Staff

Anne Byrne

Senior Lecturer

First Year BA Co-ordinator

PhD University of Limerick
MA NUI Galway
BA NIHE

Office: 314 Aras Moyola
Telephone: 353 (0)91 493035
Email: anne.byrnenuigalway.ie

Member of the Global Women's Studies Research Cluster
Member of the Gender, Discourse and Identities research group of Gender ARC, a joint NUI Galway-UL research network

Profile

Anne Byrne is a sociologist with teaching and research interests spanning gender, identity, rurality, inequality, stigma, group work and community development, anthropological historiography and qualitative research methodologies with a particular interest in narrative inquiry. Commencing in the mid 1980s, my academic career has largely been in Ireland but with some experience of teaching and research in the US. I have been actively involved in both international, national and local research advisory groups dealing with social justice, community development and gender issues. I have recently served as board member with MACNAS Community Arts initiative, the Women’s Health Council and acted as advisory member for the Global Project for Safe Motherhood, NUIG/ Irish Aid and for baseline research with the Galway Traveller’s Movement. A recent initiative is the establishment of the NUIG Narrative Studies Group. Research awards include Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, ( http://www.irchss.ie/), Senior Research Fellowship 2006-7 and Senior Research Fellow, Rutgers Centre for Historical Analysis, Rutgers, New Jersey, Gendered Passages in Historical Perspectives: Single Women 2003-2004 Project. I a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Irish Journal of Sociology, Women's Studies International Forum and Journal of Gender Studies.

Teaching

Undergraduate Courses include:
First Arts courses in Sociological and Political Studies
Third Year option course ’The Power of Story and Narrative: Qualitative Research’

Postgraduate Courses include:
Group Work 1 and 2 (Community Development)
Gender Research in the Social Sciences (Taught Phd Course)
Qualitative Research Methods (Taught PhD Course)

Research Interests

My primary and current research project is based on an exploration of the archives of the Harvard-Irish Mission (1930-1936) with a particular focus on methodological issues, conflict and identity in the letters and diaries of the social anthropologists Conrad Arensberg and Solon Kimball.

Narratives of Ireland: A historical and contemporary account of the Harvard-Irish Survey 1930-1936. The historical, socio-political context of the survey is reconstructed, re-assessing impacts for scholarship and communities studied. Unpublished diaries suggest a reappraisal of debates concerning the “small-farm family” account. The contemporary consequences of historical narratives of key actors and experts on the making and shaping of Irish rural identity are interrogated. This work has a number of dimensions that include ongoing archival research in Ireland and the US, a recent conference addressing the theme of narrative and story (Burren Spring Conference ’Narratives of People and Place’ February 2008), a community organized exhibition of documents, photographs and rural artifacts based on a collaborative community reading and analysis of field work diaries of the Harvard-Irish Mission (Successors Read Predecessors, Rinnamona Research Group in collaboration with X-PO Kilnaboy project Co Clare, May-June 2008. For more information, click here and here.)

Bringing community studies back to the community is a significant theme of this work. See also radio documentary ’Raw Data’ by Mary Owens on Arensberg and Kimball’s observational work in Clare (Clare FM, May 2006. For more information, click here.

Other research projects concern critically reviewing the conceptualisation of rural women’s identities, gender and sustainability, gender representations and governance issues in rural Ireland.

I am drawn to research that is narratively oriented, theoretically and methodologically creative, that is inspired by a mix of disciplinary perspectives, that has concerns for social futures and is responsive to people’s care and needs.

Selected Publications

Books/Chapters

Shorthall, S. and Byrne, A. (2009) Gender and Sustainability in Rural Ireland in McDonagh, J. Shorthall, S and Varley, T (eds) A Living Countryside – The politics of sustainable rural development. Ashgate: Aldershot

This chapter considers if and how gender is relevant for the sustainability of rural Ireland. When we refer to rural sustainability we mean the continuation of the economic, social, institutional and environmental components of rural life. There are many ways in which we could approach a chapter on gender and rural sustainability. Mobility, education, employment, social class, health care and practically every social structure impacts on gender and the sustainability of rural areas. As these topics are covered in other chapters in this book, we have chosen to focus on gender relations and the sustainability of agriculture and rural development programmes. We review the existing body of research on these topics and consider what they tell us about rural sustainability. The literature review demonstrates how initially research reported gender differences but did not analyse them in any depth. The next phase saw scholars starting to examine the role of women on farms and latterly the role of women in rural development programmes. More recently, scholars have turned their attention to the implications for men of changing gender roles in rural areas. It is clear that any renegotiation of women’s roles has implications for men’s roles, and vice versa. Much of the research we will review focuses on whether a particular construction of a gender role negatively impacts on another. Our rationale is that a good quality of life for men and women seems central to the sustainability of rural living. We conclude by identifying contemporary considerations regarding gender and rural sustainability.

Byrne, Anne (2008) ’Women Unbound: Single Women in Ireland’ in Yans-McLoughlin, Virginia and Bell, Rudy (eds) Women Alone. Rutgers University Press: NJ pp 29-73.

This essay examines accounts of how women make sense of their single identity in an Irish sociological study of singles women’s lives. Utilizing a framework from a similar British study (from a psychosocial perspective) the concept of interpretative repertoires and their constraining effects is explored. Some women speak of own singleness as failing to realise womanhood as traditionally endorsed. Others focus on the freedom that singleness brings, extolling the advantages of being alone and the autonomy of single independence. Accounts from both studies show that a negative construction of singleness disarms the capacity for innovatory action. A positive construction likewise constrains, so that possibilities for expanding the meaning of singleness to include intimacy and independence are not realised. Arguably, the identity of single women, of who and what one can be, is constrained at the ideological level by opposing societal accounts of womanhood and singleness and constrained at the personal level in internal dialogues constructing singleness as either negative or positive.

Byrne, A (2005). ’Equality in Local Development’ 63-64, ’Single Women in Ireland’ 153-155, ’Rural Women in Ireland’ 181-182 in Pelan, Rebecca and Hayes, Alan (eds) Women Emerging: A Decade of Irish Feminist Scholarship. Women’s Studies Centre: Galway.

Anne Byrne, Ricca Edmondson and Tony Varley, (2001), ’Arensberg and Kimball and Anthropological Research in Ireland: Introduction to the Third Edition’, Conrad Arensberg and Solon Kimball, Family and Community in Ireland, CLASP: Ireland, 1-101.

Byrne. A and Lentin, R. (eds), (2000), (Re)searching Women: Feminist Research Methodologies in the Social Sciences in Ireland, Institute for Public Administration: Dublin. >> View on Google Books

Byrne, Anne and Ronit Lentin, (2000) ’Introduction’, in Byrne, Anne and Lentin, Ronit (eds), Researching Women: Feminist Research Methodologies in the Social Sciences in Ireland, Institute for Public Administration: Dublin, pp1-59.

Byrne, Anne, (2000) 'Researching One An-Other', in Byrne, Anne and Lentin, Ronit (eds), Researching Women: Feminist Research Methodologies in the Social Sciences in Ireland, Institute for Public Administration: Dublin pp140-166.

Byrne, A. (1999) 'Familist Ideologies and Difficult Identities' in Cohen, Marilyn and Curtin, Nancy (eds) Reclaiming Gender: Transgressive Identities in Modern Ireland, St Martins Press/Macmillan: USA, 69-90.

Byrne, Anne, and Leonard, Madeleine (eds) (1997). Women in Irish Society: A Sociological Reader. Beyond the Pale Publications: Belfast. 263pp.

Journal Articles (Forthcoming 2009)

"Family and Community: (Re)Telling Our Own Story"

This is a story of a rural community, an artist and a sociologist working collaboratively with stories and visual representations of family and community life beginning with Arensberg and Kimball’s classic anthropological narrative Family and Community in Ireland. We investigate the power of “small stories” to interrupt dominant narratives and their capacity to be transformatory for community identity. The implication for verbal and visual narrative practices is explored through creative community collaboration.

"Letters in anthropological research: the Harvard-Irish Survey 1930-1936"

This article examines a selection of the professional and private letters of the social anthropology strand of the Harvard-Irish Survey (1930-1936). Research letters can contribute to the historiography of the first visit to Europe in the 1930s of an American team of anthropologists and archaeologists engaged in a multi-disciplinary study of a ’modern’ society. How letters are deployed, who writes to whom, what is relayed, requested or refused reveals the deployment of a novel research strategy by anthropologists Arensberg and Kimball. Letters to and from research informants reveal at first hand informant voices, perspectives and practices – material that informs the ethnographic observations on Irish town and country life. The complexities of informant-researcher relationships are also highlighted. A narrative approach to the analysis of research letters is introduced.

Journal Articles (selection)

Byrne, A (2009) Perfidious and Pernicious Singlism, Review article in Sex Roles : Volume 60, Issue 9 (2009), 760-763. >> View online here.

Byrne, A. Canavan, J and Millar, M. (2007) Participatory research and the Voice Centered Relational Method of data analysis: Is it worth it? International Journal of Social Research Methodology 1-12: iFirst Article.

Byrne A. and Carr, D. (2005). ’Caught in the Cultural Lag: The Stigma of Singlehood’. Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory, Vol. 16 (2,3): 84-91.

Byrne, A. (2003). 'Developing a Sociological Model for Researching Women's Self and Social Identities' in the European Journal of Women's Studies (Special Issue on Identities), Vol.10 (4): 443-464.

Byrne, A. (2000) 'Singular Identities: Managing Stigma, Resisting Voices' in Women's Studies Review, Vol. 7, 13-24.

Byrne, A., and Owens, M. (1998) 'Gendering Rural Development' in Administration. Vol. 46. No. 3. 37-52.

Owens, M and Byrne, A. (1996) 'Family, Work and Community' in UCG Women's Studies Centre Review, Hayes, A et al. (Eds), Vol 4, pp.77-94.

Byrne, A, Byrne, P, Lyons, A. (1996) 'Inventing and Teaching Women's Studies: Considering Feminist Pedagogy' in Irish Journal of Feminist Studies, Vol 1, No 1, pp.78-99.

Byrne, A. (1995) 'Making Development Work for Women' in UCG Women's Studies Centre Review, Byrne, P, Conroy, J, Hayes, A, (Eds), Vol 3, pp.201-213.

Byrne, Anne, (1992) ’Academic Women’s Studies in the Republic of Ireland - Some Pedagogical and Ideological Issues’ in Women’s Studies Quarterly, Nov./Dec. issue, USA, pp.15-27.

Byrne, A. (1991) ’Working With Rural Women’ in Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship, Theory and Aesthetics, Vol. 3, No. 1, p.5-14.

Byrne, A. (1991) 'Statistics - What do they tell us about Women?' in Byrne, A., Conroy, J., Ryder, S. (Eds.), UCG Women's Studies Centre Review, Vol 1, Women's Studies Centre, UCG, pp.1-13.

Supervision of Research

List of MA Students (selection)

I have supervised more than 25 postgraduate theses in Community Development (CD), Rural Development (RD) and Social Work (SW) and currently serve on 10 PhD Review Panels.

Fiona Neary. The Principle of Participation and Agency Growth. 1992 (CD)

Alice Freely. Contribution of Social Employment Schemes to Community Development. 1992 (CD)

Hilary Curley. Broadening The Benefits : A Community Approach to Rural Tourism.' 1994 (CD)

Ann Nolan. The Young Single Homeless and Temporary Accommodation. 1994 (CD)

Noirin Clancy Personal Development as a Tool for Empowering Rural Women. 1995 (RD)

Fionnula Kenny. Limits to Representation in a Patriarchal Society. 1995 (CD)

Caoimhe Gleeson. Women, Income and Credit: A Panacea for the Alleviation of Poverty or the Same Old Story?’. 1996 (CD)

Paula Leonard. Women’s Groups and Social Exclusion: A Case for Politicisation and Feminist Ideology. 1996 (CD)

Sheila McNasser. Earning Credibility and Keeping Afloat: the Rightful Place of Community Enterprise Within Sligo County Enterprise Board's Structures. 1997 (CD)

Deirdre O'Connor. Adult Education and Gender Equality: An Analysis of a Cross Section of Adult Education Programmes. 1998 (CD)

Jennifer Wallace Creative Evaluation, Capturing the Spirit of Community Arts. 1998 (CD)

Veronica MacNamara. Educational Disadvantage and Early School Leaving. 2001 (CD)

Martha Gallagher. Re-Visiting the Significance of Joining the Irish Country Women’s Association in 1950s and 1960s. 2001 (RD)

David Rynne Path Dependency and Community Development 2008 (CD)

Edel McCool My Voice, My Experience: Adult reflections on the childhood experience of the biological child of foster carers 2008 (SW)

Anne Cassidy. Just Good Women? The Little Sisters of the Assumption Bohermore Community Development Project. 2009 (CD)

Linda Knott. A Relationship they would rather avoid: Motherhood and Drug Use- the professional experiences of Social Workers. 2009 (SW)

Current Phd Students

Ph.D Commencing September 2007: Jacqueline O Toole. Female Embodiment: women embodying weight management strategies. IRCHSS funded for 2008-10.

Ph.D Commencing September 2008: Tanya Watson. Women’s Narratives - From ’Rural Women’ to ’Women in the Countryside?’ Investigating Rural Women’s Subjectivities, Identities and Agency for Sustainable Development. Teagasc Walsh Fellowship.

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