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Cera Murtagh

DR CERA MURTAGH

Dr Cera Murtagh has been Research Fellow with the Exclusion amid Inclusion: Power-Sharing and Non-Dominant Minorities project (June 2017-July 2018) before moving to the Department of Political Science, Villanova University US as Assistant Professor.

Cera’s work concerns the political mobilisation of non-ethnic collectives in divided societies, with a particular focus on consociational power-sharing systems, the institutional opportunities and constraints these groups encounter therein and the strategies they use to navigate these structures. Cera’s research interests span comparative politics, ethnic politics, democracy and institutional design in divided societies (particularly power-sharing), social and political movements and gender politics.

Her work has been published in journals including Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and Nations and Nationalism. Cera’s PhD from the University of Edinburgh, awarded in 2017, explored the topic of non-ethnic political parties in Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina in comparative perspective. She holds an MSc in International and European Politics from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Sociology and Politics and English from the National University of Ireland Galway.

In addition to her academic experience, Cera has worked in political journalism, research and communications. Herrecent publications include:

  • Murtagh, Cera (2016) ‘Civic Mobilization in Divided Societies and the Perils of Political Engagement: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Protest and Plenum Movement,’ Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 22(2), 149-171.
  • Murtagh, Cera (2015) 'Reaching Across: Institutional Barriers to Cross-Ethnic Parties in Post-Conflict Societies and the Case of Northern Ireland,' Nations and Nationalism, 21(3), 544–565.
  • Murtagh, Cera (2011) 'Consociational Theory: McGarry and O'Leary and the Northern Ireland conflict,' Regional & Federal Studies, 21(4-5), 567-569 [Book review]. 
  • Murtagh, Cera (2008) 'A Transient Transition: The Cultural and Institutional Obstacles Impeding the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition in its Progression from Informal to Formal Politics,' Irish Political Studies, 23(1), 21-40.