Claire Edwards is a senior lecturer in social policy in the School of Applied Social Studies. She was previously Director of UCC's interdisciplinary social sciences research institute, ISS21 (2017-2022) and is one of the founding members of UCC Collective Social Futures. Claire is currently Academic and Research Co-Director of the id+ Futures project and is a member of the Royal Irish Academy Social Sciences Committee. She was the co-founder and Director (2005-2017) of the Doctor of Social Science (DSocSc) programme and remains a core member of the programme team. Claire is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work sits at the intersection of urban and social geography, social policy and critical disability studies. She is a graduate of the University of Nottingham (BA) and Royal Holloway, University of London (MA, PhD) and previously worked in social policy research in the UK for organisations including the Disability Rights Commission. Her research has been funded by a range of agencies including the National Disability Authority, EU GENDER-NET, Horizon Europe and Irish Research Council.

Claire's research interests focus around four main themes: (i) geographies of disability, socio-spatial (in)justice and citizenship rights; (ii) critical sociological and geographical perspectives on care and caring; (iii) urban geographies, urban policy processes and cities as sites of exclusion and belonging; and (iv) gender-based and disablist violence and hostility. Across all these areas, Claire has an interest in understanding the 'everydayness' of law and social policies in people's lives, and their limits and potential in creating socially just futures.

Claire's teaching largely focuses around two key areas: (i) critical perspectives in disability theory, policy and practice, and (ii) social research methods, politics and processes. She teaches disability theory and practice on postgraduate programmes, including the MSocSc Social Policy & Social Justice (module SS6814), Masters of Social Work (SS6202) and Bachelor of Social Work (SS2214). She teaches social research methods and processes on the DSocSc (SS7001, SS7003, SS7007, SS7008) and MSocSc Voluntary and Community Sector Management (SS6602). Claire has supervised multiple research projects on the undergraduate BSocSc degree (SS3031), MSocSc Voluntary and Community Sector Management (SS6605), and MSocSc Social Policy and Social Justice (SS6813). 

Eileen Williamson 2025. A study of the social organisation of the determination and classification of deaths by suicide in Ireland.

Ndemazia Asonglefack Jingwa 2023. Responding to Black African immigrant parents of children with disabilities in Irish Early Intervention Services: parental experiences and professional perspectives in the search for culturally competent practice.

Naomi Feely 2022. The Atlantic Philanthropies: a study of the enactment of philanthrocapitalism in Ireland.

Gill Harold 2012. Deafness, difference and the city: goegraphies of urban difference and the right to the Deaf city.