Dr Clodagh Harris, BComm (NUIG), MA (KU Leuven), PhD (UCC) PCTLHE (UCC), is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and Politics, University College Cork. Her research focuses on deliberative and participatory democracy, democratic innovations, intergenerational deliberation, and deliberative democracy and climate change.

Research projects on which she was the (co-) Principal Investigator have secured over €4 million in external funding. Knowledge derived from them has been published in disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary journals, and has informed Citizen Assembly processes and policy.

She has published widely on democratic innovations, mini-publics, Citizen Assembly design and processes, and Climate Assemblies. More recently, her research has spanned disciplinary boundaries exploring participatory and deliberative forms of citizen, community, and stakeholder engagement to support the transition to low carbon emissions as well as exploring institutional designs and processes for intergenerational deliberation.

Clodagh has been invited to share her expertise nationally and internationally and has served on the advisory boards of Ireland’s first Citizens’ Assembly ‘We the Citizens’ (2011), the G1000 Belgian Citizens’ Summit (2011), Ireland’s Constitutional Convention (2012-2014), the Citizens' Assembly on Brexit (2017), the Research Advisory Group to the Scottish Citizens’ Assembly (2019-2021) and the NESC advisory panel on the development of an Irish well-being index.

She was the deliberative democracy expert on the expert advisory group of Ireland’s Citizen Assembly on biodiversity loss (2022-23). She was also a part of a wider consortium funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to design and implement a young persons and children’s assembly on biodiversity loss (2022-23).

Research projects: current and recent

1. CYPABL (Children and young person’s assembly on biodiversity loss) (ongoing). UCC lead researcher on a wider DCU led consortium funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to design and implement a young persons and children’s assembly on biodiversity loss. The assembly presented its report to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Climate Action in December 2023.
2. Co-PI on the EPA funded IMAGINING 2050 project: Engaging, Envisioning and Enabling Dialogue on Pathways towards a Low Carbon, Climate Resilient Ireland project (€378,344) that ran from April 2018-May 2022. It used deliberative futures forums to engage communities and stakeholders in co-producing pathways to a more climate resilient Ireland and builds upon the Horizon 2020 funded Energy System Transition through stakeholder activation, education and skills development (ENTRUST).
3. DIIS (Deep Institutional innovation for sustainability). From April 2020 to March 21, Dr Harris was PI on the DIIS project, an interdisciplinary, international collaboration. This MaREI UCC based project funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) focused on a systemic understanding of the dynamics of transformative change in social institutions and sought to develop a model of an ethical re-imagining of our foundational institutions.
4. Co-PI on ENTRUST: Energy System Transition Through Stakeholder Activation, Education and Skills Development May 2015 - Apr 2018 [EU Horizon 2020 Programme] (€3.8million total)
   This project mapped Europe's energy system to develop an in-depth understanding of how human behaviour is shaped by both technological and socio-demographic factors. It innovatively used citizens' juries to engage communities in imagining transition pathways to sustainable energy sources.

Undergraduate Teaching:

GV2229: Citizen Participation (module co-ordinator and lecturer)

GV3109: Climate Assemblies (module co-ordinator and lecturer)

GV4410: Theories and Origins of Democracy and Ideology (module co-ordinator and lecturer)

Postgraduate Teaching:

GV6124 Political mobilisation and participation (module co-ordinator and lecturer)

GV6112: The Third Sector and the state (module co-ordinator and lecturer)

Deane Aoife, Doctoral Degree - Lead Supervisor

Hihetah Claudia, Doctoral Degree - Lead Supervisor