Dr Fiona Buckley is a senior lecturer in the Department of Government and Politics, University College Cork (UCC), specialising in the study of women in politics. Fiona is a graduate of Queen's University Belfast (QUB), being conferred with a PhD in Political Science in 2016. She has completed undergraduate and postgraduate study in UCC where she was awarded a BComm, a MSc by Research specialising in Government, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning. Fiona's research is primarily focused on women, gender and politics, in particular women and cabinet government; gender quotas; and violence against women in politics. She has also published on Irish politics, electoral administration, voting behaviour and pedagogical issues in relation to teaching and learning, in particular experiential learning and work placement for students. Fiona's work has been published in a number of leading political science journals, including PS: Political Science & Politics, Politics & Gender, Politics, European Political Science, International Political Science Review, Representation, Irish Political Studies, Political Geography, European Journal of Politics & Gender and the Journal of Women, Politics and Policy. Fiona is currently working on a monograph, Gendered Power: Women, Gender and Cabinet Government in Ireland (Palgrave). This will be Fiona's fourth book. 

Fiona is involved in a number of international collaborative projects including Money Talks, a project hosted by the University of Bergen and funded by the Norwegian Research Council which examined the nexus of money, politics and gender. She is also a member of the Irish team of the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP) and in 2018, Fiona was a Senior Visiting Research Fellow on this project in the University of Sydney. Fiona is a member of the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN), a group of feminist scholars who explore the interplay between feminist approaches to gendered institutions and new institutional theory, and the Gender Equality Policy in Practice Network (GEPP), a network of researchers assessing the effectiveness of policies that promote gender equality. Between 2020 and 2026, Fiona is Co-Principal Investigator on the The Cost of Doing Politics: Gender Aspects of Political Violence project (Research Council of Norway Project No. 300618) which is hosted by Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Bergen, under Principal Investigator, Dr Vibeke Wang. Funded by the Research Council of Norway, the Cost of Doing Politics project brings together an international research team to undertake a comprehensive, multi-method examination of if and how gender shapes political violence targeting politicians. Fiona is also recipient of Irish Research Council New Foundations and Erasmus funding awards.

Fiona's academic engagement and leadership include being Secretary of the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) from 2012 to 2014 and co-convening the PSAI's Gender Politics specialist group from 2009 to 2018. She was Book Review editor with Irish Political Studies from 2016 to 2018 and an editor of European Political Science from 2018 to 2023, with responsibility for Book Reviews.

Fiona's work has been cited in parliamentary debates in Ireland, Canada and Wales. She has appeared before parliamentary committees in hearings on the electoral system and women in politics; addressed meetings of parties, both at parliamentary and national conference level; and acted as State expert witness in the January 2016 High Court constitutional challenge to gender quotas. Fiona is also involved in academic activism, being a founding member of The 5050 Group which raises awareness of the under-representation of women in Irish politics.

Dr Fiona Buckley's research areas include examining women in politics; Irish politics; and pedagogical matters in the teaching of polical science. Within her principal research area of women in politics, Fiona employs the Irish case-study to examine women's political representation. Fiona uses the concept of gender power and the theory of feminist institutionalism to examine the role of women in politics, in particular women in political institutions such as in cabinet government, parliament and political parties. She also researches the adoption and implementation of gender quotas in Irish elections; gender and political financing; and violence against women in politics. Within her research on Irish politics, much of this work is concentrated in the area of electoral integrity, ballot paper design and electoral reform. In her research on the pedagogy of teaching and learning, Fiona draws from her experiences in the classroom and of issues of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) to promote inclusive education and experiential learning. 

Dr Fiona Buckley is the Academic Director of the Politics subject on the BA/BA International courses in UCC. She teaches GV1207: Politics & Government of Ireland; GV4102: Women, Gender & Politics; GV6127: Women, Gender & Political Representation - Women Peace & Security; PO2001: Political Analysis; and PO3005: Issues in Irish Politics. She also teaches on the MA Women's Studies programme about women in Irish politics and on the MSc International Public Policy & Diplomacy (MSc IPPD) course about dissertation writing. Additionally, Fiona supervises minor dissertations across the BA, BA Int, BSc Government & Political Science and MSc IPPD courses. One of Fiona's most impactful teaching contributions in UCC is the establishment, design and development of the BSc Government & Political Science work placement programme, creating a database of over 100 employers to provide hundreds of students the opportunity to engage in credited work placement as part of their degree studies.

Dr Fiona Buckley is keen to supervise prospective MSc by Research and PhD students in the following areas (broadly defined): Gender, candidate emergence, recruitment and selection; gender and elections; gender and political representation; gender quotas; executives, cabinet government and gender; gendered institutions; gendered aspects of political violence; Irish politics; and electoral administration, management and integrity.