School of Political Science and Sociology

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OVERVIEW • CLUSTER THEMES • CLUSTER PROJECTS • MEMBERS • PUBLICATIONS

Global Women's Studies Research Cluster

CLUSTER MEMBERS

NAME	RESEARCH AREA
Niamh Reilly Senior Lecturer and Cluster Leader Global Women's Studies	Niamh Reilly’s research interests focus on the gender dimensions of human rights as a legal, ethical and political paradigm. This includes examination of the role of human rights in transnational and local feminisms and of competing women's human rights concerns in multicultural contexts. Her current research is concerned with the interplay of religion and women's human rights.
Anne Byrne Senior Lecturer	Gender, identity, inequality, stigma, rurality, biographical-narrative qualitative research methodologies and historical sociology
Mary Clancy Lecturer Global Women's Studies	Constructions and interpretations of public citizenship during periods of imperial distress, evolving agrarian, poor law and local democracy and post-women’s suffrage and post-revolutionary contexts, with attention to biographical narratives and the West of Ireland.
Nata Duvvury Lecturer Global Women's Studies	Gender, livelihoods, governance and social mobilization, gender and development (with particular emphasis on gender inequality), domestic violence, rights-based approached to development, and civil society participation and accountability.
Aine Macken Walsh Adjunct Lecturer Teagasc Partnership Coordinator	Rural sociology, EU governance and rural development, and socio-cultural systems underpinning agriculture and fishing.
Stacey Scriver Furlong Post-doctoral researcher Global Women's Studies	The interaction between politics, ideology and gender. Other areas of interest include psychoanalysis, popular culture, political-sociology and globalisation.
Vesna Malesevic Lecturer	Religion and religious organisations, especially the Catholic Church, sexuality and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans-gendered) issues, civil society, Irish society and Central and Eastern Europe

PhD STUDENTS

Marja Almqvist	Women Re-Imagining Dayton: The Prospects for Transformative Women's Movements in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina This research project offers a feminist analysis of the gendered nature of democratisation, citizenship, and state-formation in post-conflict Bosnia and the impact that this has had on the development of a transformative women's movements there. The thesis will explore the ethnically based, consociational model on which the state is based and ask what impact this has had on women's capacity to organize together for transformative change?
Emily Bent Galway PhD Fellow	'Becoming' political subjects: A critical analysis of girls’ participation at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the realization of rights, and the 'struggle for recognition' This research examines the development of girls’ political subjectivity and explores current opportunities and barriers to their recognition as rights-bearing subjects. It aims to theorize the radical promise of human rights in the everyday of girls’ lives and consider the complexity of ’girl’ as a subject of feminist inquiry. Guided by adolescent girls’ voices, stories, and experiences, this project investigates how girls’ define, negotiate and articulate rights. It asks: when do girls’ experience themselves as rights-bearing subjects and when are they denied such recognition? Moreover, how do girls’ perspectives and experiences challenge, bring meaning to, and (re)define current rights-based discourses and approaches to children’s rights?
Emma Brannlund Global Women's Studies PhD Fellow	Conflict and Democracy: Gendered Identities and Political Engagement in Kashmir My doctoral studies investigates how political parties in Jammu & Kashmir negotiate democratisation and ending violence in in the context of the Indo-Pakistani peace process. In particular, the research focuses on the role of women in these parties and how regional and gendered identities are conceptualised in the democratic process.
Iris Elliott Government of Ireland Scholar	Progressing Women’s Human Rights in Ireland: the transformative potential of local-global activism This is a sociological study of the engagement by women human rights activists in Ireland with UN Treaty monitoring systems and transnational women’s networks, in order to access activists’ analysis of the conditions under which these dialogical and contentious spaces can transform domestic, inter-sectoral human rights.
Aura Lounasmaa Galway PhD Fellow	Social Movements and Legislative Processes: Violence against Women in Morocco My thesis studies what impact civil society can have in shaping rights legislation and what shapes their own rights discourse and agenda. I will analyse Moroccan women's rights NGOs within their socio-cultural context, including how Islam influences the women's situation as they campaign for introduction of domestic violence legislation in the country. I have spent a year working with NGOs in Morocco and plan to return for my field research in 2010.
Gorana Mlinarevic Global Women's Studies PhD Fellow	to come
Angela O'Connell	Towards a Lesbian Family Standpoint: Exploring the Terrain of Creating New Irish Families
Clíonadh O'Keeffe	Women’s Health, Multi-level Governance and Human Rights in Post Conflict Timor-Leste: A Case Study in Engendering Transition Progress in overcoming health inequalities experienced by women in post conflict Timor-Leste has been undermined by the failure of governance to attach sufficient weight to equality. To address this, the research proposes the ’Right to Health’ framework which has marginalised groups, participation and accountability as its principle concerns. It also demands for structures and processes of accountability that are accessible, transparent, and that empower citizens to participate in planning, implementation and monitoring of their health care. The proposition is timely given the current context of governance reforms – namely decentralisation that is being implemented throughout the country.
Jacqueline O'Toole IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholar 2008-2010	A Narrative Study of Women’s Experiences of Weight Management in Ireland Within a set of normative social expectations in Western societies that constitute an ideal body type for women described as the thin, slender, youthful and ’healthy’ body and the diffusion of ’anti-obesity’ rhetoric at national and international levels, this PhD study is exploring women’s experiences of weight management both within and outside group slimming classes. Deploying a narrative methodology the thesis aims to produce a feminist sociological understanding of women’s stories of weight management. What embodied identities are generated for women through immersion in weight management practices, how do women frame and narrate their experiences of weight management, and what stories do women choose to tell about their experiences of dieting and weight are three of the central questions. Through observation in group slimming classes and narrative interviews with a sample of women, narratives of transformation, normativity, agency and control are emerging as being particular to these women’s experiences of weight management.
Sara Stokes	to come
Tanya Watson	Women's Narratives in Ireland - From "Rural Women" to "Women in the Countryside": Investigating Rural Women's Subjectivities, Identities and Agency for Sustainable Development With a growing emphasis on local resources and the diversification needs of rural households, women are active participants in shaping the modern rural economy. In order to explore rural women's subjectivities identities and agency for sustainable development in the modern rural landscape, it is necessary to review the context within which the rural economy is shaped and to explore women's changing identities through listening to their narratives and experiences. This research will seek to explore the identities of rural women in Ireland, and will inform how they see themselves in the rural context and what this means to them, how they are involved in local and national governance structures and organisations, how they are affected by rural policy agenda, and how gender relations are changing as a result.

School of Political Science and Sociology
Aras Moyola
National University of Ireland, Galway
Tel. +353 91 524411
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This page was last updated Monday, February 20, 2012