TJI PhD Researchers

Christine Taylor

PhD Researcher

Title of project

Women of the Troubles: Gender, Violence and the Paramilitary in Northern Ireland.

Start date: October 2014

Other information

Christina Taylor completed a BA International at University College, Dublin, RoI. In her third year, Christina was awarded a scholarship for international studies at Lund University, Sweden. In 2013/2014, she completed postgraduate studies at the INCORE centre, Ulster University. Throughout her time at university, Christina actively engaged in the areas of conflict and gender studies.  She was awarded the Universitas 21; International Summer School Scholarship, 2011 - reflecting on global engagement with the conflict in Northern Ireland.  She has also collaborated on a volunteer basis, with the Irish-British Studies Institute, the Women's Irish History Association and the Forum for Cities in Transition. Christina's research, based at the Transitional Justice Institute, centres on an analysis of ex-combatant women in Northern Ireland.

Contact

taylor-c26@email.ulster.ac.uk

Deirdre Nelson

PhD Researcher

Deirdre Nelson commenced her PhD studies with TJI in October 2013. Prior to that, Deirdre had completed her LLB (Hons) Law with Government at the University of Ulster, graduating in 2008. She then went on to successfully complete her LLM Human Rights Law at the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, graduating in the summer of 2012. Deirdre's PhD research draws on her vast experience within the sporting field. Deirdre is a former Ladies European Kickboxing Champion and has represented Northern Ireland on several occasions. She also created history by being the first woman to box professionally in Northern Ireland in October 2000. However, it was her successful sex discrimination case against the Boxing Union of Ireland, in 2001, which led to Deirdre's doctoral research. Hence, her doctoral research will critically examine the role that law plays in addressing gender equality in sport.

Contact

nelson-d4@email.ulster.ac.uk

Leo Green

PhD Researcher

Title of project

Consociationalism – A False Dawn?   An examination of  the capacity of consociational power-sharing arrangements to effect a rights-based social transformative agenda.

Other information

Leo graduated from the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University with an LLM in Human Rights Law and Transitional Justice in December 2016.   He has many years’ experience of politics and political negotiations in Northern Ireland, working previously as both a Special Advisor and a party-political director at the NI Assembly in Stormont.   Leo’s PhD project involves a comparative study of the outworking of power-sharing arrangements in both Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and will critically examine the capacity of these arrangements to effect social transformation.

Contact

green-l10@ulster.ac.uk

Cristal Palacios

PhD Researcher

Sasha Gillespie

PhD Researcher

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.

Nada Ahmed

PhD Researcher

Title of project

Narratives of Perpetration in Transitional Justice Mechanisms: The Cases of Libya, Tunisia & Egypt

Other information

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.

Contact

ahmed_mostafa_kamal_ahmed-n@ulster.ac.uk

Danielle Gallagher

PhD Researcher

Roua Al-Taweel

PhD Researcher

Aaron Weah

PhD Researcher

Leah Rea

PhD Researcher

Michael Hearty

PhD Researcher

Title of project:

How and why do we (not) collectively remember non-combatants in Northern Ireland?

Other Information:

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.

Contact:

Email: Hearty-M6@ulster.ac.uk

Twitter: @HeartyMicheal

Frances Hague

PhD Researcher

Catriona Mackel

PhD Researcher

Waleed Alsagabi

PhD Researcher

Liam Edwards

PhD Researcher

Paula Surgenor

PhD Researcher

Mariana Espinós-Blasco

PhD Researcher