Contributors

The DSAI Summer School 2021 takes place on June 16th-17th and promises to be an exciting programme of activity. We are delighted to welcome the following contributors and key note speakers.  You can find the full DSAI Summer School 2021 Programme here. We look forward to seeing you there! Click here to register now. 

Dr Tom Campbell is a Lecturer with the Department of International Development, Maynooth University, teaching modules at undergraduate and post-graduate level in Maynooth University. Current courses taught include: Political Economy of Environment and Development (KD619 / 619D); Global Food Systems, Climate Change and Development (KD621D); Food, Nutrition and Climate Security (KD303); Research Methods (KD351).  Tom has extensive experience working in the Development Education and Third Level Education sectors in Ireland. Previously he worked as Registrar and Lecturer with Kimmage Development Studies Centre, Dublin, before transferring to Maynooth. He has also worked in India with the international secretariat of the volunteering organisation, Service Civil International (SCI). He is a member of the Dóchas Working Group on Livelihoods, Food Security and Nutrition.  With interests in political ecology and current discourses around climate change adaptation and resilience, Tom’s doctoral research (with the School of Law and Government, DCU) examined global and national climate change policy narratives and their consequences for pastoralist livelihoods in the drylands of East Africa. 

Prof. Honor Fagan is a Professor of Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Her theoretical project has been to contribute to the development of a social sustainability paradigm from a sociological perspective, and most recently (since 2011) in line with European Research Policy, to contribute to the development of the emerging field of sustainability science. Her research interests focus on Governance and Social Sustainability; Water, Waste and Sustainable Society; Global Inequalities and Human In/Security; Gender and International Development.  She is currently leading the Social Science component of a Horizon 2020 research programme on water and wastewater sustainability - PANI-Water (https://paniwater.eu/ launched in Feb 2019) where the workpackage aims to accelerate the social sustainability impact of drinking water disinfection units and demo/pilot plants set up to recycle wastewater for agricultural use in India.  She has just completed leading the Social Science workpackage of the WaterSPOUTT (https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/social-sciences-institute/research/waterspoutt ) programme (also Horizon 2020 funded) where the workpackage aimed to transform domestic access to solar disinfection of water in Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda and South Africa http://www.waterspoutt.eu/. (See end of project video here)

Prof. Honor Fagan has served as expert evaluator at national and international level for such prestigious research organisations as the International Social Science Council (ISSC), European Commission (REA) and EASME (most recently H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 Innovative Training Networks and H2020-CS-SC5-04-2019 Building a Water Smart Economy and Society), Suomen Akatemia (Academy of Finland), The National Research Foundation of South Africa, the Irish Research Council (IRC), and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. She is currently editing a Special Issue of Water (MPDI Journal) on ‘Governance and Social Sustainability of Water and Wastewater’. She has published six books with top international publishing houses including the prize-winning Globalisation and Security: An Encyclopaedia; seven book length national reports informed by original field research, designed to engage with and successful in directly impacting targeted policy developments, including one developed for the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) and another funded by EU Framework funds; over forty journal articles and book chapters, including articles in top international journals such as the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (ANNALS), Capitalism, Nature and Class, European Journal of Development Research, Journal of Education, and Policy and Politics.

She has 30 years lecturing experience in five different countries, updated skills and quality tested proficiency in teaching. She has lectured in Sociology Departments in Northern Ireland, South Africa and the UK and currently has teaching capacity building relationships with universities in Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia and South Africa, Canada and Mexico. She is currently co-convenor of the Gender and Social Justice Working Group of the European Association of Development Institutes (EADI).

Ciara Feehely is head of communications and fundraising at Vita Ireland., an overseas development agency investing in climate smart communities in Africa. Although we were first set up 32 years ago to work in emergency aid, for the last ten years we have been working to deliver sustainable livelihoods to rural farm families in East Africa, most notably Ethiopia and Eritrea. We set up the Vita Green Impact Fund in 2015 as a social impact investment platform that delivers climate mitigation through creating and selling voluntary carbon offsets. This is a globally unique and equitable platform has been acclaimed both nationally and internationally as a next generation model of development. Before Vita Ciara worked in senior communications roles with EirGrid, ICSA and RTÉ.

Dr Noelle Higgins is an Associate Professor in Law. She previously worked at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway and at the School of Law and Government, DCU. She has Masters degrees in both Irish and Law and a Higher Diploma in Education. She obtained her PhD on the topic of wars of national liberation and self-determination from NUI Galway. She is currently part of a consortium working on a Horizon2020 Project, entitled 'ReCreating Europe: Rethinking Digital Copyright Law for a Culturally Diverse, Accessible, Creative Europe', awarded in 2020. She was previously the PI on an IRCHSS funded project in international peace mediation. Noelle's main research interests are in the fields of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. She has also undertaken research on the topic of legal education. Her current research focuses in particular on cultural rights and cultural cleansing.

Lauren Napier, PhD Researcher, Board Member, Programme Director. Expert in international relations of outer space, Lauren is an experienced consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the aerospace industry. Skilled in International Relations, Public Relations, Political Science Analysis, Event and Project Management, and Intercultural Communication. Lauren is a space professional with a Master of Arts (M.A.) focused in International Relations from Webster University (AT). Currently a Research Development Fund PhD researcher in space law and policy at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

Dr Chris O’Connell is a Postdoctoral CAROLINE Fellow with Dublin City University and Anti-Slavery International in London. His current research focuses on the relationship between climate change and contemporary forms of slavery in Peru and Bolivia. In particular, this project examines the response by both the state and civil society to these issues, and the influence of the prevailing political economy on the nature of the response. This research has received funding from the Irish Research Council and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713279. Chris’s research interests centre on alterative and sustainable models of development, and their political realisation. Chris holds a PhD in Political Science from Dublin City University, wherein he analysed the influence of civil society on policy switching by leftist presidents in Latin America. His doctoral research examined socio-environmental conflicts and policy implementation relating to resource extraction and food production, topics on which Chris has published. Other research interests include the political economy of development in Latin America and the politics of ‘post-neoliberalism’, human and environmental rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. He is an experienced development education facilitator, and he has also published on this topic. He believes in active, participant-centred learning to promote critical engagement with accepted global wisdoms. Prior to his doctoral studies, Chris spent a decade as an international educator at third-level, much of it in Latin America. Chris has also worked in the NGO sector, and holds a Masters in Development from DCU. He holds a degree in Law from University College Cork, and practiced for a number of years as a litigation solicitor.

Ciarán Quinn was appointed Research Support Librarian & Librarian for the Research Institutes in 2013. Prior to this he was the Faculty Librarian for Science and Engineering. Before joining Maynooth he held positions in the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin Institute of Technology, Tallaght Hospital, and the Health Service Executive Libraries.  Personal Webpage http://ciarnthelibrarian.blogspot.ie/|| Link to Library Guides: https://nuim.libguides.com/research-guides