Biography
Dr. Joan Cronin is a Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at University College Cork. She holds a BA in Community and Family Studies from Univeristy of Galway, an MSc Sociology from University College Dublin and a PhD in Applied Social Studies and Social Policy from University College Cork. More recently, she successfully completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
Joan was previously employed as Head of Research with AONTAS, Ireland's National Adult Learning Organisation and also worked in a variety of department's for Kerry County Council.
Joan's research is informed by different strands of criminology, sociology, gender and feminism. She currently leads a project which explores the Effects of A Dog Training Programme on the Personal and Social Development of Incarcerated Men in Ireland.
Joan has a keen interest in community engaged research and in 2021 collaborated with the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Institute, as part of the CEPRAH project (Community Engagement Praxis for Research in the Arts and Humanities) for improving arts and humanities engagement in Ireland's civic and community sphere. The project was funded (€10,000) by the Irish Research Council's New Foundations Grant Strand Award .
In 2020, Joan was commissioned by Open Clasp Theatre company in the United Kingdom to develop a CPD on Gender Matters and Women's Experiences in the Criminal Justice System. Together with her colleague Prof. Maggie O'Neill, she devised a suite of teaching resources using creative, participatory and convivial teaching and learning practices to crtically reflect on women's lived experiences of involvement in crime and the criminal justice system, including intersections of homelessness, probation, imprisonment, coercive control, domestic and intimate partner violence.
Joan's research strategy has been to consolidate her PhD scholarship through the publication of a monograph, Voluntary Childlessness in Contemporary Ireland; Women's Experiences, published in 2021 and more recently she collaborated with international scholars in the field of motherhood studies, resulting in a book chapter, Non-Mothers: Identities, Ambiguity, Biography Making and Life Choices.
Joan teaches a variety of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, co-ordinates and supervises criminology dissertations and currently holds the post of Tutor Co-ordinator within the department.
Joan was previously employed as Head of Research with AONTAS, Ireland's National Adult Learning Organisation and also worked in a variety of department's for Kerry County Council.
Joan's research is informed by different strands of criminology, sociology, gender and feminism. She currently leads a project which explores the Effects of A Dog Training Programme on the Personal and Social Development of Incarcerated Men in Ireland.
Joan has a keen interest in community engaged research and in 2021 collaborated with the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Institute, as part of the CEPRAH project (Community Engagement Praxis for Research in the Arts and Humanities) for improving arts and humanities engagement in Ireland's civic and community sphere. The project was funded (€10,000) by the Irish Research Council's New Foundations Grant Strand Award .
In 2020, Joan was commissioned by Open Clasp Theatre company in the United Kingdom to develop a CPD on Gender Matters and Women's Experiences in the Criminal Justice System. Together with her colleague Prof. Maggie O'Neill, she devised a suite of teaching resources using creative, participatory and convivial teaching and learning practices to crtically reflect on women's lived experiences of involvement in crime and the criminal justice system, including intersections of homelessness, probation, imprisonment, coercive control, domestic and intimate partner violence.
Joan's research strategy has been to consolidate her PhD scholarship through the publication of a monograph, Voluntary Childlessness in Contemporary Ireland; Women's Experiences, published in 2021 and more recently she collaborated with international scholars in the field of motherhood studies, resulting in a book chapter, Non-Mothers: Identities, Ambiguity, Biography Making and Life Choices.
Joan teaches a variety of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, co-ordinates and supervises criminology dissertations and currently holds the post of Tutor Co-ordinator within the department.