PhD Candidates

Ms Salsabil Abdalbaki (Complex Systems & Computational Social Sciences)

Research Interests: Data science; social network analysis; text mining; water resources management; Egypt; MENA region
Thesis Title: Dynamic Topic Modelling and Network Analysis for Water Resources Management in the Nile River

Email: (opens in a new window)salsabil.abdalbaki@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Johan A Elkink

Mr Dave Banks (Politics & International Relations)

Research Interests: Sport for Peace and Development; Social Identity; Political Psychology
Thesis Title: The Effectiveness of Sports Reconciliation Projects on Post-Conflict Society

Email: (opens in a new window)dave.banks@ucdconnect.ie 
Supervisor: Dr Tobias Theiler

Mr Isaac Bennett (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: Military innovation; conflict studies; emergent technology; just war theory; airpower
Thesis title: Battlefields of the Future: How Military Innovation Will Change the Calculus of War in Asymmetrical Conflicts

Email: (opens in a new window)isaac.bennett@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Professor Ben Tonra

Ms Julia Canas Martinez (Politics & International Relations)

Research Interests: Women's participation in political violence; foreign fighters; conflict studies 
Thesis Title: Women in political violence: The Western Muhajirat of the Islamic State

Email:(opens in a new window) (opens in a new window)julia.canasmartinez@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Stephanie Dornschneider

Mr Pierce Daly (Quantitative Social Sciences)

Thesis title: To quantitatively assess how wealth, and its distribution, has evolved historically in Ireland

Email: (opens in a new window)pierce.daly@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Aidan Regan

Ms Heba Elsahn (Politics & International Relations)

Research Interests: power dynamics; international development; humanitarian aid; food security; MENA region 
Thesis Title: The Politics of Food Aid in the Middle East

Email: (opens in a new window)heba.elsahn@ucdconnect.ie
Primary Supervisor: Dr Vincent Durac
Co-Supervisor: Dr Caitriona Dowd

Ms Emanuela Ferrari (Politics & International Relations)

Research Interests: Post structural political ecology; environmental conflicts/ environmental justice; social protest and resistance; decolonial theory
Thesis title: Defending the local: Environmental defenders and the challenge of advancing alternative concepts of nature, development and sustainability

Email: (opens in a new window)emanuela.ferrari@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Prof Ben Tonra

Ms Sarah King (Quantitative & Computational Social Science)

Research interests: Quantitative text analysis; research methods; public policy; higher education policy; representation; responsiveness; legislative behaviour 
Thesis Title: The Politicization and Agenda-Setting Dynamics of Higher Education Funding Reform: A Comparative Perspective

Email: (opens in a new window)sarah.king4@ucdconnect.ie(opens in a new window)
Supervisor: Dr Stefan Müller

Ms Shannon Kobran (Global Human Development)

Research interests: Education for sustainable development; tertiary education; public policy; interdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches
Thesis Title: Enabling lifelong learning for a just transition: A study of public policy approaches to advancing adult learning and professional upskilling for sustainable development

Email: (opens in a new window)shannon.kobran@ucdconnect.ie(opens in a new window)
Supervisor: Dr Yoo Sun Jung 

Mr James MacCarthy Morrogh (Politics & International Relations)

Thesis title: Foreign policy, fundamentalism and American public opinion: the impact of evangelicals and Christian belief

Email: (opens in a new window)james.maccarthymorrogh@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr James Cross

Mr Lorcan McLaren (Quantitative & Computational Social Science)

Mr Kevin McParland (Politics & International Relations)

Research Interests: South Asian politics; education and development; globalisation and development
Thesis Title: No country is an island: a comparative analysis of Sri Lanka's alliances with India and China, 2005-2015

Email: (opens in a new window)kevin.mcparland@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Andy Storey

Mr Lucas de Melo Prado (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: Political theory; political discourse; discourse analysis; social justice; equality studies; democracy.
Thesis Title: The Worst-Off and the Legitimation of Social Inequalities: Contemporary Electoral Discourses Across Varieties of Capitalism

Email: (opens in a new window)lucas.(opens in a new window)demeloprado@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Lacey

Ms Lakshmi Menon (Quantitative & Computational Social Science)

Research interests: Multinational enterprises; International economics; NLP; Data science; Statistical modelling; Political economics; Public policy; Economic Inequality and Democracy; Tax policy
Thesis Title: Democracy Challenged - How Corporate Tax Avoidance Fuels the Wealth
Inequalities that Undermine Democracy.

Email: (opens in a new window)lakshmi.menon@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Aidan Regan

Ms Louise Monger (Global Human Development)

Research interests: Human Resource Management; Sustainability Studies; Talent Management; Leadership Development; Performance Management.
Thesis Title: Professionalization of the Field of Sustainability in South East Asia

Email: (opens in a new window)louise.monger@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Prof Patrick Paul Walsh (SPIRe)
Co-Supervisor: Prof Ciara Whelan (Economics)

Ms Paula Montano (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: EU politics; political communication; political rhetoric; public opinion; quantitative text analysis
Thesis Title: How do national and European elites frame integration? Extracting political elite discourse and measuring its influence in attitudes towards integration.

Email: (opens in a new window)gina.montanoparrales@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr James Cross

Mr Jihed Ncib (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: Political representation; public opinion; public policy; legislative behaviour; quantitative text analysis
Thesis Title: Dynamic representation and issue responsiveness: measuring the impact of institutional and contextual factors on individual legislators’ responsiveness using text analysis

Email: (opens in a new window)jihed.ncib@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Stefan Müller

Mr Ciarán Ó Brian (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: Political theory; political ecology; Marxism; critical theory; normative political theory (theories of rights & justice); anarchism; anticolonial and decolonial theory; green political theory
Thesis Title: Climate Borders - Climate Induced Displacement, the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, and Fortress Europe

Email: (opens in a new window)ciaran.obrien3@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Alexa Zellentin

Ms Sadhbh O'Neill (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: Normative political theory; the political and social theory of Jurgen Habermas; climate justice; democratic theory
Thesis title: Deliberative democracy and climate change: an evaluation of the quality of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary discourse in the public sphere

Email: (opens in a new window)sadhbh.o-neill@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Alexa Zellentin
Co-Supervisor: Dr Tobias Theiler

Mr Harry O'Rahilly (Quantitative Social Sciences)

Thesis title: The relationship between traffic flows and market structure and price dispersion

Email: (opens in a new window)harry.orahilly@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Professor Paul Walsh

Ms Neha Parikh (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: Universal Health Coverage; health system reform; health equity; global health policy; mixed methods research; program evaluation and implementation research; political economy & governance of health.
Thesis title: Plugging the Gap: How can India ensure equitable health coverage for its ‘Missing Middle’?

Email: (opens in a new window)neha.parikh@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Krishna Vadlamannati

Ms Mafalda Patacão Zúquete (Quantitative and Computational Social Sciences)

Research interests: political communication; televised debates; mixed computational methods; Portuguese politics
Thesis title:  Issues, emotions, and competition: televised debates in Portugal

Email: (opens in a new window)mafalda.patacaozuquete@ucdconnect.ie
Primary Supervisor: Dr Stefan Müller 
Co-Supervisor: Dr Joseph Lacey

Ms Sofia Quaglia (Quantitative & Computational Social Sciences)

Research interests: Quantitative Social Sciences; Computational Ethics, Machine Learning; International Conflict; Muslim Resistance Movements; Conflict Analysis
Thesis title: Developing Tools for Cognitive Mapping Analysis of Arabic Interviews with Actors in Muslim Resistance Movements

Email: (opens in a new window)sofia.quaglia@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink

Ms Jelena Radakovic (Politics & International Relations)

Research interests: EU enlargement, identity construction, discourse analysis, Western Balkans 
Thesis title: The Role of Identity Discourse in the EU Accession Process. Case Studies: Montenegro and Serbia

Email: (opens in a new window)jelena.radakovic@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Prof Ben Tonra
Co-Supervisor: Dr Dawn Walsh

Mr Carl Smith (Politics & International Relations)

Thesis title: China's Belt and Road Initiative in developing countries

Email: (opens in a new window)carl.smith@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Krishna Vadlamannati

Mr Benjamin Swift (Politics & International Relations)

Thesis title: On Republican Intergovernmentalism, Procedural Legitimacy and Inter-Governmental Decision-Making in the European Union

Email: (opens in a new window)benjamin.swift@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Lacey

Mr Conor Twomey (Politics & International Relations)

Mr Jorge Tamames (Politics & International Relations)

Thesis title: Populism as Countermovement: Left and right insurgencies in Western Europe

Email: (opens in a new window)jorge.tamames@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Aidan Regan

Mr Dino Wildi (Politics & International Relations)

Thesis Title: How does European integration interact with right-wing populism in various countries, and which factors affect this interaction?

Email: (opens in a new window)dino.wildi@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Thomas Däubler

Mr Linus Zechlin (Quantitative & Computational Social Science)

Research interests: Corporate Tax Avoidance; International Political Economy; Inequality Economics; Complex System Economics
Thesis Title: Democracy Challenged - The implications of corporate tax avoidance for wealth inequality and democratic institutions

Email: (opens in a new window)linus.zechlin@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Aidan Regan