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Dr. Kathy M. Reilly

Room 102, School of Geography, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway. Tel: 00 353 (0)91 494105 Ext: 4105 Email: kathy.reillynuigalway.ie

Academic Biography

2000 – 2003: BA (Geography and English)
2003 – 2004: Higher Diploma in Education
2005 – 2009: PhD Geography
2009 – Present: Postdoctoral Fellow (School of Geography: National University of Ireland Galway)

Research Interests

My research centres predominantly on themes associated with geographies of children, youth and families, and geographies of education. I am currently working as an IRCHSS Postdoctoral Fellow for Dr. Valerie Ledwith’s project exploring whether a two-tiered schooling system is emerging in Galway City. This mixed method project centres on youth and family experiences relating to educational concerns such as access, participation, aspiration and attainment. The project also focuses on a variety of family, school and neighbourhood effects, to assess the influence of each in relation to overall student experiences. Furthermore, as Galway’s population becomes more and more diverse the educational experiences of migrant youth attending secondary schools in Galway will also be examined. This research agenda is underpinned with a keen interest in social theory, and in particular the work of Pierre Bourdieu.

Academic Awards and Distinctions

Government of Ireland Doctoral Fellowship: Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2007 – 2009).
Geography Society, NUI Galway Fieldtrip Bursary (2008 & 2009).
ESRC Seminar Series 3 Time-Space and Lifecourse: Travel Bursary (2008).
Arts Faculty Travel Bursary (2006 & 2007).

Completed PhD Research

Title: Geographies of Opportunity and Social Reproduction: Perceptions of Compulsory and Non-Compulsory Education.

Focusing on education, my doctoral research sought to examine conceptualisations of school practice and experience, as perceived by 14 – 16 year olds and their parent-guardians. Using the scale of region, the research centres upon three case-study sites: Canvey Island (UK), La Faouet (France) and Tuam (Ireland). Methodologically, the data was collected through a comprehensive questionnaire-survey, periods of participant observation, interviews and focus groups with students, parents and teachers, investigating attitudes and values towards various sites of socialization, including the school and home contexts. Theoretically, Pierre Bourdieu’s intricate conceptual framework is used to explore student perceptions of education, in consideration of three over-arching themes: opportunity, aspiration and gender.

More specifically, the research centres upon (re)production within habitus, exploring at once, the relational association of habitus with capital and field, but also, dominant discourses, stemming from student and parent-guardian responses, associated with compulsory and non-compulsory schooling within each region. In-doing-so, the thesis offers an interpretation of student and parent-guardian future expectations, through an exploration of what is theoretically represented within local education policy and what is metaphorically and physically perpetuated through everyday practice.

Selected Presentations

K. Reilly & V. Ledwith, (May 2010) School Choice and Student Contexts: Negotiating Educational Opportunity in Galway City, Conference of Irish Geographers, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
V. Ledwith & K. Reilly, (April 2010) Two-Tiered Schooling? Exploring Migrant Youth School Experiences in Galway, AAG, Washington DC, USA.
K. Reilly, (September 2009), ’Going to School: Routines Rhythms and Future Expectations’, 1st Geographies of Education Conference, Loughborough University, UK.
K. Reilly, (May 2009), ’Challenging the Critics: What Use for Bourdieu in Geography’, Conference of Irish Geographers, University College Cork.
K. Reilly, (March 2009) ’The Role of School in Constructing a Rhythm for Everyday Life’, AAG, Las Vegas, USA.
K. Reilly, (April 2008) ’Education isn’t just about the classroom’: Everyday Perceptions of the Second Level Schooling Experience, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA, USA.
K. Reilly, (October 2007), ’Education is where my intelligence comes from:
Perceptions of the School Experience from Tuam and Canvey Island’, Department of Geography Seminar Series, National University of Ireland Galway.
K. Reilly, (June 2007), ’Opportune Schooling: Preliminary perspectives on Compulsory Education on Canvey Island, Essex, U.K. and in Tuam, Co. Galway, Ireland’, Moving Forward Conference, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
K. Reilly, (May 2007), ’Regional Schooling: Perceptions of Compulsory Education on Canvey Island’, Conference of Irish Geographers, St. Patrick’s College Drumcondra, Dublin.
K. Reilly, (May 2006), ’Bourdieu’s Opportunity: Social Perspectives on Educational Trends’ Challenging the Boundaries in the Social Sciences, 7th Inter-University Graduate Conference, CRASSH, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Publications

Reilly, K. (2010: Under review) ’Habitus, Capital and Field: What use for Bourdieu in Geography?’, Geography Compass (Social Geography Section).
Reilly, K. (2010: Under review) ’Going to School: Routines Rhythms and Future Expectations’, For publication in: Children’s Geographies Special Edition: Education and Aspiration, with guest editors: Sarah Holloway, Gavin Brown & Helena Pimlott-Wilson.
Reilly, K. (2006) Cultural Theory and Educational Practice: A Focus on Bourdieu’s Habitus, Bernstein’s Discourse and the Canvey Island Region, Chimera, Vol. 21, Published by: University College Cork, Ireland.
Reilly, K. (In preparation) ’Exploring Student Perceptions of Homework: Routines, Rhythms and expectations’, For publication in: The Journal of Youth Studies.
Reilly, K. (In preparation) ’When school catchment isn’t enough: exploring the use of the region in educational studies’, Social and Cultural Geographies.

Organised Sessions

K. Reilly & V. Ledwith (April 2010) Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington DC, Session Title: Geographies of Education: Inclusion and Exclusion & The Production and Consumption of Knowledge in Educational Spaces.

K. Reilly & K. Purcell (September 2010: Forthcoming) Royal Geographic Society, with the Institute of British Geographers, London: Geographies of Education (4 planned sessions)

Invited Talks

November 2009 – Spaces and Places of Childhood: A Geographical Perspective Seminar Presented to: Child and Family Research Centre, School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland, Galway.

Selected Readings

Bourdieu, Pierre (1977) Outline of a Theory of practice, Translated by Richard Nice, Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre & Passeron, Jean Claude (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, Sage Publications, London.
Calhoun, Craig, LiPuma, Edward & Postone, Moishe (1993) Bourdieu Critical perspectives, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
Holt, L. (2008) ’Embodied Social Capital and Geographic Perspectives: Performing the Habitus’, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 32, No. 2, (pp. 227 – 246).
Jenkins, Richard (1992) Pierre Bourdieu (1st Edition), Routledge, London.
Lareau, A. (2003) Unequal Childhoods: Class race and Family Life, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.
Mills, Carmen (2008) ’Reproduction and Transformation of Inequalities in schooling: the Transformative potential of the Theoretical Constructs of Bourdieu’, British Journal of Sociology of Education’, Vol. 29, No. 1, (pp. 79 – 89).
Paasi, A. (2002) ’Place and region: regional worlds and words’, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 26, No. 6, (pp. 802 – 811).
Paasi, A. (2003) ’Region and place: regional identity in question’, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 27, No. 4, (pp. 475 – 485).
Paasi, A. (2004) ’Place and region: looking through the prism of scale’, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 28. No. 4, (pp. 536 – 546).
Painter, Joe (2000) ’Pierre Bourdieu’, in: Crang, M. and Thrift, N. (eds.) Thinking Space, (pp. 239 - 259), Routledge, London.
Reay, Diane (2004a) ’It's all becoming a habitus': Beyond the habitual use of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus in educational research’ Special Issue of British Journal of Sociology of Education on Pierre Bourdieu, vol. 25, no. 4, (pp. 431-444).
Reay, Diane and Lucey, Helen (2003) ’The Limits of Choice: Children and Inner City Schooling’, Sociology, vol. 37, no. 1, (pp. 121 – 142).
Rugg, G. & Petre, M. (2007) A Gentle Guide to Research Methods, Open University Press, UK.
Warrington, M. (2005) ’Mirage in the Desert? Access to Educational Opportunities in an Area of Social Exclusion’, Antipode, (pp. 796 – 816).
Webb, J., Schirato, T. & Danaher, G. (2002) Understanding Bourdieu, Sage Publications, London.

External Activities

Member of the Association of American Geographers
Member of the Geography Society of Ireland
Member of the Geography Society NUI Galway

Discipline of Geography
National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland
Tel.: +353 (0)91 49 2643
This page was last updated Thursday, September 16, 2010