Faculty Highlights Faculty of social Sciences
Department of Applied Social Studies Research achievements and activities in the Department of Applied Social Studies in 2018-19 illustrate the broad range of academic, professional and civic engagement interests and commitments of departmental staff. The interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary nature of the Department’s scholarship was reflected in the international peer-reviewed journals in which articles authored or co-authored by Applied Social Studies staff were published. These included Social Work Education (Dr Niamh Flanagan), European Journal of Social Work and the Journal of Social Work Practice (Dr Gloria Kirwan), Geoforum (Dr Rory Hearne), Criminology and Criminal Justice (Dr Kathryn McGarry), Children and Youth Services Review (Professor Maurice Devlin), European Societies (Dr Niamh Flanagan). Having previously published scholarly papers and reviews in the international journal Groupwork, and co-edited a special issue, Dr Gloria Kirwan was competitively appointed as Editor of the journal in 2018. A special volume of the journal Practice Insights (International Association for Community Development) was edited by Dr Ciara Bradley and Anastasia Crickley and drew on contributions to the World Community Development Conference held at Maynooth University in June 2018.
Dr Niamh Flanagan, co-orgnaiser of the inaugral All-Irleand Social Work Research Conference
Reflecting the expansion and diversification of programmes of teaching and research within the department, and specifically the introduction of professional social work education, Dr Niamh Flanagan was co-organiser with colleagues in Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin of the first All-Ireland Social Work Research Conference in July 2019.Dr Gloria Kirwan and Dr Brian Melaugh also contributed to the conference.
A groundbreaking new volume in the Rowman and Littlefield monograph series ‘Global Political Economies of Gender and Sexuality’ was co-edited by Dr Kathryn McGarry (with Sharron A. Fitzgerald) with the title Realising Justice for Sex Workers (London/ New York 2018). Bringing together transdisciplinary scholars from several continents, the book addresses a rights-based agenda for sex work law and policy and, consequently, for the lives of sex workers themselves.
Staff led and or were active in European Union-funded research on the themes of old age and social exclusion and e-learning in youth work education and training. Dr Joe Larragy was a member of the Management Committee for the ROSEnet COST Action (CA 15122) on Reducing Old-Age Social Exclusion: Collaborations in Research and Policy. Involving researchers, policy stakeholders and older people, ROSEnet adopts a new and innovative approach to knowledge production and knowledge transfer on multi-dimensional forms of disadvantage in later life.
Professor Maurice Devlin continued as a member of the editorial team for the ‘Perspectives on Youth’ series published by the Youth Partnership of the European Commission and the Council of Europe. Young People in a Digitalised World (Strasbourg 2018) was the fourth volume in the series. This theme is directly related to some of the teaching undertaken in the Department of Applied Social Studies, including a highly innovative Certificate in Digital Creativity in Youth Settings introduced in 2018, run in partnership with Camara Education Ireland and the TechSpace Programme and directed by Dr Hilary Tierney.
Dr Hilary Tierney was Principal Investigator (with Co-PI Professor Maurice Devlin) for the Erasmus + funded Youth Work e-Learning Project (YWeLP) which successfully concluded with a conference in Maynooth University in August 2019. The project involved collaboration with partners in the University of Tallinn, Estonia; HUMAK University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland; Ulster University; and Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Each participating higher education institution also partnered with a civil society organisation, which in the case of MU was the National Youth Council of Ireland. More generally, partnership with civil society, and direct engagement with the worlds of policy and practice, continued to be key aspects and distinctive strengths of the Department’s scholarship. Dr Oonagh McArdle served as Executive Committee member and Vice-Chairperson of the European Community Development Network. Dr Seamus Taylor was Chairperson of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, Ireland’s leading NGO in the area of penal reform.
Maynooth University Research and Innovation Report 2020
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