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Events Landing PageLecturer in Workplace Sociology
School of Humanities - Social Care and Early Childhood - College Street campus
C216 Convent Building
College Street
I am a recent PhD graduate in the area of cultural studies and sociology. My PhD explored teenage girls' lived experiences of contemporary femininity online and offline.
My professional background is in social care.
My research interests are in qualitative methods, Foucauldian feminist research, interdisciplinary approaches, participatory research, sensuous research methods and carnal hermeneutics, embodiment, teenagers' lived experiences, social media and exercise of power.
2014 Sept-Present Waterford Institute of Technology
Position: Lecturer
Subjects: Sociology of Contemporary Ireland (Level 8), Interdisciplinary Seminars (Level 8), Race and Ethnicity (Level 8), Modernisation and Social Change (Level 7), Social Facts and Structures (Level 7), Key Themes in Sociology (Level 7), Sociology of Gender (Level 8), Personal and Professional Development (Level 7/8), Northern Ireland: Sociology of Peace and Conflict (Level 8), Sociology of Deviance (Level 8), History of Social Care in 20th and 19th Century (Level 7)
2012-2018 PhD Teenage girls in Ireland negotiating media messages about ‘appropriate’ femininity in the construction and presentation of their subjectivity on Social Networking Sites, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland
2018 June 5-day IPA Summer School Tricksterology: The Political Anthropology of Evil, UCC/WIT/Cambridge University and Roskilde University (Copenhagen), Italy
2017 June 5-day IPA Summer School The Political Anthropology of Subversion: On a secret technique of transformation, UCC/WIT/Cambridge University and Roskilde University (Copenhagen), Italy
2017 May 1-day Workshop with Tom O’Donoghue (University of Western Australia) Challenges in qualitative mixed methods research, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland
2016 November Masterclass The Value of Social Science to Human Existence in Hypermodernity, UCC, Ireland
2015 November 3-day International EU COST Action Training School Assessing appearance dissatisfaction in marginalised and socially disadvantaged groups, University of Malta, Malta
2015 May 5-day International PhD Economy and Society Summer School, WIT and UCC, Ireland
2014 Sept 2-day International Workshop with Nora Bateson Gregory Bateson and systemic thinking, The Centre for Creative Practice, Ireland
2014 May 4-day International Intergender Doctoral Course Revisiting ‘doing gender’: language and gender in interaction, Karlstad University, Centre for Gender Studies, Sweden
2014 April 1-day Workshop with Tom O’Donoghue (University of Western Australia) Grounded theory, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland
2013 Nov 4-day International Intergender Doctoral Course Sex machines: politicising contemporary sexual pleasures, Linkoping University, Centre for Gender Studies, Sweden
2012 April 5-day Theory and Philosophy Summer School Transgression and progressivity,
University College Cork (UCC), Ireland
2012 Dec 2 weeks Winter School Qualitative Methodology, University of Limerick (UL), Ireland
2012 Oct 1-day Masterclass Teen pregnancies and fatherhood, National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland
2012 Nov 2-day Workshop Comparative research methods and teenagers’ sexuality, National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland
2012 Sep 1-day Workshop Gender dimension during the research process, Irish Research Council (IRC), Ireland
2009-2012 Waterford Institute of Technology
BA Level 8 (Hons) Applied Social Studies in Social Care
Awarded: 1st Class Honours (76% overall)
2009-2011 Waterford College of Further Education (WCFE)
FETAC Level 6 Supervision in Childcare course
Awarded: Overall distinctions
2008-2009 Waterford College of Further Education (WCFE)
FETAC Level 5 Certificate in Childcare
Awarded: Overall distinctions
2007-2009 Waterford College of Further Education (WCFE)
FETAC Level 5 Certificate in Special Needs Assistant
Awarded: Overall distinctions
2006-2007 WIT Practical Psychology course
2006-2007 WIT Foundation Certificate in Child and Social Care Studies
2018 March-June Organising Committee for IPA Summer School
Position: Organising Committee Team Member
Duties included: coordinating application process between applicants and the management team, coordinating communication between applicants and the management team, coordinating the programme events, organising travelling arrangements for the School’s participants, managing the School’s documentation.
2017 May Organising Committee for WIT and Family Therapy Institute Singapore Summer School
Position: Organising Committee Team Member
Duties included: coordinating programme events between WIT and Singapore team, strategizing and keeping records for future collaborations, managing day to day activities, responding to Singapore team’s queries and concerns, booking and organising the accommodation for Singapore team, resolving any arising issues concerning accommodation with the management
2015 Sept-2017 April EU COST action Appearance Matters
Position: Team member of Working group 10 Media and Appearance
Duties included: Collaborating with the international multidisciplinary team in creating and delivering group’s research strategy, conducting and analysing research data, presenting research data during COST conferences, establishing international links with other researchers, applying for COST funding
2014 March Organising Committee for International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland)
Position: Organising Committee Team Member
Duties included: Organising the programme and activities for the week, coordinating the programme events between WIT and Belgium team, finding venues for the events, meeting and greeting international delegates, negotiating discounts for group meals with the local restaurants
2011 March Organising Committee for International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland)
Position: Organising Committee Team Member
Duties included: Organising the programme and activities for the week, coordinating the programme events between WIT and Belgium team, finding venues for the events, meeting and greeting international delegates, negotiating discounts for group meals with the local restaurants
15th November 2017 – International seminar on Youth and Social Care Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium
Workshop: ‘I’m sexy and I know it’ Teenage girls’ self-presentations on social media Considerations for the practitioner.
21-22 April 2017 - International COST Initiative Conference ‘The impact of appearance in our society’, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Poster: ‘Pretty is the new body shape’: teenage girls negotiating contemporary media discourses of appropriate femininity
31st March-2nd April 2015 - International Interdisciplinary Conference ‘Talking bodies: identity, sexuality, representation’, University of Chester, UK
Paper: Bodies in, with and through secrets during research
2015 Interview with Emma Rees (University of Chester) on my conceptual considerations about qualitative research process in Times Higher Education (Rees, E., 2015, ‘Self-reflective study: the rise of ‘meresearch’’, Times Higher Education, online)
9-11 March 2015 - International Seminar on Children’s rights, University of Leuven, Belgium
Workshop: Young people and social networking sites: reflections for professional practice
10-14 March 2014 - International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland), Waterford, Ireland
Workshop: Teenage girls’ identity construction through Facebook: reimagining work with teenagers
29-30 November 2013 - Sixth International Political Anthropology Workshop in Ireland on
‘Poesis: The ambivalent creation of the truth’, Waterford, Ireland
Paper: The everyday poesis on Facebook: teenage girls’ perspectives
22-24 October 2013 - Intergender Doctoral course ‘Sex machines: politicising contemporary sexual pleasures’, Linkoping, Sweden
Paper: Bodies in becoming: teen girls’ desiring and mechanical bodies
31st April 2013 - WIT Research day, Waterford, Ireland
Poster: 'How can I become a woman?' Media discourses and a feminine identity creation among teenage girls in Ireland: a qualitative study
3-4 July 2012 - Appearance Matters 5 Annual International Conference, Bristol, UK
Poster: The impact of media messages on teenage girls’ bodies: a qualitative study
12-13 May 2012 - SAI Annual Postgraduate Conference, Maynooth, Ireland
Poster: How media texts affect teenage girls’ bodies in globalised Ireland
SETU Waterford, Cork Road, Waterford City, 
