An explorative study on the Family Support Services provided to Syrian and Iraqi refugee families and their children in Ireland.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Evropi Chatzipanagiotidou

Secondary Supervisor: Prof Fiona Magowan

Primary Supervisor: Prof Maruska Svasek

Secondary Supervisor: Dr Barry Devereux

Primary Supervisor: Prof Fiona Magowan

Secondary Supervisor: Dr Evropi Chatzipanagiotidou

Primary Supervisor: Prof Fiona Magowan

Secondary Supervisor: Dr Jamie Hagen

With the growing insecurity caused by the current climate emergency, community growing projects have increased in recent years in both Ecuador and Northern Ireland. Community growing projects are spaces in which humans and more-than-humans are entangled in intimate, multiple, and complex ways. These projects are grounded in the ethos of permaculture— ‘earth care, people care, and fair share’—serving as counter-narratives to the dominant paradigms of neoliberal extractivism. Instead, they emphasize interconnectedness and co-creation between humans and the more-than-human world. Indeed, permaculture emerges as a movement through which humans and the natural world collaboratively reimagine ways of living and dying grounded on more embodied, situated, and attentive engagement with the natural world. This research explores the transformative potential of community growing projects as spaces of multispecies care, hope, and socio-environmental activism in response to the climate emergency. By conducting a multispecies ethnography, I explore the transformative potential of two collaborative growing initiatives: Guardianes de la Semilla in Ecuador and Seed Saver groups in Northern Ireland. I ask, what sorts of care emerge through embodied human-soil relations? How do these practices—including seed saving and composting—weave hopeful and caring futures, and what possibilities do they create for multispecies flourishing?

Primary Supervisor: Dr John Knight

Secondary Supervisor: Dr Amanda Slevin

This research is exploring if and how the performing arts can help with the process of reintegration for those that have been involved in combat during the Northern Ireland conflict, or military veterans who are living there after their service. Those involved in combat often struggle to settle back into civilian life, in some cases experiencing difficulties with their mental health or challenges to their identities. The performing arts, including theatre, dance, music and storytelling, might offer some the chance to deal with these issues in a way that gives them agency in their own journey to engaged citizen.

Primary Supervisor: Prof Fiona Magowan

Secondary Supervisor: Dr Ioannis Tsioulakis

In my research, I intend to study how Greek culture and traditional music are performed and utilised by the Greek diaspora but also how music connects with the traditions and daily life of Greek families in the present. The study will include theoretical and methodical approaches that seek to understand the cultural, social, and musical practices that bring together current Greek music, society, and diaspora in the UK, more specifically in London and wider areas. Additionally, in this PhD I will focus on the role of gender, especially focusing on the contribution of women performers and listeners among the Greek diaspora.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Ioannis Tsioulakis

Secondary Supervisor: Dr Stephen Millar