Newsletter
OUR NEWSLETTERS
If you would like to be added to our newsletter email distribution list please email Angela McMenamy and we will let you know when the next issue is available.
I am delighted to bring you our latest newsletter from the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work (SSESW) at Queen’s University Belfast.
Across our work in Criminology, Sociology, Social Policy, Education and Social Work we consistently strive to make a difference, be it through preparing our students to become high quality professionals and active citizens, or through our research making a positive difference to people, communities and policy in Northern Ireland and beyond.
This newsletter provides some recent highlights from our work across different areas in the School, and I hope this will spark your interest and imagination. We are keen to connect, and keen to hear from and work with you, so do get in touch if any of the work we report in this newsletter is of interest, or if there are any other areas you would like to connect with us on.
Professor Daniel Muijs
Head of School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work
A report for the Commission for Victims and Survivors for Northern Ireland (CVSNI) found that ‘twenty five years after the Good Friday [Belfast] Agreement, we still see scars of conflict both in those that experienced it and in intergenerational trauma passed on to children and young people in the most affected communities’. It highlighted that more psychological services are needed for victims and survivors of the Troubles.
The report, entitled Conflict, Trauma and Mental Health: How psychological services in Northern Ireland address the needs of victims and survivors, included a series of reviews and studies and was commissioned by the CVSNI, funded through the EU's Peace IV programme.
School of SSESW academic Michael Duffy was principal investigator for the project team which produced the report. It reviewed psychological services for victims of the Troubles and offers ‘proposals on the optimal way to organise mental health services for victims and survivors in the primary, community and statutory systems’.
Michael said: "The studies analysed outcome data relating to mental health needs of victims and survivors of the Troubles from services across health and social care trusts and the community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland, and the border regions in the Republic of Ireland, in order to make recommendations for future service provision."
At the launch of the report in August, key findings were outlined by Michael Duffy, with Queen’s University colleagues Anne Campbell, Tracey McConnell and Carolyn Blair, John O’Hanlon from the Belfast Health and Care Trust, and Brian Fitzmaurice from Trinity College, Dublin. See Conflict, Trauma and Mental Health for the full report and recommendations.
Michelle Butler and Siobhán McAlister from our Criminology team joined colleagues at the Centre for the Study of Violence, University of São Paulo, Brazil in August as part of a partnership project exploring crime, security and legitimacy in border regions. The project is funded by Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and The State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and aims to enhance collaboration between researchers at QUB and FAPESP through exchange visits and initial data collection, with a view to developing future research proposals.
The visit was facilitated by University of São Paulo hosts Professor Marcos Cesar Alvarez and Gustavo Higo, who visited Queen’s in June to join the SSESW colleagues in an earlier stage of the project exchange, and by Camilla Dias and Fernando Silla who specialise in prison research and organised crime. While in Northern Ireland, Marcos and Gustavo met with members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland who work in border areas, to learn about policing during the Northern Ireland Conflict, policing with the community and the complexities of policing a porous and largely invisible border. Marcos and Gustavo also presented a paper entitled ‘Violence, Organised Crime and the State: The Dynamics of Crime and Control in the Brazilian Border Regions’ as part of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice Seminar Series (a QUB partnership that includes the School of Law and the School of SSESW).
While in Brazil, Michelle and Siobhán shared preliminary research findings on ‘Crime, Conflict and Borders in Northern Ireland’ with academics and representatives from the Military Police and the Civil Police. They made site visits to battalions of the Military Police and Civil Police, learning about policing and organised crime in São Paulo and making connections for future research with academics in the Centre for the Study of Violence.
Nichola Booth and Paul Best from our new Centre for Technological Innovation, Mental Health and Education (TIME), with Chris Thomas from ProPeer Solutions, have developed and tested a new Classroom Assistant Training tool using Virtual Reality technology (CatVR). The project is a collaboration with South Eastern Regional College, with Phase 2 testing completed in October 2023.
This project is funded by UFI VocTech, a scheme supporting the delivery of adult vocational skills through digital technology. In Northern Ireland the number of classroom assistants employed has been steadily increasing (IPSOS Report, 2023) and was a group recognised by UFI VocTech as crucial for innovative training.
Classroom assistants are critical for providing targeted help to pupils, supporting children with complex mental health needs, managing behaviour, promoting inclusion and providing pastoral support. CatVR was designed to offer virtual instruction, allowing trainee assistants exposure to common behaviour challenges they may encounter in a classroom, with the goal of increasing role expectancy and confidence among this staff group.
The first module in CatVR is an immersive 360° classroom environment with several situations that could be considered inappropriate or disruptive, with the user tasked to identify those behaviours. The experience is similar to a driving-based hazard perception test and the faster the issues are identified the more ‘points’ a user gets. The second module involves engagement with a virtual pupil avatar while asking a series of questions to figure out difficulties for the pupil. This step enables a conversation to take place to suggest some solutions that may help, with ongoing feedback and problem solving responses provided.
Further testing with other groups, including trainee teachers and qualified teachers, is planned for 2024 with the addition of new scenarios and more avatars, increasing access to a wider range of classroom issues.
Academics Lesley Emerson and Tony Gallagher were accompanied by students from our Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) on a trip to Cyprus in July to participate in a symposium on teaching controversial issues and contested narratives. The Home for Cooperation event involved colleagues and students from Cyprus, Lebanon, Denmark, Norway and Northern Ireland. It was part of the ConCitizen project which supports student teachers in addressing controversial issues and contested narratives in the classroom.
Funded by Erasmus+, ConCitizen includes teams from University College Copenhagen KP, Queen’s University Belfast (Tony Gallagher, Lesley Emerson and Gavin Duffy), Stranmillis University College (Norman Richardson), Oslo Metropolitan University, the Open University of Cyprus and the Adyan Foundation, Lebanon.
To date, colleagues have been collaborating in a number of transnational meetings and activities (including Copenhagen in April 2023 and Belfast in September 2023) to share and develop strategies for teaching controversial issues and contested narratives in History, Religious Education and Citizenship Education. This has also involved comparative curriculum mapping and research into the needs of teachers in relation to teaching these issues, which in turn informed the production of video tutorials and a series of virtual exchanges between student teachers from the participating institutions.
The event in Cyprus provided our PGCE students (pictured) Nadia McConville, Jenny Steele and Amy Patterson and Stranmillis student Lois Smyrell with the opportunity to meet and work with academic colleagues in the co-production of the project’s outputs. During the symposium, Jenny Steele and Nadia McConville were able to present findings from their own classroom-based research on young people’s views on whether teachers should be ‘neutral‘ when teaching controversial issues.
The final output of the project, a textbook for teachers, will be launched at the concluding conference of the project in Oslo, June 2024.
My social work academic journey began in September 2009, when I started the Social Work Relevant Graduate Route degree at Queen’s University. I qualified as a social worker in July 2011. I then completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Development in Social Work at Ulster University. In 2015 I completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health Law at Queen’s which qualified me to act as an Approved Social Worker (a statutory role under mental health and mental capacity law).
In 2018 I finished my Masters in Applied Social Studies at the School of SSESW at Queen’s with the successful completion of the Specialist Practice Masters Dissertation Module. My Masters study explored ‘Resilience in Approved Social Workers in Northern Ireland’. I had an excellent postgraduate experience and got to know the SSESW academics who shared my research interests.
Masters study at the School of SSESW developed my focus on research relevant to social work practice and I quickly realised that research was an area I wished to pursue further. I began my Doctoral study in October 2019. My PhD supervisors, Dr Lorna Montgomery and Professor Gavin Davidson, shared my interest in exploring Mental Capacity and provided great support throughout my PhD journey. It wasn’t a typical doctoral student experience as I commenced my studies at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and, therefore, much of the early stage of my PhD was completed online. However, since then I have had the opportunity to attend and present my work at conferences both locally and internationally.
I passed my PhD viva in August this year with a thesis on ‘Decision-making processes in Learning Disability services: in whose best interests?’ The next step is to share my doctoral study findings with individuals for whom they are relevant and with stakeholders and other associated groups, in order to implement the identified recommendations.
I’m delighted to have taken up the role of Lecturer in Social Work in the School of SSESW at Queen’s University recently. I aim to develop my teaching in social work practice and undertake further research, including co-producing research with individuals who have a learning disability and expanding my existing work around issues in Mental Capacity.
Our research centres and networks are the key mechanisms for delivering and optimising our interdisciplinary research. After a review of SSESW research activities, we have re-launched with nine research centres:
- Centre for Children’s Rights, which is internationally renowned for its research on children’s rights aimed at improving their lives.
- Centre for Shared Education, which is committed to promoting sharing in education as a mechanism for delivering economic, social and educational benefits to children, schools and society, particularly in post conflict societies.
- Centre for Language Education Research, which conducts research in language and education to make a difference across local, national and international contexts.
- Centre for Inclusion, Transformation and Equality, which addresses core themes of: disability; gender and LGBTQ+; equality in education; and ethnicity, race and decoloniality.
- Centre for Technological Innovations, Mental Health and Education, which develops technology-based, interdisciplinary research in mental health and professional education and training.
- Centre for Child, Youth and Family Welfare, which provides insights into the lives of children, young people and families to achieve better welfare outcomes and improve wellbeing.
- Centre for Justice Studies, which provides a focus for criminological research.
- Centre for Behaviour Analysis, which focuses on the discovery of natural laws of behaviour, the study of how behaviour is shaped by environmental contingencies and how changes affect behaviour.
- Methods@SSESW, which is a pilot centre bringing together those with cutting edge expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods into one space.
There is also one research network, the Drugs and Alcohol Research Network, that aims to provide a leading edge one stop venue for all researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in Northern Ireland who together aspire to make a difference in developing an informed research agenda on alcohol and drug use.
Many SSESW colleagues also contribute to the Queen’s University Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, to Queen's Communities and Place and to ARK, a social policy hub.
You can read more about the centres on the Research section of the SSESW website.
Ready to make an impact? Join the new MSc Sociology and Global Inequality programme at Queen's University! Applications are now open for September 2024 intake. Inequality has become one of the most significant issues in the contemporary world, and at a global scale. It contributes to religious fundamentalisms and populist movements. It drives civil wars and conflicts that reshape international relations.
Inequality also generates demands for gender and racial equality and LGBTQ+ rights and prompts calls for governments to deal with increasing levels of socioeconomic inequality. As such, it contributes to new forms of politics and socio-political activism, often beyond the boundaries of nation-states.
Our MSc Sociology and Global Inequality programme equips students with the intellectual and methodological skills to engage in social inquiry at an advanced level, to understand inequality and how it is contested.
Aligned with UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goals, the MSc offers modules that delve into crucial topics including work, gender, justice, emotions, identity, norms, power, religion, migration and citizenship, all of which are key to addressing these pressing issues.
The MSc Sociology and Global Inequality provides ‘Education for Social Impact’ both at local and global levels. See Sociology and Global Inequality for more information on module content and how to apply for the course. Don't miss your chance to shape a more equitable world!
In September, Professor Berni Kelly co-hosted a Global INTRAC knowledge exchange at the University of Sussex, England, on care leaving policy and research across various country and cultural contexts. The event was live streamed online to members worldwide. Berni is a member of the Executive Committee of INTRAC (International Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood from Care). She is also Director of our Centre on Inclusion, Transformation and Equality.
Global INTRAC has over 350 members engaged in care leaving research, representing 48 countries across the world. At the event, global experts in the field of care leaving presented on current research and policy developments in their countries including representatives from: University of Johannesburg in South Africa; University of Bedfordshire in England; Ben-Gurion University in Israel; City University New York; Aalborg University in Denmark; University of Ghana; VID Specialized University in Oslo; Universidad Católica Boliviana in Bolivia and Udayan Care in India.
An interactive World Cafe engaged participants in networking and sharing of ideas on care leaving. Key themes included: extended care and aftercare arrangements across country contexts; programmes for preparing youth for leaving care; promoting the participation of care-experienced youth in research and policy; and informal social support for care leavers. The meeting also addressed underlying barriers and inequalities experienced by care leavers, often underpinned by limited resources and support services. These global challenges for care leaving policy, practice and research will be the core focus of the next Global INTRAC conference, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2025.
In October, SSESW academic Gavin Duffy joined staff from the wider University on a trip to Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of a Queen’s University Belfast interactive visit to showcase its academic excellence and to make connections with key stakeholders in the KSA and UAE education sectors.
The five-day Queen’s programme of engagement across both locations involved delivering a series of inspiring sessions and activities in high schools where students had opportunities to get involved in interactive workshops involving computer engineering, programming and learning how to extract DNA from fruit, and to learn more about Queen’s University.
One of the highlights of the visit was the 'Leadership for Change' workshops led by Dr Gavin Duffy, Programme Director of our MSc Educational Leadership programme. Tailored for school principals, vice-principals and careers guidance counsellors, the workshops in Jeddah and Dubai gave attendees insights to enhance their leadership skills and tools to drive positive change in educational settings. Participants received a certificate of participation from Queen’s University, fostering professional development and networking opportunities with Queen's experts.
Commenting on the trip, Gavin said: “Providing the workshops for school leaders and counsellors was an amazing opportunity to work with so many educational practitioners and learn about the educational contexts in Jeddah and Dubai. In these sessions, participants examined the pivotal role that school leadership plays in promoting school improvement and managing change effectively.”
My research interests lie in the current trends of religious life. I completed my PhD at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris in 2004 on the ways in which practices such as yoga and meditation have been appropriated by westerners. Thanks to a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, I then studied the popularisation of Kabbalah in France, Britain, Brazil and Israel.
By comparing the diffusion of Kabbalah with the dissemination of Hindu religions, I developed an analysis of western societies’ fascination for the religion of Others, in a book called From Yoga to Kabbalah: Religious Exoticism and the Logics of Bricolage (2014), for which I won the International Society for the Sociology of Religion book award in 2017.
But exoticism and eclecticism also exist in conservative Christianity. I am currently drawing on a four-year ethnography to write on a local ‘messianic’ congregation and the ways in which it combines elements of Evangelical Protestantism and Judaism. I am also particularly interested in what we call ‘epistemology’ – in other words, how can we produce scientific knowledge without it being distorted by our personal identity, experience and trajectory? My latest book, Religion and Conflict in Northern Ireland: What Does Religion Do? (2022) is the first critical and comprehensive review of the ways in which the social sciences interpreted religion’s significance in Northern Ireland. Through this regional case, the book outlines a critical agenda for the social study of religion.
I teach introductory sociology and the sociology of religion to undergraduate students, and teach research design to postgraduates. Since I started working at Queen’s, I’ve held numerous leadership roles. I’m the representative for academic staff on the University's Senate. I’ve played a central role in designing an Irish language residential scheme to enhance students’ learning experience, for which I received Queen’s ‘Leading by Example’ Award last year. Finally, my latest project is coming to fruition! With the support of the Sociology team, I developed a new MSc Sociology and Global Inequality, available from September 2024. This exciting programme focuses on the most important issues across the world today and I am really looking forward welcoming its first students!
In October, leading experts in mental health and children’s law gathered at Queen’s University Belfast for the Protecting and Promoting the Decision-making Rights of Children symposium on critical developments in law and policy relating to children in Northern Ireland.
The event was organised by SSESW colleague Professor Gavin Davidson (back row, right) with Dr Colin Harper (Honorary Lecturer, SSESW), Professor Roy McClelland (Emeritus Professor, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences) and representatives from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It was hosted by our Centre on Inclusion, Transformation and Equality.
Presentations and discussion focused on the current legal framework for decision-making by children, recent case law (specifically Re D (A Child) {2019} UKSC 42) and options for changes to law, policy and practice.
The symposium was chaired by Dr Claire McKenna (Belfast Health and Social Care Trust) and included presentations from Lady Brenda Hale, (former President of the Supreme Court), Professor Roy McClelland and Dr Frances Doherty (Belfast Trust) on legal and practice complexities at the interface of mental health and mental capacity issues. Dr Colin Harper, Dr Phil Anderson and Gavin Davidson led an exploration of options relating to children’s capacity and right to make decisions, including: retain the current combination of statute law but develop new guidance; codify case law to clarify circumstances where children under 16 can accept and refuse interventions; amend the Children (NI) Order 1995 to provide a more comprehensive framework for decision making; extend the Mental Capacity Act (NI) 2016 to apply to everyone; or develop a new law specifically for those under 16.
A panel discussion on next steps acknowledged the complexities involved but reinforced the need for this important area of law, policy and practice to be further examined to ensure we have the most effective framework to protect and promote the decision-making rights of children.
The Centre investigated the additional competencies and workloads of Irish Medium Education (IME) practitioners. In Northern Ireland, teacher shortages and the lack of dedicated opportunities for Teacher Professional Learning in IME potentially contributes to sustained educational underachievement for pupils (Fair Start Policy 2021).
Mel Engman, Aisling O’Boyle, Yecid Ortega and Sultan Turkan conducted a systematic literature review of immersion education in international contexts and conducted primary research with IME sector stakeholders in Northern Ireland. Report: Fair? Shared? Supported? Examining expectations and realities for Irish-medium practitioners.
Ibrar Bhatt gave the closing plenary at the British Association of Applied Linguistics annual conference and delved into the complex background to the term ‘postdigital’. In Postdigital Possibilities in Applied Linguistics, Ibrar argued that the relationship between the digital world and human life is deeply interwoven and this offers new avenues for inquiry in applied linguistics. One primary takeaway was the importance of a ‘broadly defined’ research scope for applied linguistics, through a postdigital framing.
Minchen Liu won the BERA Award for Best Presentation Prize for the 'Special Interest Group: Post-Compulsory and Lifelong Learning' at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference in September. Min’s presentation covered findings from the British Academy-funded research project ‘Languages Provision in UK Further Education’, conducted by Ian Collen, Leanne Henderson, Minchen Liu, Aisling O’Boyle and Jennifer Roberts.
Yecid Ortega’s new publication Processes influencing English language policy and teaching practice discusses influences on language policy-making decisions in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL). Published in the journal Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Yecid’s paper prioritises an understanding of participants’ experiences and exposes the inequalities they faced in a marginalized context.
A new Centre for Children’s Rights report found that 73 per cent of girls aged 12-17 reported having experienced at least one form of violence. ‘It’s Just What Happens’: Girls’ and Young Women’s Views and Experiences of Violence in Northern Ireland is one of two reports commissioned by the Executive Office to inform the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls.
The Queen’s University report was led by SSESW colleagues Siobhán McAlister, Dirk Schubotz and Michelle Templeton, and Gail Neill from Ulster University. The findings were based on responses from 268 girls and young women across Northern Ireland and include:
- The persistent nature of ‘everyday violence’ with almost all experiencing catcalling and street harassment from age 10-11.
- Girls receiving frequent unsolicited messages and sexual images from a young age. They considered this a normal part of their online life.
- The top three barriers to girls reporting violence were: worried they might not be believed; worried it might make the situation worse; and not feeling it was serious enough to report.
- Learning about violence against girls and young women was identified by the participants as an important step in prevention. This should happen at a young age for boys and girls, in families, schools and youth provision.
Siobhán McAlister (front row, right) said: “Participants reported little formal learning about violence in school. This, alongside powerful social messages of blame and responsibility, impacts girls’ ability to recognise violence and their willingness to disclose personal experiences. Girls learn that they need to ‘keep themselves safe’, thus removing responsibility for violence from boys and men. They emphasised the need to support boys and young men in recognising the impact of their attitudes and behaviours, and to disrupt negative attitudes towards women at a broader societal level.”
Read the report on violence against women and young girls on the Executive Office website.
Queen’s Social Work Society students were excited to host their inaugural conference in October for our Social Work students and staff, exploring the power of kindness and how students can nurture and grow kindness in their social work practice.
The student organisers of Holding onto Kindness in Social Work said: “The conference was an inspiring day using creativity, reflection and discussion to explore the power of kindness in social work. It was a great way for Social Work students at Queen's University to further develop their knowledge and skills in this important aspect of their future career as social workers.”
The event was supported by the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work (SSESW) and the British Association of Social Workers Northern Ireland (BASW NI). It included keynote addresses by Professor Leah Dominelli from Stirling University, Professor Gillian Ruch from the University of Sussex and Siobhan Maclean, social work practice teacher and acclaimed author, alongside a diverse range of speakers across social work practice and academia, students and mental health campaigners, all of them leaders in kindness.
The conference provided all SSESW student attendees with a reflective and creative space to hold in-depth conversations on the importance of kindness. This was explored further through the use of literature and a poem written especially for the day to help make connections with kindness, empathy and critical reflection, drawing on current societal issues pertinent to social work, such as poverty, welfare reform and mental health stigma. There were also opportunities to call at information stands and to network with visiting organisations and employers, all arranged by the student organisers, including Northern Ireland Social Care Council, Probation Board for Northern Ireland, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and Youth Justice Agency.
Our Centre for Behaviour Analysis (CBA) leads the way in efforts to gain professional recognition for behaviour analysts across Europe and further afield. The lack of professional regulation means that anyone could call themselves a behaviour analyst regardless of their training or experience. Clearly, this means service user safety is compromised and professional mobility is restricted.
For the most part, internationally, behaviour analysts have adhered to the standards set by the USA-based Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). However, BACB certification has not been recognized officially in jurisdictions outside of North America. The realization of this situation has led the CBA team to take a number of significant actions. Since 2009, CBA colleagues have been involved in working towards achieving professional recognition for behaviour analysts in the UK. This was finally achieved in 2023 by the Professional Standards Authority approving the professional register of the UK-Society of Behaviour Analysis (UK-SBA).
Internationally, the CBA team played a leading role in achieving professional recognition of behaviour analysts in the Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates.
In Europe, the CBA team has partnered in the EU-funded EuroBA project with nine universities and autism charities to develop common standards and competences for behaviour analysts to facilitate national recognition of and mobility for behaviour analysts outside USA/Canada. In 2020, CBA Director Karola Dillenburger set up the Professional Advisory Group (PAG), a collaboration of 22 countries that aims to ensure that European and allied countries have full access to the Intellectual Outputs that were developed in the EuroBA project to support countries in gaining national professional recognition for behaviour analysts. PAG members represent their national behaviour analysis organization. Membership is open to all countries and includes one representative per country.
Read more about the work of the Centre for Behaviour Analysis.
War as Protection and Punishment, the latest book from SSESW academic Teresa Degenhardt (Criminology), analyses how penal discourses are used to legitimate post-Cold War military interventions through case studies on Kosovo, Iraq and Libya. The book traces the historical arc in which military interventions have increasingly been launched, through reference to both the human rights discourse and humanitarian sentiments, and a desire to punish the perpetrators.
It continues with the analysis of practices involved in the post-intervention phase, looking at the ways in which states have been established as modes of governance (Kosovo), how punitive atmospheres have animated soldiers’ violence in the conduct of war (Iraq), and how interventions can expand moral control and a system of devolved surveillance in conjunction with both border control and the engagement of the International Criminal Court (Libya). These practices underscore how punitive intents and the rhetoric of punishment were useful in legitimating the expansion of liberal governance.
Head of School, Professor Daniel Muijs, was delighted to report further recognition of the high quality and impact of teaching and research in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work (SSESW).
Paul McCafferty (Social Work) was presented with a Queen’s University Teaching Award, in the ‘Rising Star’ category, at the most recent graduation ceremony. Paul received the award for his work in redesigning his modules to provide a learning experience that prepares his students effectively for social work practice.
His teaching in Social Work incorporates a range of inclusive teaching approaches, authentic assessment and work-based learning opportunities to engage his students and provide an active learning experience that meets the needs of a diverse student body. Paul said: “Delivering teaching and assessment that meets employers’ and students’ needs is a passion of mine, so I’m delighted to receive this award.”
A presentation by Research Fellow Min-Chen Liu about our Languages Provision in UK Further Education research project was awarded the 'BERA Conference 2023 – Special Interest Group (SIG) Best Presentation' prize in Post-Compulsory and Lifelong Learning. The award emphasises the project's outstanding quality and its meaningful contribution to the realm of post-compulsory and lifelong learning, particularly in the context of language provision in the UK's Further Education sector.
Min said: “Being awarded a SIG Best Presentation prize for the BERA Conference input is a tremendous honour, both personally and professionally. It underscores the significance and potential of our research in post-compulsory and lifelong learning, especially within the UK's FE sector. This national recognition motivates me to continue improving educational practices and opportunities.”
Our Drug and Alcohol Network (DARN) is leading on the Northern Ireland arm of a project called DoseCare: Development and Evaluation of a Wearable-Integrated, AI-Powered Overdose Detection and Response System. The project aims to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionise overdose detection and prevention mechanisms in healthcare using wearable technologies and smart phone applications.
DoseCare is one of twelve projects awarded a share of £5 million of government funding to reduce rates of fatal drug overdoses across the UK. It is a collaboration between Queen’s University Belfast, Manchester Metropolitan University, Extern and the Salvation Army.
By focusing on two distinct user groups (people who are leaving prison and people who are homeless) with varying levels of risk awareness, the research team will develop tailored solutions that significantly improve patient outcomes and enhance overall care delivery. The wearable device will utilise respiratory rate and O2 levels among members of the user groups to detect the onset of an opioid overdose and will contact drug workers and the emergency services. It will use machine learning to predict the optimum conditions for responses, which need to be accurate and timely.
In addition to the DoseCare initiative, DARN is leading on producing a special edition of Frontiers in Public Health, entitled Alcohol-related brain Injury – psycho social, medical and multidisciplinary approaches.
Furthermore, the Drug and Alcohol Network has been chosen to lead on ITSPOON, an international network of addiction professionals and researchers who are researching technological innovation to address drug-related deaths.
In September, the Centre held a symposium on children’s rights-based participation in education. Keynote speakers included Professor Roseanna Bourke and Professor John O’Neill, Massey University, New Zealand who presented on ‘what children can tell us about the phenomenon of learning’.
Dr Naseema Shaik, Head of Education at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa visited Queen’s University in September and spoke at the CCR symposium in September (above) about her work on early childhood.
In September, Siobhán McAlister was invited to take part in a Department of Justice-Queen’s University Belfast Policy Workshop and Strategic Engagement event to share research findings and discuss rights implications of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) in Northern Ireland. Drawing on her research, she discussed various forms of CCE and how this is associated with conflict legacy.
Bronagh Byrne was interviewed for UTV’s View from Stormont on the challenges facing children identified as having special educational needs in light of the lack of sufficient educational placements, funding cuts and resourcing restrictions.
Alan McKinstry, PhD student, published an article in The Conversation outlining how children experiencing criminal exploitation in Northern Ireland require better legal protections. Alan’s PhD is examining child criminal exploitation in the context of modern slavery victimhood in Tower Hamlets, London, and Belfast.
In October, the Centre hosted Nigel Cantwell, internationally renowned consultant on child protection. Nigel shared his reflections on the applications of the ‘best interests’ principle. The event included a Poster Showcase highlighting work by our postgraduate students.
On 22 November Siobhán McAlister will present research on girls' and young women's experiences of violence at YouthAction Northern Ireland's Critical Research Hub. This forum brings together practitioners and researchers to share research findings and consider the implications for youth work and related practice. To attend, please contact ryan@youthaction.org.
School of SSESW academic Gladys Ganiel (second left) collaborated on hosting Turbulent Religions, Alternative Futures, an international workshop at Queen’s University Belfast in August for scholars from Queen’s and from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Contributors at the event shared expertise in ‘turbulent religions’ including the study of how religious actors, institutions and discourses can disrupt societies and politics, by contributing to violence or peacefully challenging injustices and inequalities.
Research by the Queen’s and Notre Dame colleagues analyses the significance and impact of religions in polarizing contexts, including the roles of religion in violence, peacebuilding and imagining alternative futures on the island of Ireland, Palestine/Israel and the United States.
Panel discussions explored the themes of: religion in relation to violence, polarisation, identity, environmentalism and sustainability; Zionism, pilgrimage and tourism; and religions – pasts and futures.
Participating in the workshop discussions were School of SSESW academics Veronique Altglas, Gladys Ganiel and Cathal McManus, along with academics from the wider Queen’s University and Notre Dame.
During their visit to Queen’s University, the Notre Dame delegation also visited the Corrymeela Community in Ballycastle, one of Ireland’s leading faith-based peace and reconciliation organisations supporting people from different backgrounds to live well together. The visit featured a guided tour about Corrymeela’s history and activities during the Troubles, and briefings on Corrymeela’s current work on anti-sectarianism and public theology.
The international event was co-ordinated by Professor Gladys Ganiel, through the Queen’s University Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and by Professor Atalia Omer, University of Notre Dame. An edited book or special edition journal will be produced based on the discussions at the workshop and scholars will pursue further collaboration on the research themes.
Karola Dillenburger, Centre Director, was invited as International Guest Faculty for the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) programme at Asia Pacific ABA Network Institute in Japan and delivered two main lectures. The first focussed on ‘Function-based behaviour reduction: functional analysis to self-harm and severely inappropriate behaviour’ and the second addressed ‘Recent topics on ABA principles, interventions and ethics’.
Karola Dillenburger and Canadian colleague Genevieve Roy-Wsiak presented an address at the BestOfABA Congress, in Cagnes sur Mer, France entitled ‘What is ABA and how can I apply it? Developing impactful yet accessible technology for autism interventions’. They presented outcome data of surveys related to the SimpleStepsAutism training package.
Karola Dillenburger, with Ulster University colleague Professor Mickey Keenan, published Autism and Behavior Analysis: From Dissonance to Dialogue, a paper on the debate about Applied Behaviour Analysis. It suggests a way forward based on what are basically complementary views on the goals enshrined in rights-based practice.
Katerina Dounavi presented her research as a poster at the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction 20th Biennial Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece. Her poster was entitled ‘Participative autism research: reaching social validity through the participatory research index’.
Katerina Dounavi and Meral Koldas presented at the School of SSESW Annual Conference a paper entitled ‘Parental wishes, needs and preferences around autism early life screening’. In their presentation they discussed parental attitudes around very early life detection of autism, with an emphasis on detection through genetic testing.