Dr. Deirdre Horgan is Professor of Education (Early Years and Childhood Studies) at the School of Education, University College Cork. Her research and teaching interests include childhood, child welfare and protection, children’s rights, participation and citizenship, policy and practice responses to child migration. Deirdre is Convenor of the ISS21 Children and Young People cluster and Childrens Futures at UCC. She is an academic mentor to a Palestinian Research Fellow under the ACoRN Fellowship programme. Deirdre is also on the Project Management Advisory Board for LETS CARE https://letscareproject.eu/hub/

Deirdre was co-investigator on IMMERSE a Horizon 2020 study examining the socio-educational integration of migrant children across Europe https://www.immerse-h2020.eu/, and the CERV project - Empowering Children’s Participation in Malta SEM - EU Funds for strengthening children's participation in policy making in Malta (gov.mt). Deirdre has led on a number of consultations with chidlren to inform national policy. She recently completed Literature Reviews for Hub na nOg on Methodologies for Consulting with Children Aged Birth to 5 Years and on participation mechanisms for children aged 6-12. Deirdre is co-editor of Child and Youth Participation in Policy, Practice and Research (Routledge, 2021). She is a reviewer for high-indexed journals and is on the editorial board of Children's Greographies. Deirdre is external examiner on the Bachelor in Science (Early Childhood Education) at the Marino Institute of Education. 

Research Interests: Childhood well-being & citizenship within the broad framework of diversity. The focus of my research relates to key areas of children's lives including child protection, participation, rights, early years care and education, children in the care system, family support and child migration as well as children's research methods.

PhD: The focus of my PhD was child protection policy and inter-professional collaboration. Currently global child protection is forming part of my research.

Child Migration: I was Co-Investigator on the H2020 IMMERSE study (Integration mapping of Refugee and Migrant Children in Schools in Europe) https://www.immerse-h2020.eu/. I have been involved in a number of funded research projects (NAIRTL, Irish Aid, IRCHSS, ESF) which focus on the themes of Child Trafficking and Child Labour. In 2012 I was PI on a research project on the safe care of trafficked children in Ireland which was commissioned the Children's Rights Alliance and published in September 2012. Early Years: With funding from Irish Aid, I produced a co-edited book Early Childhood in the Global South published by Peter Lang in 2013.

Children's Participation: PI on lit review and consultations with chidlren and young people on their experiences of participation in their home, school and community commissioned to inform the first National Strategy on Children's Participation in Decision-mking. On a panel of report writers and led on consultations with children regarding school aged care for government which informed the Action Plan on School Age Child care (2017) and consultations with children on healthy lifestlyes informing the National Obesity Policy (2018). 

Director and lecturer on the BA Early Years and Childhood Studies where I teach on Research methods; Play and Pedagogy; Reflective Practice Portfolios; and COntemporary Issues in Early Years. COhort PhD in Education team teaching on Research Advisory Groups, research methods with chidlren specifically. I have taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level including: Bachelor of Social Science; Bachelor of Social Work; Masters Social Policy; Masters Public Health Nursing; Masters Criminology; and the Doctorate Social Science