troubles and its Legacies, I study Anna Burns’ Milkman, Jan Carson’s The Raptures, and Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses, examining the ways in which sectarian violence, political unrest, and the complex legacies of the Northern Irish conflict have shaped both personal and collective trauma. Finally, I explore trauma memoirs, including Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat, Emilie Pine’s Notes to Self, and Sinéad Gleeson’s Constellations, linking personal narratives of trauma to broader cultural and historical traumas. Further, I situate these texts within Irish history, highlighting key legal and cultural developments that may have influenced both their creation and reception. This analysis is informed by theoretical frameworks from trauma studies and feminist criticism, which provide tools for unpacking the representation of gendered violence, memory, and silenced narratives.

Bio

Brónagh Murphy is a PhD student in the Department of Archaeology under the supervision of Dr Barra O’Donnabhain. Brónagh earned her MSc in Forensic Ballistics from Cranfield University, UK in 2022 and an MA in Human Osteoarchaeology from UCC in 2023. Her current research aims to combine the fields of bioarchaeology, osteology, and forensic ballistics by examining the osteological trauma that results from ballistic weaponry. 

Proposal

Conflict and resultant trauma are undeniable realities of human existence and are entirely interwoven in human society, making it an essential field of study. Consequently, deepening our understanding of the relationship between conflict and trauma is relevant in contemporary forensic, archaeological, and historical settings, as evident in current affairs. Only some studies have examined early modern warfare, the impact of early ballistic weaponry, and its connections with current conflicts, leaving a gap to where the fields of osteology, forensic ballistics and early modern historical conflicts could contribute. In particular, there has been little attempt to trace developments in ballistics and to map these developments against osteological trauma. This research increases the understanding of weapons’ wounding effects by interpreting examined trauma and the available weaponry, drawing conclusions about the nature and evolution of warfare technologies and providing relevant insight into current affairs.

This project aims to research warfare technologies' nature, evolution, and impact and assess the resulting trauma, specifically on ballistic powdered weaponry, through osteological analysis of skeletal collections derived from conflicts between the 18th and 20th centuries. Through the study of osteological trauma, this project will provide a novel perspective into the technologies of war, their evolution, and their impact on the people and community as a whole in the available case studies.    

 Bio:

Eleanor Lynch is a PhD student in the Department of English under the supervision of Dr. Sarah Bezan and Dr. Tom Birkett. She earned an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Galway, and a BA in English from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her current research deals with attitudes toward the environment expressed in Old English riddles, elegies, and religious texts.

Proposal:

Drawing from cross-cultural critiques of medieval Icelandic sagas and Ragnarök myths and Old English texts such as the Exeter book riddles and elegies, I argue that apocalyptic imaginaries of Old English literature configure nature as an integrally entangled — and yet externally posed threat — to human societies. I build upon Christopher Abram's interpretation of Icelandic myth and saga, that anxieties about deforestation and natural disaster are displaced out of saga and into apocalyptic myth. I aim to apply Abram’s framework to Old English literature to expand understandings of the relationship that the people of early medieval England maintained with the natural world. The importance of my critique lies in my comparison to modern climate change discourse, in which I suggest that the displacement of anxieties into a mythology of apocalypse in Old English and Icelandic literature can serve as a critical model to approach to climate change discourse.

Bio

Born and raised in Ukraine, I completed my high school education in the UK before relocating to the USA, where I obtained a BA in English and Spanish. I also hold an MS in Teaching French, English, and Foreign Literature, as well as an MA in Global Cultures and Languages. My experience includes teaching English in various countries. As a qualified trilingual researcher with a strong background in migration studies and qualitative research, I am confident that I possess the academic skills necessary to contribute meaningfully to research in the field of Applied Linguistics.

Proposal

This longitudinal qualitative study explores the development of language practices among 20 Ukrainian Temporary Protection Holders (UTPHs) in Ireland, focusing on how space impacts their engagement with the English language. The key research questions are: the role of space in UTPH language practices in Cork, barriers and facilitators to accessing English language spaces, the impact on investment in English language learning, and the effect on integration. The study recognizes UTPHs as a unique migrant category, differing from refugees in that they possess certain privileges but with temporary status. This precarious situation influences their spatial language practices, willingness to learn English, and integration efforts. The participants, who arrived within a short timeframe, were largely unprepared for migration, resulting in limited English skills. Using Benson's (2021) spatially-aware narrative approach, the study examines the interplay between language, space, and displacement. Data will be collected through four narrative interviews over a year, where participants map their language engagement in various spaces using physical or digital tools. This spatially-enhanced method aims to produce a web-based map via Google Maps API. Combining Applied Linguistics and Digital Humanities, the research offers new insights into migration, language practices, and integration, addressing a growing demographic concern.

Bio

Joy Uwanziga has over 16 years of working in the field of diplomacy and international organisations. Her books include ‘Manners in Rwanda’ (published in May 19th 2015 by InkwaterPress, a division of First Books in Portland, Oregon,USA) and ‘The Incredible Ways   of Parenting’(published in November 2018 by BookAgencyPlus, USA). She earned a Masters’ of Arts in International Protocol and Diplomacy from the ISPD in Brussels, Belgium. She’s currently a PhD student at the University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland. At the UCC Joy’s research is focusing on the social and political factors that influence continuous migration in the Great Lakes region of African societies in Rwanda and Uganda.

Proposal

Migrations are usually caused by a number of factors, and among them are; political unrests, civil wars, genocide, disease, and abject poverty. These situations have in no doubt led to mass migration of the people in the different parts of the world. In recent years, scholars, policy makers and development actors have become increasingly interested in understanding the role of migration in development. It’s believed that migrants can affect cultural change by transferring host-country cultural values and norms back to their home communities. The development challenges in the Great Lakes region have no doubt led to mass migration of the people within and outside the region. This research asks how has migration over past decades shaped Uganda and Rwandan societies and to what extent have these migration changed the hosts’ livelihood? The paper will use primary data collected from Uganda and Rwanda. It will contribute to debates in forced migration in Africa.The goal of this study is to investigate the role migration has had on the social and cultural development Rwanda and Uganda being the Case Studies. The project sets out to understand the role migration plays in influencing cultural and social development (rooted in the SDGs) among people affected by migration (directly and indirectly), including those who opted to stay.

Bio:
Vasileios is a PhD candidate in Music. He holds a MA in musicology from Uppsala University (Sweden) and a MA and BSc in music performance and musicology from Ionian University (Greece), a soloist diploma in Byzantine Music performance, a soloist diploma in Classical Guitar, and degrees in Fugue, Counterpoint and Harmony from his conservatory music studies in Greece. His musicological research interests are the theory, analysis, performance, and history of Byzantine and Western music, the music semiotics and the relation of music with language, as also the interdisciplinary approach of biomusicology. He also holds a PhD degree in Chemistry (University of Athens) and a MSc and BSc degree in Biotechnology (Agricultural University of Athens).

Proposal:
My research focuses on the study of vocables in Byzantine chant and is supervised by Dr. Alexander Khalil and Dr. Alexander Lingas. My aim is to: a) critically analyse the semiotic functions of vocables in Byzantine music in the Medieval period, in order to reveal which artistry, they served in Byzantine chant, and b) shed light on how the “irrational” character of the non-semantic singing in the Byzantine chant depicted semiotic notions of nature, emotional states, non-lexical meanings, etc. At a deeper level, the aim is to offer a new method for music analysis of this non-lexical singing. The relation of music and language has been well studied but the role of non-semantic language (non-language) to the evolution of music, has not been investigated thoroughly. There have been sporadically published research works on the topic of vocables in Byzantine music, but a comparative and comprehensive study has not been performed. Robust semiotic models for the analysis of the relation of non-lexical language and music, are lacking. The findings of the research are expected to enrich the topic and offer new insights to music analysis models for Byzantine music.

Bio:

Originally from Germany, I graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work in Dortmund, Germany, on identity change and desistance. In order to obtain my degree, I worked as a social worker in the JVA Werl, one of the biggest prisons in Germany located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. I then completed my MA in Criminology at UCC on lived experience support workers in the rehabilitation and reintegration after prison sector in Ireland. My interests are located within Critical Criminology and Criminal Justice Systems from a comparative perspective. 

Proposal:

My PhD research project will conduct a comparative ethnographic study of criminal courtrooms in Ireland and Germany with the aim of investigating how material, emotional and communicative structures and processes of the criminal courtroom impact different groups of people. The overall aim of my research is to embed these ethnographic observations of criminal courtroom experiences in a broader contextual analysis of two different legal systems of Germany and Ireland. My methodology will include sensory research methods to offer an in-depth understanding of the meaning that physical and symbolic spaces of punishment and justice hold for persons impacted by the criminal justice system. Interviews with courtroom defendants, legal professionals and others will help to further contextualise the analysis. My research wishes to contribute to critical criminology, which understands the courtroom as a site of performance of dominant ideologies and cultural norms.  I plan to provide a textured and nuanced comparative analysis of political cultures and their impacts on the realities and processes of sentencing, moving beyond limited rights-based analysis of access to justice and more.

Bio

Rebecca L Hall Moran is a PhD student in the Department of Folklore and Ethnology. She holds a BFA in Theatre and an MA in Irish Mythology and Folklore. Working at the intersection of living folklore and story, her research focuses on exhuming and examining the contributions of folklore collector Kathleen Hurley, with the aim of restoring forgotten women’s lore to its origins in oral performance. Rebecca is a Puttnam Scholar, and as a playwright, director, and collaborative theatre practitioner, she received two CREATE Artist in the Community Grants, an Arts Council Bursary, and a BAI Sound and Vision Grant.

Proposal 

More than 3,000 pages of the inimitable Kathleen Hurley’s contributions to the Irish Folklore Commission gathered dust, conspicuously concealed, for nearly a century. This first academic study of a female collector for the Irish Folklore Commission aims to foreground the involvement, inclusion, and relevancy of women to Ireland’s National Folklore Collection. Irish women were not considered in the design, structures, or definitions of Ireland’s prodigious folklore archive, nor in the instructions, topics, or collection methodologies. Women’s voices and experiences were effectively silenced through the exclusion of gynocentric lore. Hurley’s unearthed contributions will be considered through a gendered, intersectional lens from within an interdisciplinary, feminist framework. Furthermore, the impact of gender on informant-collector relationships, gender-specific absences, underappreciated female collectors, and the neglect of women’s lore will be examined through the power imbalances encoded in the archive’s androcentric inception. Applications of feminist principles and methodologies from archival, historical, ethnographic, and folkloric contexts will underpin this examination, in order to amplify the archival remnants of Irish women’s voices entangled in Irish folklore. By applying interdisciplinary methods from theatre and feminist practice, elements of women’s lore will be creatively cultivated in order to reanimate forgotten women’s voices from the archive.

Bio

Daniel Murphy is a PhD student in Geography supervised by Dr. Paul Holloway, Dr. Denis Linehan, and Dr. Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn. He holds a BSc in Ecology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a MSc in Environment and Natural Resources from the University of Iceland, with an Erasmus exchange at the University of Copenhagen. His research examines wellness infrastructure such as gyms, bike paths, and community green and blue spaces through advanced GIS methods, with an emphasis on accessibility, equity, and sustainability. Daniel is also a certified personal trainer with professional experience in fitness and education.

Proposal

This research investigates the geography of wellness infrastructure which refers to facilities and spaces that require repeated active engagement to generate health benefits across diverse urban, peri urban, and rural contexts. The project develops a typology that includes commercial gyms, community wellness centers, skill and strength sports gyms, cycling routes, and accessible green and blue spaces. Using geospatial analysis techniques such as network analysis, geographically weighted regression, and local indicators of spatial association, this study assesses the accessibility, spatial distribution, and socioeconomic patterns of this infrastructure. Comparative case studies will be conducted in Ireland alongside selected international contexts to explore differences in cultural, economic, and policy approaches to wellness infrastructure. The research addresses pressing questions about equity and health geography: Who has access to high quality wellness facilities? How does infrastructure provision intersect with socioeconomic disparities? And what strategies can strengthen communities through improved access to wellness resources? By combining spatial analysis with insights from sustainability studies, this project aims to inform policy and planning initiatives that promote inclusive, resilient, and health supportive environments. The findings will contribute to academic debates in health geography, urban studies, and sustainability while offering practical guidance for policymakers, planners, and community stakeholders.

Bio

Bedina O'Neill is a PhD candidate in Geography specializing in urban and political geographies of migration, with particular focus on ethnographic methodologies examining sanctuary city governance in Central Texas. She holds an M.Phil. in Geography and a  B.A. in Geography and Sociology, bringing interdisciplinary expertise to the spatial analysis of immigration policies and migrant place-making practices. As a bilingual educator, fluent in English and Spanish Bedina has extensive experience working among immigrant communities and brings ethnographic sensibility and community-based knowledge to her research. Bedina is currently based in Austin, Texas, conducting  fieldwork on how migrants navigate spatial inequities while simultaneously challenging urban political territories through daily practices and community organizing efforts. 

Proposal

This mixed-methods study examines the complexities of migration governance and urban spatiality in Austin, Texas, amid conflicting federal, state, and municipal immigration policies. The research examines if and how restrictive migration policies produce contested urban spaces where support and control operate simultaneously. It questions whether multi-scalar bordering processes filter into local institutions and services that ostensibly aid migrants and if they often function as extensions of enforcement. Through ethnographic fieldwork, the study traces how migrants navigate these interstitial spaces, revealing the paradox of infrastructures that both enable survival and deepen regulation. The work will show if resistance and control unfold together, shaping complex urban geographies of governance and contestation.

Employing interdisciplinary methodologies rooted in geography, ethnography, sociology, and political science, this study will combine participatory observation, interviews with people from diverse perspectives such as policymakers, law enforcement and service providers, policy analysis, and archival research spanning 2010-2023. It will reveal key research themes including: (1) policy contradictions between sanctuary initiatives and enforcement mandates; (2) the impact of bordering processes on urban migrant experiences; (3) development of a "borderlands urbanism" framework that links macro-border dynamics to micro-urban experiences.

Bio

Maria is a PhD candidate specialising in music and neurodivergence. She holds a BA in Music and English, and an MA in Ethnomusicology. Her MA explored technologised orality in children's musical play, building her background in interdisciplinary fieldwork. She is a Quercus Entrance Scholar, two-time College Scholar, and School of English Undergraduate Awardee. By using ethnomusicology as a lens to highlight differences in how Autistic and ADHD people perceive and engage with music, she hopes to add to the growing body of academic work within the neurodiversity paradigm.

Proposal

Across academic fields, both ADHD and autism have been overwhelmingly considered from a clinical perspective. Studies of how these neurotypes relate to music frequently focus on areas of deficit or extraordinary ability. Few have considered neurodivergent musicking from a cultural perspective, and none investigate the potential for a distinct shared music culture between autism and ADHD. Through interviews and participant observation, I will create an ethnography of neurodivergent music culture, placing neurodivergent voices at the centre of the research, and recognising their expertise in their own culture.
The project will investigate how sensory differences influence musical preferences and behaviours. Certain musical features may be sought out or avoided by neurodivergent people (NDs), perhaps because they elicit intense physiological reactions. Exploring music which might lie outside neurotypical constructs of what is musical, I will investigate the cultural and artistic aspects of stimming i.e. using movement, sound or other sensory experiences to self-regulate or process information. Stims shared online by the neurodivergent community include ‘stim-songs', ‘stim-dancing,’ hand movements, rocking or moving to music, and vocalisations. I will also analyse musical elements within common inguistic traits in NDs, exploring the role music serves in neurodivergent communication.

Bio

Coran is an assistant principal and primary school teacher in Scoil Chill Ruadháin (Brooklodge National School) in Cork. In 2017, he received a Bachelor of Education from Mary Immaculate College (Limerick). In recent years, Coran completed both the PG Diploma in Educational Leadership and M. Ed. programmes at University College Cork. As a teacher and school leader, Coran has led the development of numerous initiatives and action research projects in his own school and other schools in Cork. These projects align with his primary research interests in coaching in education and professional learning. Coran has actively conducted research on educative coaching and presented the findings at multiple educational conferences.

Proposal

An international perspective on the development of coaching cultures in schools and the collaborative enactment of educative policy: A case study analysis

Though the positive benefits associated with coaching cultures in educational organisations abound, the intricacies of establishing them remain illusive and difficult to achieve. Through an interpretive and qualitative approach, this PhD research will draw upon the experiences of a national and international sample of school leaders to elicit the potential uses of coaching in Irish education. Utilising the Global Framework for Coaching in Education as a theoretical framework, this research will focus upon illuminating knowledge, experience, and practice related to coaching, particularly in the context of professional learning, exploring also the related areas of the student experience, educational leadership and wider-community engagement. To generate comprehensive data, this study will employ various research tools. Discourse analysis of key policy texts will provide valuable insights, while an immersive and thorough case study analysis will be conducted over a 12-month period. Semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and surveys will be employed intermittently during the case study analysis. This study's diverse and multi-contextual approach will enrich the research, enabling a comprehensive exploration of the various applications of coaching within Irish education. Moreover, this research will contribute to the increasingly collaborative posture of educational policymaking and promote coaching as a professional learning strategy in Ireland.

Bio

My name is Brian Slocum, I am a PhD candidate who specialises in youth justice and empowerment. I am an active volunteer in my local youth project and have previously worked as a family support worker. In this role, I provided one-on-one support to young people ranging from ages 5 to 25. Additionally, I worked closely in Mayfield Community School to provide therapeutic services to students. My goal is to produce a thesis that channels the voices of young people and youth workers across Cork into a single work that can be used to inform and advocate for Irish youth.

Proposal

Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) is a term disproportionately assigned to young people in Ireland. Irish scholarship regarding youth ASB is over-reliant on Garda perspectives. Irish policy and practice aim to target young people identified as ‘risky’ and offer early interventions. Scholars have criticised this approach as often police will excessively monitor disadvantaged areas and create lists of young people who are ‘permanent suspects’ despite them not engaging in ASB. This is not only limited in objectivity but also ignores the harmful effects on young people after they have been labelled. Irish academics must rely on publications where young people’s stories are told for them by Gardai and community activists. This not only disempowers young people but also limits how much scholars and policymakers can understand this topic. Furthermore, youth workers are significantly underrepresented in contemporary research despite playing a prominent role in advocating for young people. This research will involve immersion and integration  into two separate youth projects in Cork to explore with young people and youth workers how the term ’Antisocial Behaviour’ is conceptualised. This will be achieved through an ethnographic approach involving observation, field notes and qualitative focus groups in each youth project.

Bio

Molly Twomey is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing. Her first poetry collection, Raised Among Vultures, was published in 2022 by The Gallery Press. It won the Southword Debut Collection Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. She was awarded the 2023 Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary and an Arts Council Literature Bursary in 2024 to work on her second collection, Chic to be Sad, published in July 2025 by The Gallery Press.  

Research Proposal

This Creative PhD project reframes eating disorders not as private struggles but as a public health crisis rooted in systemic forces. Comprising a full-length poetry collection and a critical essay, it investigates how external systems, from pervasive media and patriarchal body ideals to critical gaps in Irish public health services, intersect with the personal struggles for identity and control that define these conditions. The poetry collection uses neo-realist and naturalist techniques to study this crisis, drawing a powerful parallel between the historical journey of Irish women forced to travel abroad for healthcare and the current, hidden struggle of individuals seeking eating disorder treatment abroad due to a lack of public facilities in Ireland. The critical essay develops an ethical framework for representing trauma that prioritises systemic critique over sensationalist confession. Ultimately, the project uses poetry to translate a statistical health crisis into human experience, aiming to shift the national conversation from individual blame to collective reckoning.

Bio

Jincai Yang is a PhD candidate in the School of Education.  Her research investigates third language acquisition and metalinguistic awareness among plurilingual adolescents in Irish-medium schools using mobile electroencephalography (EEG) technology. A fluent speaker of English, Korean, Mandarin, and Cantonese, she brings nine years of teaching experience to her work. Jincai’s research focuses on how plurilingualism influences cognitive and neural processes in language learning. Passionate about bridging research and educational practice, she is especially committed to multilingual and inclusive contexts. She holds a Master’s degree from Queen’s University Belfast and is deeply interested in real-world neuroeducation.

Proposal

My doctoral research explores the intersection of neuroscience and language learning, with a particular focus on third language (L3) acquisition among adolescent plurilinguals in Irish-medium schools. Using mobile electroencephalography (EEG) in authentic classroom settings, the study investigates the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying metalinguistic awareness and their relationship to the acquisition of additional languages. By capturing real-time neural responses as learners engage with linguistic stimuli in English, Irish, and a third language, this project integrates educational neuroscience with applied linguistics. It aims to advance our understanding of how plurilingual experiences shape neural plasticity and influence the learning of new languages. Beyond its theoretical contributions, the research has practical implications for language education policy and inclusive curriculum design in multilingual contexts. It also addresses key methodological challenges in applying mobile EEG and hyperscanning techniques in naturalistic educational environments. Ultimately, this interdisciplinary study seeks to bridge the gap between cognitive neuroscience and classroom practice. It highlights how real-world neuroeducation can inform and enhance language teaching for diverse learners, offering insights that support more inclusive, evidence-based approaches to language education.

Bio

Daniel Fraser is a writer and researcher from Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. He holds a BA (hons) Philosophy from University of Leeds and MA in Modern European Philosophy from the CRMEP Kingston, University of London. His principal research interests are: European literature and poetry, the failure of language, Marx/Marxist philosophy, and cinema. His poems, essays, and fiction have won prizes and been published widely in print and online including: London Magazine, New World Writing , LA Review of Books, Aeon, Mute, Dublin Review of Books, and Radical Philosophy. His poetry pamphlet 'Lung Iron' is published by the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre.

Research Proposal

My research examines traumatic temporality and crisis in post-1945 European Literature through an encounter with contemporary philosophy, with particular focus on: Paul Celan, Marguerite Duras, and Samuel Beckett. Primarily a work of critical theory, the project seeks to interpret the broken, fragmentary forms of literature which emerged after the events of the Second World War, in the shadow of the Holocaust and nuclear atrocities in Japan, through a philosophical concept of trauma as a temporal register of untimeliness. In doing so, the project relates the crisis of artistic expression, a crisis of language, and crisis of historical experience, a crisis of capitalism, drawing on Marx, and the critical theory/philosophy of time in the work of Peter Osborne, Theodor Adorno, and Catherine Malabou. At its core the research investigates to how literature negotiates these dual crises, what kinds of historical experience are precipitated by such writing, and to what extent they might open up ways of thinking other modes of being, and opportunities for 'working through the past'. The research builds on the trauma studies work of Ulrich Baer, Cathy Caruth, and Rebecca Comay, re-asserting the productivity of an interdisciplinary philosophical perspective for cultural interpretation and for understanding questions of trauma/history.

Bio

I have worked in the field of Intellectual Disability for over 15 years; across a range of frontline, Management and Senior Management Roles within Irish Section 38 Disability Providers. Currently, I work in a Senior Management Quality & Development post within the Brothers of Charity Services Ireland- Southern Region.

As an avid believer in lifelong learning and an advocate for quality improvement, I have continued to enhance my education across my career. To date I have achieved a BA in Psychology, a MA by Research, a PG Diploma in Positive Approaches to Challenging Behaviour and a Higher Certificate in Applied Management for Human Services.

Research Topic

The title of my research is: Preserving Quality of Life for Irish Adults with Mild to Moderate Intellectual Disabilities during and Post COVID 19 Using a Participatory Action Research Approach: A Longitudinal Review of Experiences throughout Crisis and Recovery.  

This Employment Based PHD programme enables a unique opportunity to overlap my primary working role and strategic interest with an extremely topical academic focus; which can significantly build my expertise in rights based theory and allow for shared learning across the Intellectual Disability (ID) sector (leading to quality enhancement for those availing of services). The unprecedented phenomenon of Covid 19 has sparked a rich platform to collect data on the experiences of intellectually disabled people; as great momentum prior to the pandemic has been driving a rights based approach marked by normalised community engagement, as is the vision of a social model. All of which has been challenged by public health restrictions aimed at supressing the virus.   As such, my proposed longitudinal research aims to explore the current, medium and longer-term impacts of COVID 19 on the quality of life of mild to moderate adults with ID availing of services from Disability Providers in the Republic of Ireland.

Bio

Maeve holds a BA in Archaeology and History and an MA in Archaeology from UCC. She joined the National Museum of Ireland in 2001 as a curatorial researcher on the Unpublished Burials Project. Since 2004, as Assistant Keeper in the Irish Antiquities Division, she has engaged in a wide range of curatorial tasks including fieldwork and excavation, lecturing and outreach. Maeve was appointed Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland in July 2017, taking responsibility for the Museum’s archaeological collections. Maeve’s interests are in the early medieval and Viking collections and in the archaeology of death and burial in Ireland.

Research Topic

The study for which the Scholarship was awarded will focus on the archaeological evidence for the practices of feasting and dining in early medieval Ireland through an analysis of a range of vessel types. The corpus to be examined includes copper-alloy bowls and basins, decorative wooden pails, ladles, strainers and drinking horns. While there have been studies of individual artefacts within this group, this will be the first time that this body of material has been examined collectively. This thesis will primarily focus on the function and use of these high status vessels in a secular context by the wealthier classes in Ireland. The use of these vessels in a liturgical context will also be examined, given the fact that some have been found on, or close to, ecclesiastical sites, such as Derrynaflan, Co. Tipperary. The third main aspect of the thesis will be a discussion of the occurrence of these vessels in Viking-age graves in both Ireland and Britain and in Scandinavia, principally Norway. This study will result in the first catalogue of an important category of early medieval objects and will provide the first comprehensive account of feasting material culture in early medieval Ireland.