Elsewhere on Ulster
Find out more about current PhD researchers in the School of Law (including the Law Clinic, Legal Innovation Centre and Transitional Justice Institute).
Michael Abu
Michael is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, with over seven years of experience in legal practice. His primary area of research specialization encompasses international human rights law, international law, and Transitional Justice.
His academic research trajectory commenced in 2017 with a distinction graded LL.B project at Benson Idahosa University, titled "Examination of International Crimes and the Operations of the International Criminal Court."
He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2018, after professional training at the Nigerian Law School earning the Barrister at Law (B.L) degree. In 2023, he concluded his LL.M research at Umea University, Sweden, titled “Recognition of Right to a Healthy Environment: Breakthrough or Stagnancy? A Critical Analysis of Right to A Healthy Environment as a Fundamental Right And Its Effects On Access To Climate Change Justice.”
Over the past five years, Michael has gained substantial experience through his work on reports and volunteer engagements with prominent international non-governmental organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Amnesty International. Concurrently, he has maintained an active legal practice, advising multinational corporations and advocating for individuals subjected to human rights violations. Before commencing his Ph.D research, he served as a Senior Associate at Nigeria's premier intermediary law firm, Lehi Attorneys.
Michael's Ph.D. project investigates the plight of children as victims of climate change and their access to justice under international human rights law. This research aims to contribute an alternative framework to the evolving field of climate change litigation for child victims. By exploring innovative avenues, his work seeks to provoke a rethinking and eventual expansion of human rights jurisprudence, thereby addressing the urgent needs of this vulnerable population.
Nada Ahmed
Narratives of Perpetration in Transitional Justice Mechanisms: The Cases of Libya, Tunisia & Egypt
Nada Ahmed has worked as a lawyer and human rights research after she obtained a master degree in human rights law from Paris during which she worked with Human Rights Watch, in their Paris office and a bachelor degree in international law from both Paris 1 Sorbonne University and Cairo University.
She worked with Egyptian prominent human rights lawyer Negad El Borai on public opinion cases like the foreign funding case or the assembly law case in Egypt. She also worked with El Borai as a researcher as she wrote various papers about travel ban and enforced disappearances but most importantly she proposed, researched and drafted the Prisoners' handbook: a Q & A about the prison rules and regulations in Egypt. Nada also worked as a researcher interviewing torture victims, monitoring and documenting torture cases with Nation Without Torture campaign.
She joined Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in December 2018 as a non-resident fellow with a focus on Egypt security sector and transitional justice in Tunisia. To pursue her in interest for transitional justice, she joined the Transitional Justice Institute in Ulster University for her PhD focusing on Narratives of Perpetration in transitional justice mechanisms in three MENA region countries: Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
Sasha Gillespie
After a career as a special education teacher for almost a decade, Sasha returned to study for her LLB and LLM. The combination of background and recent experiences at the Ulster Law Clinic while studying Access to Justice, her focus sharpened on Social Justice. She has a particular interest in the experiences of those who care for the disabled in employment, the welfare system and wider social participation in the context of equality law theory, and feminist perspectives.
Sasha’s project focuses on whether there is a discriminatory impact of the legal framework upon carers that is likely to cause social exclusion, poverty and significant barriers to entering or remaining in employment. Her research is interested in the experiences of carers and potential legal and policy approaches to encourage positive attitudes, inclusion and equality for this increasingly large section of society.
Michael Hearty
How and why do we (not) collectively remember non-combatants in Northern Ireland?
Micheál joined the TJI in September 2020. His PhD project is titled "How and why we do (not) collectively remember non-combatants in Northern Ireland?" Prior to beginning his PhD project, Micheàl pursued undergraduate studies in history and sociology at QUB and later gained an MA in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice from The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.
During his time at QUB, he also volunteered as a Student Research Assistant for the QUB Human Rights Centre's Historical Institutional Abuse Consultation. His assigned section was on symbolic reparations.
Email: Hearty-M6@ulster.ac.uk
Twitter: @HeartyMicheal
Quinn O'Mahar
Quinn received a BA in International Relations from Beloit College in 2016 and his LLM in International Human Rights Law from University of Galway in 2022. His research interests are in International Human Rights Law, economic rights, labour rights, social destitution, and social inclusion. Quinn’s PhD project is ‘The Rise of Diseases and Deaths of Despair in the United States: the Role of Labour Rights’. The aim of this project is to assess the if improving labour rights protections and promotion in the US can counteract the increase of deaths from suicides, overdoses, and deaths from alcohol-related disease, collectively labelled Deaths of Despair. Quinn’s supervisors are Dr. Mark Simpson, Dr. Ciara Fitzpatrick, and Prof. Rory O’Connell.
Juliana Poveda Clavijo
Juliana is a lawyer specialised in human rights and international humanitarian law from the National University of Colombia, 2013. She obtained an MA in political studies from the Institute of Political Studies and International Relations of the National University of Colombia in 2020. She explored in her thesis the violent configuration of the local institutions in a municipality located on the Colombia-Panamanian border. In 2021, she pursued another MA in development studies, major in social justice perspectives -peace and conflict Studies- from the International Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She approached forced migration governance strategies in the Colombian-Venezuelan case.
Likewise, she has been a socio-legal and humanitarian practitioner focused on forced migration and transitional justice. Juliana worked for the Colombian judiciary and the ombudsman, and international and civil society organisations, in the country. Recently, she had the opportunity to contribute to the Colombian Truth Commission and the International Criminal Court, where she did a seven-month professional visit at trial chambers on reparations issues.
At Ulster University, she aims to address in her PhD project the relationship between reparative justice, durable solutions for people forced to migrate, and solidarity between states. Her supervisors are Prof Brandon Hamber, Dr Gillian Kane, and Dr Sarah Craig.
Dasha Reddy
Reflecting an interdisciplinary background, Dasha obtained a Master in Public Health from Simon Fraser University in 2020 and a Master of Transitional Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law from The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in 2021.
Her research interests include health rights, access to health related care in post-conflict settings, and community self-determination.
Dasha’s preliminary PhD thesis is titled ‘Lingering Health Violence: Bridging Micro and Macro Levels Post-Conflict to Support Communities in Realizing their Right to Health”. The aim of the project is to create an interdisciplinary informed framework for addressing health violence in post-conflict settings and show how it can be operationalised to support communities in realising their right to health.
Stanley Georgia
Georgia Stanley is a second-year PhD researcher at Ulster University’s School of Law. She studied Law (Single Honours) at Queen’s University Belfast from 2017 – 2020 before obtaining her Master’s degree in Gender, Conflict, and Human Rights Law with distinction at Ulster University’s Transitional Justice Institute (2020 – 2021).
Georgia has a particular interest in the area of legal feminism. Her research background includes feminist perspectives on violence against women, with focus on the gender dynamics of domestic abuse; conflict-related sexual assault; and examining rape through a feminist lens.
Her preliminary thesis is titled ‘An Investigative Analysis of the Use, Role, and Influence of Rape Myths in Rape Trials Utilising Narratives from Northern Ireland’. Georgia’s doctoral research employs court transcript analysis of several Northern Irish rape cases using a feminist theoretical lens and critical discourse analysis in order to highlight and challenge the underlying sexist discourses and misogynistic narratives of the courtroom and their sociolegal implications for women in this jurisdiction and beyond.
Aileen Thomson
Aileen’s research interests are in transitional justice, law, activism, human rights, social movements and empowerment of marginalized groups. She has led research in those areas independently and for a range of local and international organizations working on Myanmar and elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia. Aileen is also the co-founder and former Director of the Tea Leaf Center, a social enterprise consulting firm based in Thailand which trains and mentors civil society and grassroots organizations in research.
Prior to her current work, she has researched and wrote reports on displacement in/from Myanmar and protests and the right to peaceful assembly with Progressive Voice and spent five years with the International Center for Transitional Justice in various positions including as Head of Office in Myanmar and Nepal. With ICTJ, she trained civil society organizations and conducted research on reconciliation, transitional justice and victims’ groups and civil society advocacy for and participation in transitional justice. Throughout her career, she has also led research and trainings for many small human rights and political organizations on the Thailand-Myanmar border. She received her J.D. and M.A. from American University in 2012, and a BA from Catawba College in 2008.
Aileen’s PhD project examines the role of agency in the narratives of political victims in Myanmar. Through this work, she aims to contribute to deeper understanding of political victims’ narratives and a better understanding of how these narratives interact with and shape justice demands and processes.
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