I began my academic career in urban and cultural geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, and worked for three years in applied social policy research, firstly at the Disability Rights Commission and then at the Department for Work and Pensions in the UK, before joining UCC in 2004. Between 2017 and 2022, I was Director of ISS21 (Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century), UCC’s interdisciplinary social sciences research institute. I am the co-founder and former Director (2005-2017) of the School's Doctor of Social Science programme (DSocSc) and a member of the Royal Irish Academy's multi-disciplinary Social Sciences Committee. My research sits at the intersection of geography, social policy and disability studies, and focuses around three main areas (i) disability, socio-spatial in/justice and citizenship rights (ii) urban geographies, urban policy processes and cities as sites of exclusion and belonging; (iii) gender-based and disablist violence and hostility and critical socio-spatial understandings of hate crime. My work in the arena of disability advances research and scholarship on the socio-political processes which shape how disability is understood and ‘governed’ in Western societies and explores the implications for disabled people’s everyday lives in terms of socio-spatial justice and rights to equal citizenship. Theoretically, I am interested in critical sociological and geographical approaches which disrupt and challenge hegemonic understandings of disability and move beyond a reductive medical-social binary. I have received research funding from a range of agencies, including the National Disability Authority, Irish Research Council, EU 7th Framework programme, and the EU GENDER-NET programme. I recently completed a 2 year (2017-19) Irish Research Counc

My research is concerned with exploring the everyday dynamics of socio-spatial disablism in disabled people’s lives, and with challenging ‘taken-for-granted’ assumptions about disability which underpin law, policy and wider societal understandings – assumptions which have material, embodied and affectual consequences for disabled people. As an interdisciplinary scholar, I am interested in bridging disciplines and exploring intersections, for example, between disability studies and urban studies; or between disability studies, geography and criminology in the context of hate crime. My research interests centre around three main themes: (1) Disability, socio-spatial (in)justice and citizenship rights: my work in the arena of disability aims to interrogate the socio-political processes which shape how disability is understood and ‘governed’ in Western societies, and explores the implications for disabled people’s everyday lives in terms of socio-spatial justice and rights to equal citizenship, My research has brought social and geographical theory to bear on an analysis of the social relations of disability across policy arenas including health, urban regeneration and criminal justice, and I am interested in developing critical theoretical approaches which move understandings of disability beyond a reductive medical-social binary. (2) Urban geographies, urban policy processes and cities as sites of exclusion and belonging: since completion of my doctoral research which explored the involvement of disabled people in urban policy programmes, I have maintained a keen interest in debates around the ‘urban challenge’, urban inequality and the dynamics and outcomes of urban policy. These are debates which I discuss in my co-authored book (with Rob Imrie) The Short Guide to Urban Policy (Policy Press, 2017). In particular, I am interested in exploring disabled peo

My teaching interests centre around two main themes: (1) Understanding disability: theory, policy and practice. I teach issues pertaining to disability across a range of postgraduate programmes, including the MSocSc Social Policy & Social Justice, MSocSc Voluntary and Community Sector Management, Masters of Social Work (contributing to SS6202: Social work settings 2) and Bachelor of Social Work (SS2214: Social work practice contexts). I draw on sociological and geographical theories to explore and challenge understandings of disability, and in the context of social work practice, am particularly interested in exploring how rights-based ways of working with disabled people might be promoted. (2) Conducting social research: methodologies and the politics of research production. On the Doctor of Social Science programme, I am involved in teaching on social research methodologies and the politics and ethics of conducting research. I am also involved in supervising research projects on the undergraduate BSocSc degree. I have supervised multiple MSocSc Social Policy research theses and am currently supervising the following doctoral students: Jessica Amberson (co-supervised with Catherine Forde) (DSocSc) Adrian Brady (co-supervised with Eileen Hogan) (PhD) Cliona Doherty (co-supervised with Gill Harold and Edel Walsh) (DSocSc) Fern Higgins-Atkinson (co-supervised with Liz Kiely) (DSocSc) Katie Marah (co-supervised with Shirley Martin) (PhD) Iesa Mortell (co-supervised with Calvin Swords) (DSocSc) Gemma O'Leary (co-supervised with Gill Harold) (DSocSc)