Professor
Katherine started out as a qualified journalist but after pursuing academia on a Fulbright Fellowship in Boston, USA, she completed a doctoral degree on Aesthetic, Cultural and Social Theory.
She was Director of UCD Women's Studies Centre for 10 years before joining the faculty of UCD School of Philosophy to lecture in the History of Ideas and feminist and gender theory.
Over academic career, Katherine found the opportunity to work with people who suffer social disadvantage, specifically cultural stigma. She was a co-founding member of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Archive, now deposited as a living archive with the National Library of Ireland. She currently works with the Justice for Magdalenes Research group, who were instrumental in having the State issue an apology to the victims and survivors of the Magdalene Institutions, and in successfully lobbying for the Magdalene Redress Scheme.
My advice is to go, with an open heart and humility, and seek out those women and girls who you think might be the most different from you - read their books if they have written them, otherwise listen to their testimonies, learn from their culture, stand with them, and I am confident that they will challenge and inspire you to live life more fully and have a wider vision of the world.