Congratulations to Mitchell Institute Fellow Dr Allely Albert, on being awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to explore formerly incarcerated leadership in restorative justice organisations.

The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship Scheme offers a three-year salaried post for researchers at the beginning of their academic career, providing them with the opportunity for career advancement and enabling them to undertake a significant piece of original publishable research.

Expanding her doctoral research involving ex-prisoner facilitators at Community Restorative Justice Ireland, Allely’s new research will examine the ways that lived experience influences the Restorative Justice practitioner role and dynamics in restorative processes beyond Northern Ireland.

The three-year project, based at the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast, will involve ethnographic research in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.  

Allely will commence the Fellowship in March 2026 and is eager to hear from anyone with connections to restorative institutions in the research sites.

For further information or to connect with Allely email her at a.albert@qub.ac.uk. 

Dr Allely Albert

Allely Albert is a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work and a Legacy Fellow at the Mitchell Institute, Queen’s University Belfast.

Her research broadly focuses on community-based approaches to safety, justice, and peacebuilding.   Allely's current research explores 'everyday security' in communities across the Island of Ireland, highlighting local agency and bottom-up contributions to safety landscapes.  Her past research has examined ex-prisoner involvement in community-based restorative justice efforts in Northern Ireland and the United States, analysing the impact of ex-prisoner leadership on the micro-dynamics of restorative processes and the mechanisms involved in wider societal peacebuilding.

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Leverhulme, Early Career, Fellowship, ex-prisoner, community, restorative justice, SSEWS, criminology, peace building