Examples of previous research projects are listed below.
Addressing Cultural Legacies of Conflict
Dr Melanie Hoewer is Principal Investigator for 'Addressing Cultural Legacies of Conflict: Towards and Inter-Cultural and Inter-Dimensional Dialogue on Women, Peace and Security'. Funded by the Conflict Resolution Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the project began in October 2012 and looks at lessons learned from 1325 processes. Bringing in a comparison of three case studies, the project will create an intercultural and inter-dimensional dialogue which allows for different experiences, positioning and voices to be heard. Read More.
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Borders in Dispute: Dr Katy Hayward IRCHSS Fellowship
During her time as an IRCHSS Research Fellow in the Institute of British-Irish Studies from 2005-07, Katy Hayward furthered her study of multilevel cooperation and conflict transformation on the island of Ireland. The hypothesis behind this research is that the EU has unique potential for supporting conflict transformation across disputed borders not just through direct funding but in strengthening local structures of multilevel partnership.
For select publications relating to the project click here.
Dr Hayward is now a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast.
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Breaking the Patterns of Conflict: The Irish State, the British Dimension and the Northern Ireland Conflict
Creating Living Institutions: Cross-Border and Regional Cooperation after the Good Friday Agreement
Professor Brigid Laffan led a comprehensive study on the role of the European programme for cross border co-operation—INTERREG—in developing and promoting cross-border co-operation in the context of the new North-South institutions. This enabled the authors to delve beneath the ‘high politics’ of the Good Friday agreement to analyse the slow and somewhat tortuous creation of radically new political arrangements on this island.
For more information and the final report (opens in a new window)click here.
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Evangelicalism and Political Change: Dr Claire Mitchell Guinness Newman Scholarship
Dr Claire Mitchell was awarded the Guinness Newman Scholarship in British-Irish Studies in 2001. Her research in IBIS built on her doctoral work on political attitudes in the Catholic and Protestant communities by exploring the attitudes of evangelicals to social and political change in Britain and Ireland. Dr Mitchell compared British and Northern Irish evangelicals in order to contrast the impact of differing political experiences on religious identities. Dr Mitchell's research resulted in the publication of her book Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland: Boundaries of Belonging and Belief, Ashgate 2005. Working papers related to Dr Mitchell's research.
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From Group to Category: Dr Kevin Howard Doctoral Fellowship
Dr Kevin Howard first joined IBIS in Autumn 2000 as a doctoral fellow, and completed his doctoral thesis From Group to Category: The Emergence of the Irish in Britain as an Ethnic Minority. in 2003. He then worked as a post-doctoral researcher on the Mapping Frontiers project from 2004-2005.
Publications from Dr Howard's project
Constructing the Irish of Britain: ethnic recognition and the 2001 UK census
Europeanisation and Hyphe-Nation: renegotiating the identity boundaries of Europe’s Western Isles
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Intergenerational Transmission and Ethno-National Identity in the Border Area (ITENIBA)
ITENIBA was a joint project undertaken by the Geary Institute, UCD and the School of Psychology, Queens University Belfast, with involvement from IBIS researchers. Funded by the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, it ran from 2004 to 2006. The project showed how how oppositional identities, which lie at the root of the Northern conflict, are transmitted within the family. A multi-faceted approach highlighted the mechanisms by which identity is transmitted in oppositional form and indicated the contexts in which identity change occurs.
For more information and project publications click here.
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John Hume and the Revision of Irish Nationalism: Dr Peter McLoughlin Postdoctoral Fellowship
Peter McLoughlin was awarded an IRCHSS Post-doctoral Fellowship with the Institute for British-Irish Studies which ran from October 2006 to September 2008. His area of study was John Hume and the Revision of Irish Nationalism. The project critically assessed the efforts of the former SDLP Leader, John Hume, to revise certain tenets of traditional Irish nationalist thinking. The research considered his success but also the limitations of his achievements in terms of helping to resolve the Northern Ireland problem. In the process it drew on and engaged with theoretical debates on the nature of ethnic conflict and the place of nationalism in a globalising world.
Publications from the project
'Humespeak': the SDLP, political discourse , and the Northern Ireland peace process
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The John Whyte Archive
IBIS has had a long-running programme designed to document the recollections of those involved in the pursuit of a settlement in Northern Ireland, launched and directed by Jennifer Todd. The collection began with a set of taped, structured interviews with many of the leading figures in the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement. A grant was awarded to the Institute from the Dr John Henry Whyte Trust Fund in February 2006 for the transcription of a large number of these cassettes. Thanks to further injection of funds from the Trust, transcription of the tapes is completed and the digitisation of tapes underway. The tapes are stored in the UCD archive and will, in due course, be available to researchers, subject to time embargoes imposed by particular interviewees.
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Mapping Frontiers, Plotting Pathways: Routes To North-South Cooperation In A Divided Island
This HEA funded north-south research project ran from 2004 to 2006. To view an archive of the Mapping Frontiers Plotting Pathways project (opens in a new window)click here.
The Mapping frontiers, plotting pathways project was funded by the EU Peace and Reconciliation fund (PEACE II), through the Irish Higher Education Authority's North-South research programme. The project aimed to research the impact of the Irish border in a range of areas, stretching from pre-partition era through to the present day. The project was undertaken in conjunction with the (opens in a new window)Institute of Governance at Queen's University Belfast, the (opens in a new window)Centre for Cross-Border Studies in Armagh, Democratic Dialogue in Belfast and the (opens in a new window)Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin.
Project activity included academic research workshops, grass-roots seminars with policy-makers and community representatives in the border region, and a project conference which too place in in Armagh city on 19th and 20th January 2006.
In addition, twenty seven working papers were produced by the project. (opens in a new window)Click here to view.
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Patterns of Conflict Resolution: Mechanisms and Sequences of Peace-Making and Peace-Building. How to Draw Lessons from Northern Ireland
Resolving Ethnic Conflict: Approaches to Peace (RECAP)
This research project, supported by the (opens in a new window)International Social Sciences Council (ISSC), aims to summarise the current state of research in the area of ethnic conflict and its resolution, identify gaps and propose mechanisms whereby this stock of knowledge can be brought to the attention of a wider public, including policy-makers. The project began in September 2005. Mr Colin Shaw, doctoral student at the School of Politics and International Relations at UCD and Dermot Mulligan wereresearch assistants on the project.
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