University College Cork

Dr Samantha Morgan-Williams is a Lecturer and the coordinator of the Traveller Equality & Justice Project at the Centre for Criminal Justice & Human Rights at UCC.

The TEJP, which Samantha founded during her PhD, was awarded an IRC New Foundations Award 2018-2019 and a Rights Equality and Citizenship Award by the European Commission in 2020 ( REC Award 2021-2023). TEJP is an innovative collaborative project between a Law School and the Free Legal Advice Centre which responds to the unmet legal needs of the Traveller Community and has established Ireland's only 'live-client' clinic within an Irish Law School.

 As coordinator of TEJP, Samantha has led legal training workshops for Cork based Traveller Community organisations and has worked with Travellers of North Cork, the Traveller Visibility Group and the Cork Traveller Women’s Network. Samantha has presented and published research on the effects of the recession on provision of culturally appropriate housing at a number of international conferences, including the ‘Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in a Multi-level Europe (TENLAW)’ and ‘European Housing Law Network’ Conferences (2016 & 2017) and is considered an expert on access to rights for Irish Travellers, specifically within access to justice, non-discrimination and culturally-appropriate accommodation. 

Samantha is also coauthor, with Dr. Fiona Donson, of 'Traveller Law in Ireland', the first text dedicated to key areas of law which affect Travellers and their rights, which will be released in 2023 with Clarus.

Samantha's research interests lie within criminal justice, minority (Traveller) rights, accommodation rights, housing law and European human rights law, specifically interpretation of the ECHR and the role of the European Court of Human Rights in times of economic crisis. Samantha is also interested in the intersection between law and criminology, specifically criminal justice and cultural rights and denialism and 'othering' of rights holders. 

A graduate of UCC (BCL German, LLM, PhD), Samantha's doctoral research project was supervised by Dr. Fiona Donson and explores the 'interpretive ethic' of the ECtHR within austerity-based 'Crisis Law'. During her PhD Samantha was awarded the Aidan Synnott Travel Bursary in 2016 which fully funded a research trip to the Faculty of Law, University College London for the Autumn/Winter Term 2016. During her time in UCL Samantha was supervised by Professor Colm O' Cinneide. 

Samantha also holds a PGCert and PGDip in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education and is currently undertaking a MA in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education. Within these, Samantha is exploring deficits in third-level Irish legal pedagogy– developing a “live client” approach to clinical level education in Ireland within the current legislative framings of the LSRA in order to respond to the unmet legal needs of Ireland's vulnerable rights-holders. In particular, Samantha seeks to respond to the challenges faced in developing a social justice oriented clinical legal education model and the approach taken by the TEJP to engage student attention not only on the day-to-day workings of the equality framework, but also the fundamental nature of access to justice in this area.  

Samantha's research works across multidisciplinary themes but can broadly be defined as a human rights profile with criminal justice elements. This intersection of human rights and criminology is a niche field. All research interests are connected through the lens of access to justice for vulnerable or minority rights-holders, whether this is through non-discrimination, cultural or housing rights.

Samantha's has a strong interest in minority rights holders as ‘undeserving rights holders,’ e.g., the State’s framing of socially excluded individuals or collectives in allocation of resources (social, housing, education) considering how vulnerable rights holders fall foul of implementation gaps created when the State fails to uphold human rights. This research has arisen from a combination of her doctoral scholarship and work with the Traveller Community.

Samantha is also engaged in the emerging field of civil-courtroom based ethnography, and is currently undertaking ethnographic study in collaboration with the lived-experience of Traveller litigants to devise supports for Traveller litigants before the District Court.

Ancillary to this human rights research is Samantha's consideration of the pedagogy of clinical legal education. Samantha's research is victim-informed and social justice lead. In this regard, Samantha has undertaken a PGCert and PGDip in Teaching & Learning within which she has considered the role of clinical legal education, pro-bono and social justice/public interest work as an important part of formative legal education. She is currently completing her MA SoTL, using her PGDip and Cert studies as a departure point.