Dr Samantha Morgan-Williams BCL (2012), LLM (2013) PGCert (2019) PhD (2021), PGDip (2022) MA TLHE (2023) is a graduate of University College Cork. She joined the School of Law as a Lecturer in 2022 having completed her postdoc at the Traveller Equality & Justice Project, Centre for Criminal Justice & Human Rights, UCC. The TEJP, which Samantha founded during her PhD, was awarded an IRC New Foundations Award 2018-2019 and a Rights Equality and Citizenship Award by the European Commission in 2020 ( REC Award 2021-2023). TEJP is an innovative collaborative project between a Law School and the Free Legal Advice Centre which has established Ireland's only 'live-client' clinic within an Irish Law School. Samantha received a 'President's Award for Excellence in Teaching' (Team Award) 2022 for her work with the TEJP Clinic Module. Samantha is considered an international expert on culturally-appropriate housing rights and has presented and published research on the effects of the recession on provision of culturally appropriate housing at a number of international conferences, including the ‘Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in a Multi-level Europe (TENLAW)’ and ‘European Housing Law Network’ Conferences (2016 & 2017). Samantha's research interests lie within human rights, accommodation rights, housing law and European human rights law, specifically interpretation of the ECHR and the role of the European Court of Human Rights in times of economic crisis. Samantha is also interested in the intersection between law and criminology, specifically criminal justice and cultural rights and denialism and 'othering' of rights holders. Her work has been funded by the Irish Research Council, the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (SATLHE) and the UNIC Early Researcher Seed Fund. Samantha has also collaborated with Dr Fiona Donson on projects funded by the Ir

Samantha's research works across multidisciplinary themes but can broadly be defined as a human rights profile with criminal justice elements. This intersection of human rights and criminology is a niche field. All research interests are connected through the lens of access to justice for vulnerable or minority rights-holders, whether this is through non-discrimination, cultural or housing rights. She is an international expert in culturally-appropriate accommodation and access to justice for the Traveller Community. In this capacity, she is PI of a number of exciting community-engagement projects with Traveller community partners. She is PI of the UNIC4ER Seed Fund supported (€4800) 'Traveller Court Supports Initiative' (2023) which is a participatory pilot project between Samantha and Travellers of North Cork, using the Courts Service in Cork City as a research site. Specifically, developing culturally-appropriate peer-court-supports for Traveller victims of discrimination taking cases before the District Court, recognising the adverse-effects of over-policing and societal-exclusion upon 'trust' of the Traveller Community in justice bodies, as recognised by Traveller Community colleagues in the TEJP data gathering (2023) Samantha also holds a PGCert and PGDip in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education and is currently undertaking a MA in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education. Within these, Samantha is exploring deficits in third-level Irish legal pedagogy– developing a “live client” approach to clinical level education in Ireland within the current legislative framings of the LSRA in order to respond to the unmet legal needs of Ireland's vulnerable rights-holders. In particular, Samantha seeks to respond to the challenges faced in developing a social justice oriented clinical legal education model and the approach taken by the TEJP to engage student attention not only on th

Teaching Interests: Samantha has experience teaching within criminology, criminal law, human rights and introductory law modules. Her specific teaching interests lie within human rights law, access to justice, ECHR, criminal law and housing law. She is currently Director of the LLM International Human Rights and Public Policy (2023/2024). Lecturer 23/24: Undergraduate: LW1104 Foundations of the Legal System LW1153 Criminal Law LW2007 Law of Evidence II LW3376 Traveller Equality & Justice Project Clinic LW3377 Courtroom Ethnography: Theory and Practice Postgraduate: LW6606 International Human Rights Law LW6648 Human Rights Law in Practice Module Coordinator: LW3376 Traveller Equality