Research Interests
Open to PhD applications in:
- All aspects of law relating to the treatment of the recently dead, bodily disposal, funeral, exhumation and memorialisation
- Succession law
- Law and emotion
- Property and land law
Public outreach & key achievements
- I am a leading and internationally recognised expert on death laws with a specialist monograph on the subject (The Law and the Dead (Routledge, 2016)) and articles in top-ranked international journals and industry publications
- My death law research has had a significant influence beyond academia, and I have a strong track-record of sustained public engagement/knowledge transfer activity with a range of external stakeholders, including the National Association of Funeral Directors, Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors, and Cruse Bereavement
- A targeted piece in The Conversation in June 2016 Five Laws About the Dead that May Spook You attracted huge public interest, and has been read over 800,000 times
- I am the first person from Northern Ireland to become a council member and trustee of the Cremation Society of Great Britain
- I am a member of various interdisciplinary research networks, and have undertaken national and international media work. I sit on the editorial board of Mortality (a leading interdisciplinary death studies journal) and am co-editor of the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly
- I have carried out externally funded research projects for the Changing Ageing Partnership in 2010 and the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland in 2013. As well as being a former member of the Law Reform Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, I have a sustained record of continuing professional development provision for the legal profession in Northern Ireland
- My book on co-ownership (Co-Ownership of Land: Partition Actions and Remedies (Bloomsbury, 2nd edn 2012) has been cited in the High Court of Northern Ireland, and in the Irish Supreme Court
Alumni: Where are they now
| PhD area | Remembering what they can never forget: Memoralisation of historical institutional abuse in Ireland |
|---|---|
| Name | Paula Shilliday |
| Years of study | PhD awarded 2022 |
| PhD area | The Irish law on adverse possession: The case for a qualified veto system |
| Name | Una Woods |
| Years of study | PhD awarded 2014 |
| Quotation | "My supervisor, Prof Conway, was always available to provide support during my time at QUB. Her feedback was thorough and yet constructive. It was a privilege to be supervised by such a renowned expert in the field of property law." |
Discover More
Get ahead: tips on how to prepare your application to study for a PhD at QUB Law
Read our guidance on the steps in our PhD applications process and how to present your research proposal.
Interested in a postdoctoral fellowship at QUB Law?
If you have already completed a PhD or are about to do so, and you are looking for a mentor for a postdoctoral fellowship in one of my areas of expertise, please get in touch via email. The School of Law has a strong track record in supporting able candidates who are working towards fellowship applications to funders such as the British Academy, EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie scheme, ESRC NINE and the Leverhulme Trust.