The data were analysed in the ‘Political attitudes in Northern Ireland 25 years after the Agreement’ report by SSESW colleagues Katy Hayward and Ben Rosher, a NINE PhD student. 

An almost identical proportion (45%) of the three main communal blocs feel the Agreement remains the best basis for governing NI although it needs some small changes. However, 27% of unionists believe it is no longer/has never been a good basis for governing NI (compared to 13% of those saying they are ‘neither unionist nor nationalist’ and 8% of nationalists).

Younger people are the least confident about the 1998 Agreement, with 30% of under-35s answering ‘don’t know’ when asked their opinion on it.

As well as questions on political identity, constitutional futures and Brexit, the survey also tested for levels of trust in political actors involved in governing NI. See key findings or the full report.

Katy Hayward said: “It is a sign of the Agreement's success that the large majority think it remains the best basis for governing Northern Ireland. However, NILT also shows that there are consequences to a lack of fully-functioning institutions. Declining confidence in devolution, growing anticipation of Irish unification, and high levels of distrust in political actors reflect some of the post-Brexit flux experienced in Northern Ireland.”

NILT is coordinated by SSESW colleagues Paula Devine and Martina McKnight. It is a key resource within ARK, a joint initiative between Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University. Full NILT results were published on 1 June 2023.

This interest began early and was shaped by my own experiences, observations and reflections. Growing up in an area affected by different types of violence I was struck, even as a teenager, as to how people often accept things. Over time, this curiosity led to me to volunteer and then to work professionally in the community sector, specialising in practices with young men, violence prevention and youth justice. Over fourteen years, I led a number of programmes across several regional non-governmental organizations. That combined experience convinced me that we had much to learn about the needs and experiences of some of the most vulnerable young people, and the pathways that lead them into the justice system. In my own practice, I became frustrated with the lack of reliable evidence feeding into intervention development and also the lack of evidence emerging out of the practice. This led me back into academia as a Fellow in 2016. I strongly believe that alongside our non-academic colleagues we can make a real difference in real people’s lives through policy and practice relevant research.

My research has informed: the work of the Tackling Paramilitarism, Criminality and Organised Crime Programme; the implementation of targeted youth provision by the Education Authority for Northern Ireland (EANI); cross-departmental work around Child Criminal Exploitation; and specialist youth support hubs for victims of violence. It is also contributing to how funders such as Children in Need engage with young people as part of their violence reduction commissioning.

I am currently leading a portfolio of projects including an action research programme funded by the Department of Justice, a proof of concept study funded by Children in Need and a North/South programme in the area of youth crime with our partners at the University of Limerick. I am also in the process of scaling up a co-produced violence prevention model for young men funded by EANI.

The study was carried out with 44 young people across the region. At the launch, Head of the School of SSESW Daniel Muijs outlined how timely research can contribute a positive social impact.  

The research found that young people were exposed to a range of harms in the home, in schools and in their communities, leaving some more vulnerable to criminal exploitation. 

Other findings include: 

• Paramilitarism was intimately connected to child criminal exploitation.
• A number of young people had been actively groomed to engage in criminality over a prolonged period of time.
• Others were engaged in a more agile way, exploited for a particular purpose and for a specific period of time. 

Colm Walsh commented: “This is an important but sobering study documenting the perceptions and experiences of child criminal exploitation. Their voices illustrate the ways that some children and young people are being failed by a range of statutory agencies and how these missed opportunities to protect provide others with opportunities to exploit for their own criminal gain.” 

Adele Brown (DOJ) said: “It shows how, a generation on from the peace agreements, young people in Northern Ireland are still being exploited and manipulated by paramilitaries and criminals.”  

The event was closed by Richard Pengelly (DOJ) who confirmed that the study findings will directly affect how CCE is defined and how services will now respond.  

Joanne is a globally recognised expert in education in divided societies, inequalities in education and inter-group relations. She is Director of our Centre for Shared Education. Joanne has led more than 20 research projects on these themes for funders such as UNICEF, the British Council, Nuffield, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Economic and Social Research Council. She has contributed her expertise to development of shared education in international settings including Israel and states in south east Europe.  

Joanne is joined in leading this important international input to UNESCO discussions by SSESW colleague  James Nelson (Education) who specialises in teacher education and the interface between religion and education. James will represent the SSESW team during the intergovernmental negotiations in Paris on 30 May-2 June. 

The revision of the Recommendation aims to revive and update the global consensus around the role of education in shaping a more just, sustainable, healthy and peaceful future for all learners. 

Working with nine autistic young people (aged 11-18) across Northern Ireland, the research team used Photovoice, requiring only a basic knowledge of photography using mobile phones, which the young people used to document their lives through pictures over a six-week period during lockdown.

Key findings include:

• Participants worried about what was going to happen and how long the pandemic would last. They reported feeling ‘low’, ‘depressed’ and ‘isolated’ during lockdown.
• They consistently referred to the stress and pressure of home-schooling and that having to engage with new educational platforms across multiple subjects could be overwhelming at times.
• Young people in the study drew on existing hobbies or developed new hobbies as a coping strategy during lockdown. This provided distraction, routine and calmness, particularly in light of the removal of the key support networks they usually relied on.
• Time spent outdoors in nature became an important way of managing stress during lockdown.
• However, they felt that schools did not always acknowledge the importance of being outdoors and overloaded their days with schoolwork, leaving little time for minding their mental health. 
• The autistic young people in the study shared a common goal to illuminate the challenges they faced during this time so that should a future crisis or emergency occur, these challenges, as triggered by government responses, could be taken into consideration.

The report is at ‘Children's lives and rights under lockdown: A Northern Irish perspective by autistic young people'.

The group will also assist with funding applications that more authentically reflect the core issues affecting the lives of disabled young people and extend the use of creative and participatory disability research methods.  

The DRN Co-production group met in person for the first time in January in The Cube at the new Queen’s University Students’ Union building. The meeting was co-facilitated by disability activist Joanne Sansome and School of SSESW academics Berni Kelly and Bronagh Byrne. The eight disabled young people who attended the meeting were Oran, Sean, Ross, Erin, Jeffrey, Leah, Kellie and Caitlin. They brought a range of different perspectives and explored challenges relating to social exclusion, education, transition to adulthood and transport.  

Group members are excited to get involved in research at Queen’s and agreed co-production meant that: “Disabled people are partners in research who use their experience to inform research that can make a difference to the lives of disabled people.” 

The group explored how they might get involved in co-producing disability research at Queen’s University. Ideas generated on the day included: sharing ideas on hot topics; sharing experiences on a chosen theme; participating in research training; advising on research design; becoming a researcher; developing accessible research outputs; and co-delivering research presentations.   

The DRN Co-production Group will meet again soon to take these ideas to the next stage. New members would be very welcome so, if you would like to get involved, please email Professor Berni Kelly at b.r.kelly@qub.ac.uk. 

As a result, inequality contributes to new cultural expressions and political activism, often beyond the boundaries of nation-states. 

Our Sociology team is very excited to launch this brand new Master’s programme at Queen’s University in September 2024. It has a global perspective, drawing on the research expertise of award-winning staff, whose research addresses inequalities through a broad range of approaches and different regions of the world.

Students will approach inequalities through a wide range of topics such as emotions, work and organisations, social conflict and divisions, extremism, religion, social movements, radical politics, disability, gender, race, migration and citizenship. Through cross-national comparative perspectives, students will explore the global dimensions of inequality as well as interconnections between the local and the global. 

Through a vibrant intellectual environment, the academic team delivering the MSc Sociology and Global Inequality will strive to empower students to develop practical and intellectual capacities that are relevant to a wide range of professional contexts. Our Sociology colleagues look forward to welcoming the first cohort of students to this new postgraduate course! 

Further information is available on the Queen's University Course Finder from mid-September 2023.

DARN produced the final report Overview of Drug and Alcohol and Service Provision for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), to be released in July 2023. It outlines the strategic context of substance use in Northern Ireland with a focus on the new substance use strategy, ‘Preventing Harm, Empowering Recovery 2021-2031’. The report gave an overview of current drug and alcohol trends, including drug and alcohol deaths, treatment populations, current delivery of service provision and commissioning of services. In addition, DARN colleagues presented research findings to the NIHRC committee, the Department of Health and the Public Health Agency, outlining views on current service provision from key stakeholders, managers and those who use substances and highlighted any existing gaps in current alcohol and drugs provision.

DARN was involved in a report on drug use and young people for the UK Home Office. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) agreed in 2019 to begin a self-commissioned workstream investigating young people’s drug use.

Anne Campbell contributed to the international webinar Drug Policy in the UK: A Matter of Crime or Health | International Society of Substance Use Professionals (issup.net), attended online by 378 professionals from 73 countries.

Anne Campbell and Orfhlaith Campbell presented at the Northern Ireland Drug & Alcohol Alliance conference in Belfast in March on the legalization of Cannabis and Medical Cannabis.

The CCR team, Michelle Templeton (Project Lead), Laura Lundy, Bronagh Byrne, Katrina Lloyd and PhD students Evie Heard and Lucy Holland, applied the Centre’s internationally renowned child's rights-based participation model (the Lundy Model developed by CCR Co-Director Laura Lundy) to create a ‘child-friendly’ survey for Ukrainian children. It included questions about children’s rights during the war in Ukraine and how these have been impacted, including their right to health care, standard of living, education, play, safety and to have their views taken seriously.  

The project team reached out to organisations working with Ukrainian children and families, currently living in Ukraine or in another country, to encourage Ukrainian children aged between 8 and 17 years to participate in the anonymous survey by late March.  

Governments in Ukraine and host countries are required to ensure that children’s views are taken into account and communicated quickly to those who are making important decisions about the children (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12). The results of the survey will not only increase understanding of children’s lived experiences of their rights during the current war, but also what works and what does not, from their perspective, in terms of their education, feelings of safety, social lives and health. The survey outcomes will also highlight the ways in which children demonstrate agency, resilience and creativity when under these new and difficult circumstances, which may inform decisions taken that affect their lives now and in the future.

Around that time, some elderly relatives were diagnosed with cancer and stayed with us during their radiotherapy treatment. When a close friend, who was a young mum, died from cancer I had so many questions about the illness, and I wanted to know more about how to support individuals living with a life-limiting condition and their families. I subsequently gained a reputation within my extended family of being comfortable around people receiving end-of-life care and felt very privileged to help them reflect on their lives, put their affairs in order and say goodbye.

This experience led me to working as a Social Worker in the community with adults and in Marie Curie hospice, specialising in palliative and end-of-life care and bereavement. When seconded to a research post within Marie Curie, I conducted studies around end-of-life care decision-making, bereavement needs assessment, quality of life, complementary therapy and clinical drug trials.

Since joining Queen’s University, I have been actively involved in teaching social work students about palliative care and bereavement and enabling them to develop the relevant interpersonal skills to feel comfortable with death, dying and bereavement, regardless of the cause. I have been involved in several knowledge exchange projects, which included working visits to Bolivia, Kenya and Australia. Currently, I am chairing the Northern Ireland Association of Palliative Care Social Work Forum, the European Association of Palliative Care Social Work Task Force, and the World Hospice and Palliative Care Social Work research network, which have education, research, policy and practice components. I am involved in projects currently exploring palliative care in prisons, and deaths in prison custody, which I hope will inform policy and practice.

Last year, I worked alongside colleagues across Ireland, the UK and Europe to develop our part-time, online Postgraduate Diploma in Palliative Care for social workers, which is now open for applications via Queen’s University.

The course consists of six modules, taught online over two years in a part-time format. It has been designed to an international standard and is suitable for social workers employed across a range of settings in adult services. The curriculum content and assessments are aligned with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council Professionals in Practice requirements, the Health Service Executive Palliative Care Competence Framework (Social Work) and the European Association of Palliative Care core competencies for palliative care social work in Europe.

Course lecturers and facilitators are experts from a range of backgrounds including palliative care, social work, ethics, cognitive behaviour therapy, systemic family practice and leadership. The Programme Director, Professor Audrey Roulston, has over 25 years’ experience of palliative care and bereavement needs assessment through practice, leadership, research and teaching.

A unique aspect of this programme is that lectures, workshops, and tutorials will be delivered online. Assessment will promote opportunities for critical reflection on practice, regardless of participants’ levels of experience and expertise. The online delivery and part-time format are designed to enable social workers across different countries, service user groups and settings to attend this training.

For further information, including admissions criteria and how to apply, please see Palliative Care on Course Finder. The closing date for applications was Friday 16 June 2023 at 4pm.

As a means of engagement, we offered leadership development training for approximately 100 counsellors and school leaders, focussing on the role leaders play in promoting change and improvement in schools. As the Director of the MSc Educational Leadership Programme at the School of SSESW, I adapted existing course materials and developed a bespoke workshop which I delivered in the three cities over three days. Each event culminated in high tea together and an award ceremony where attendees received a certificate of participation from Queen’s University Belfast.

I was privileged to talk with many counsellors and school leaders at each workshop and it was clear that professional development and leadership training are priorities for them. They also talked about the value of developing a professional network between schools and how the workshop event helped to develop a leadership network within and across the cities.   

For me, the trip was a wonderfully affirming professional experience and provided opportunities to develop new international connections to school leaders in India. I was struck by the effort and dedication of the International Team at Queen’s led by Lynsey Noble and in particular, the team working in India led by Karan Menon and Neeta Tyagi.       

Dr Gavin Duffy

Speakers covered a range of relevant topics. A representative from the Northern Ireland Social Care Council talked about the Assessed Year in Employment (AYE) for graduates in their first year working as social workers. Anne Campbell (SSESW) gave an overview of our post-qualifying training. Carmel McManus outlined the University’s Careers Service and social work recruitment in the voluntary sector. Lee Wilson talked about recruitment and interviews in the Health and Social Care Trusts. 

Students grabbed a slice of pizza as they walked around information stands and met employers representing the statutory and voluntary sectors. Students welcomed the opportunity to ask employers questions and gain a better understanding of social work employment. The event was a fantastic success, with students gaining knowledge on how to apply successfully for a post in social work, undertake their AYE and take advantage of post-qualifying learning.

Mental health advocate Niamh Brownlee, author of Struggling to Breathe, visited our Social Work undergraduate students on the Research, Policy and Practice module. In a moving session, she outlined her own experiences with mental illness, which ultimately led to her being hospitalised. Niamh spoke about her interactions with social workers and the key things our social work trainees should look out for when someone is unwell.

Niamh read the students excerpts from Struggling to Breathe, about her experiences of being detained in hospital, and gave a powerful message about the importance of evidence-based treatments in her recovery. She also visited our Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) postgraduate programme where she described her own positive experiences of CBT treatment over the years.

In 2021, Queen’s University Belfast became one of the first such centres in the UK when it was awarded silver recognition by The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) under its ACE-CSE programme by demonstrating first-rate cyber security education and promoting cyber skills across the University. Key to the Centre’s work is enhancing students’ cyber security skills. For this reason, ACE-CSE developed new online training in cyber security awareness training which is freely accessible to Queen’s students via the University’s student learning environment. Participants have found it very interesting and insightful. 

The ACE-CSE programme was developed by NCSC and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to develop an influential and growing community of cyber security educators, to shape and support cyber security education and to engage with industry, government, educators and students. Queen’s University has made significant investment in staff, infrastructure, studentships and scholarships to support education and research in cyber security.  

The Queen’s University ACE-CSE gives students opportunities to learn good cyber security practices that will benefit them in their student, work and social lives. Northern Ireland has an ambitious target of growing the number of cyber security professionals in the region to 5,000 by 2030, while the UK Government seeks to promote cyber security. The work of ACE-CSE will enhance the cyber security knowledge of all Queen’s students and support the University’s efforts in continuing to build a strong pipeline of highly skilled graduates. 

On 14 March, we were delighted to welcome the Australian National Children’s Commissioner and the Icelandic Children’s Commissioner, along with her staff, for a discussion with Centre members on work to progress children's rights and youth justice in Australia, Iceland and Northern Ireland. The event was attended by colleagues from Include Youth and the Children’s Law Centre as well as Koulla Yiasouma, the former Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People.

The Centre is hosting Marta Basile who is a visiting doctoral student in Political Sciences at the University of Catania, Italy. Her PhD involves a comparative and qualitative study on the ‘Best Interests of the Child’ in Italy and Northern Ireland with a particular focus on the sentencing of young people in the youth justice system.

On 29 March, Laura Lundy was a keynote speaker at a ‘Leading Lundy’ event in Manchester. The Lundy Network is a coalition of statutory and voluntary organisations who use the Lundy model of child participation, based on the key concepts of Space, Voice, Audience and Influence, which has been adopted globally by organisations, agencies and governments to inform their understanding of children’s participation. The network is led by the Anna Freud Centre, The National Youth Agency, Youth Focus North West, the Royal College of Paediatricians and Barnardo’s UK. The sold out Manchester event included attendees from many city and county councils, UNICEF UK and the National Lottery Fund.

Participants (parents, children, young people) spoke of the fragility of their living situation, regardless of accommodation type. They reported spending a number of years in temporary accommodation and described the negative impact of constant insecurity. Many spoke of inadequacies, including cramped, cold and uninhabitable conditions as well as living in unsafe areas and under threat of eviction. For many, the right “to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity” (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1991) was breached.  

The impact of homelessness and housing insecurity was far greater than a lack of stable housing, also impacting on children’s ability to enjoy rights related to family life, access to and experiences of education, physical and mental health, play and leisure opportunities, ability to maintain friendships and social networks and being able to practice their faith. 

Based on research findings, NICCY developed recommendations related to housing provision, child rights impact assessments and adequate standards of temporary accommodation. In response to the report, the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), for the first time,  called for the widening of NIHE’s statutory obligations towards prevention of homelessness:  

 “The report shines a light on the experiences of children and families in our communities and reinforces the importance of focusing on the prevention of homelessness to avoid reliance on temporary accommodation and solutions”.  

The students’ academic achievement alongside managing their busy professional roles was warmly acknowledged by guest speakers Peter Toogood (Deputy Secretary, Social Care Policy at the Department of Health) and Kevin Bailey (Regional Lead for Drugs and Alcohol at the Public Health Agency). The certificate and diploma parchments were then presented to students by Peter Toogood.

Invited students came from programmes in Mental Health and Mental Capacity Law, Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders, Systemic Practice and Family Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Practice and Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy. After the ceremony, they had opportunities to catch up with fellow students and staff over a light lunch.

If you work in Health and Social Care and are interested in professional development in any of these areas, please check out the SSESW website for more information on the pathways available.

Devon Ramey was interviewed on Behavior Analysis in Practice – The Podcast (BAPcast), where she discussed her article ‘Defining and Measuring Indices of Happiness and Unhappiness in Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder’. The podcast highlights the work of selected authors to help narrow the research-practice gap.

An innovative new approach to journal publications was pioneered by Karola Dillenburger with Professor Mickey Keenan (Ulster University). The paper entitled ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’, in BF Skinner Foundation’s Operants, shows two QR codes access multimedia presentations. See also The Scientific Image in Behaviour Analysis.

Karola’s global reputation in relation to professional recognition of behaviour analysts led to the invitation by Germany’s Agency for Quality Assurance through Accreditation of Study Programmes (AQAS) as international expert for accrediting the MScABA and Autism Assessment and Interventions at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile in Santiago de Chile, South America. 

Karola is leading a group of representatives from 22 countries to support professional recognition of behaviour analysts. In the UK, the Professional Standards Authority’s approval of the UK Society for Behaviour Analysis register means that the profession now is accredited nationally. This enhances service user protection and ensures that they receive high quality ethical interventions. 

The CBA Webinar Series continues successfully to offer monthly talks by eminent international colleagues, such as Dr Francescs degli Espinosa and Dr Maithri Sivaraman. Recordings of talks can be accessed at CBA Resources. Webinars are announced on Facebook.

www.qub.ac.uk/cba

Considering Grace records the deeply moving stories of 120 ordinary people’s experiences of the Troubles, exploring how faith shaped their responses to violence and its aftermath. Presbyterian ministers, victims, members of the security forces, emergency responders, healthcare workers and ‘critical friends’ of the Presbyterian tradition feature in its pages. It is the first book to capture such a full range of experiences of the Troubles of people from a Protestant background. See Considering Grace for more information or to purchase.  

Considering Grace was co-written by Gladys Ganiel, Professor in the Sociology of Religion in SSESW, and Dr Jamie Yohanis, a post-doctoral researcher on the project. Jamie (pictured right) previously completed his PhD in Education at the School of SSESW. He spoke at the Dublin event on behalf of Gladys Ganiel. 

The research on which the book is based was commissioned by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Reconciliation Fund.  

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin TD welcomed the event and said: “I am very pleased that my Department is co-hosting this event with the Presbyterian Church. Churches and religious communities across the island are key partners on our shared journey of peace and reconciliation.” 

Mr Martin continued: “Considering Grace is an important contribution to our understanding of a dark period in our collective past. My Department, through the Reconciliation Fund, is proud to support the Presbyterian Church’s important work advancing understanding and reconciliation on this island, including the complex but vitally important question of how we address the legacy of the past.” 

Funded by the British Academy and led by Ian Collen, the research sought to understand the extent of the provision and uptake of languages (other than English and Welsh) in the UK FE sector. The systematic review, secondary data analysis and primary research with FE lecturers, students and other stakeholders evidence for the first time the significant lack of research on languages provision in FE over the last 20 years.

The voices of language learners and teachers in UK Further Education are rarely heard in an arena where research is almost exclusively focused on secondary and higher education. In addition, the research identified that there are a considerable number of FE colleges with no provision for languages and learning opportunities are not integrated into core programmes and vocational qualifications.

The research team presented their findings to a joint meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups for Further Education and Languages (APPG) in the Houses of Parliament in London in January. The discussants and parliamentarians at the joint APPG welcomed the report and its findings as a landmark study for language education in the UK Further Education sector, as reported in a wide range of national media channels.

With a number of recommendations made available through a policy briefing, the research team will continue to engage with stakeholders and the British Academy to take these forward. The report is at Languages Provision in UK Further Education.

https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/CentreforLanguageEducationResearch/

Level 1 student Anna Kirkwood was nominated for her outstanding achievement in being appointed a patient representative with the Royal College of Psychiatry as a member of the Faculty for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Her role involves gathering views from service users and carers to help improve mental health services for young people. Anna said: 'My personal challenges mean this award is something 16-year-old me could only dream of. Hard work pays off. If you are struggling, remember that hope is real and better days are coming.'

Level 2 student Emma McAlister was nominated for her outstanding contribution to developing highly innovative practice. During her first social work placement, Emma took part in a successful trial of the Peer Learning Bubble Model with fellow students from Ulster University. She was invited to present on this model by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council as part of their event on digital tools in social work education. Emma said: ‘I was extremely honoured to receive the award. It has given me a great boost going into the final year of my social work degree.’

Level 3 student Ioan Racasan was nominated for his commitment to Social Work at Queen’s. He has been involved in a variety of activities including volunteering for recruitment events, being a peer mentor and working on the Social Sciences Student Journal. With others, Ioan organised the first, and very successful, Social Work student conference at Queen’s University in October 2022. Ioan commented: ‘I am grateful for this recognition of my work. Winning this award is a result of inspiration from my School of SSESW teaching staff, from whom I have learned so much.’

In December 2022, the ARK Ageing Programme and the Science and Culture Research Group at Queen’s hosted Framing Ageing’s first Early Career Researcher Symposium.

In her keynote address The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Hannah Zeilig (University of the Arts, London) reflected that the most difficult questions require us to cross disciplinary boundaries. She described how her work on dementia has led her across many disciplines, such as music, dance and neuroscience. 

Early career researchers from as far afield as Slovakia and South Korea presented papers on a myriad of issues, including end of life decision-making, loneliness, independent living, grandparent involvement in childcare, spirituality, music, theatre and literature. Discussion on papers was facilitated by Des O’Neill, a medical gerontologist at Trinity College Dublin, as well as cultural gerontologist Gemma Carney, historian and material culture specialist Leonie Hannan and liberal arts lecturer Sophie Cooper, all from Queen’s University.

Gemma noted that working as a researcher on ageing societies can sometimes get dispiriting, including: the 30 year ‘crisis’ in social care; massive casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic; and widespread ageism in the media. However, research on ageing is a vibrant, multi-disciplinary field of enquiry, and the Frame Ageing network is a good example of this. The event provided opportunities to build connections between researchers for the future, and was especially important as the first face-to-face event in several years for many of the participants.

For more information on the conference or the network see Framing Ageing network.

It shows that although cultural trauma construction requires the use of moral binaries such as 'good vs. evil', 'pure vs. impure', and 'sacred vs. profane', the entrenchment of binaries can hinder reconciliation.

Rin Ushiyama is a cultural and political sociologist interested in contested memories of violence, including war, terrorism and colonialism. His latest research investigates historical denial in the context of contemporary Japan and East Asia. He has published in numerous journals on topics such as memory studies, social theory and sociology of religion.

SSESW academic Ulrike M Vieten is a historical and political sociologist, with a research focus on the construction and shifts of racialised group boundaries, particularly in Europe. She has published a new book (with Scott Poynting, Queensland University of Technology) entitled Normalization of the Global Far Right; Pandemic Disruption? Its underlying argument is that the boundary between extremist racist perspectives and ‘normal’ entitlement discourses of liberal majorities is blurred.

Ulrike analysed discourses on European cosmopolitanism before carrying out comparative studies on the multi-layered belonging and identities of minority EU citizens and on experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland. She publishes frequently on gender and racist far right populism and regularly blogs on contemporary political debates. Ulrike takes inspiration from political activism of black and minority scholars across the globe. She is a member of the UK academic-activist group Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment. 

Jane McCready, former UK Society for Behaviour Analysis Board Member, narrated her son’s story of accessing services based on the science of applied behaviour analysis. Now 19 years old, Johnny gained key life skills that enable him to live a better life and access fun, meaningful activities.  

Professor Patrick Friman, University of Nebraska, outlined how behaviour analysis can be used across multiple domains to achieve better quality of life, including increasing happiness in relationships. Dr Matthew Brodhead, Michigan State University, discussed using a behavioural systems analysis to promote ethical behaviour. Armando Bernal, an autistic adult and Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, described the complexities of participating in social experiences throughout his life and professional career, and how professionals can promote independence and self-advocacy in service users.  

Participants also heard from CBA students and staff on topics such as anxiety, safeguarding, socio-communicative behaviours in the context of play, combining hand gesture cues with Applied Behaviour Analysis principles to improve speech intelligibility and comparing the efficacy of an asynchronous online learning platform and telehealth (synchronous) training for ABA practitioners. 

Finally, the audience learned about behaviour analytic research with various populations, from individuals with autism to those with Alzheimer's Disease, as well as environmental issues and energy efficiency. Papers were delivered by speakers from the UK, Ireland, Italy, India, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. 

Videos of conference presentations are available on the Centre for Behaviour Analysis Resources page.  

To date, the CASE project has supported almost 400 schools in delivering shared education activities to over 140k students in primary and post-primary schools through cross-sector and cross-border partnerships. The CASE event highlighted key findings from the impact evaluation of five years of activity through ‘Sharing from the Start’ and ‘Collaboration Through Sharing in Education’ (CASE) and launched a series of case studies. 

Tony Gallagher commented: ‘It is a little staggering to think that Shared Education has become such a fundamental part of the educational landscape in Northern Ireland. From modest beginnings, with the initial pilot programme with 12 schools in 2007, we are now celebrating hundreds of Shared Education Partnerships across Northern Ireland. Everyone at Queen’s is proud of the role we have played in helping to develop this model, locally and internationally. We look forward to seeing the culture of collaboration that lies at its heart play an even deeper role in schools in future.’  

Joanne Hughes commented on taking local expertise to a wider audience: ‘The Shared Education team at Queen's has worked extensively in other conflict and transitioning societies to explore the potential for sharing and collaboration in education to promote intergroup relations and better educational outcomes for all children. Adapted versions of the Northern Ireland Shared Education model have now been piloted or are in development in places like Israel and some Balkan States, and it has been a privilege to engage with colleagues nationally and internationally to extend and apply the learning from shared education in Northern Ireland.’ 

As Honorary Italian Consul for Northern Ireland since 2016, Federica has organised a wide range of events to promote understanding between cultures. As part of our Open Learning team, she was central in designing and delivering an online intercultural module for the Queen’s University Professional Skills Certificate and the international partnership project ‘Images of Incoming: Exploring Inclusion and Exclusion with Migrant Women in Northern Ireland and Canada’.  

The School of SSESW is the Queen’s University partner for the Images of Incoming programme, which has involved partnerships with University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, and University of Atypical (Arts and Disability Network). Working with SSESW academic Tess Maginess, outputs to date have included a website, an exhibition, a documentary, an academic chapter in Postdigital Research, edited by Alison MacKenzie (SSESW) and colleagues, and two conference presentations. 

Federica said: “It has been my privilege to work with so many communities here in Northern Ireland to promote greater understanding of Italian culture and, indeed, to foster connections between a wide range of cultures here in Northern Ireland. Working at Queen’s has provided a great support structure for engaging with many communities and sectors in fulfillment of the University’s aim of promoting social and civic responsibility and engaging in real world issues, including the challenges facing migrant people.” 

Federica Ferrieri provides consular advice and guidance to some 2500 Italians in Northern Ireland. In addition to her teaching, she is an author, life coach and Restorative Justice practitioner. 

The students were invited to attend a private viewing of the film Belfast in the Queen’s Film Theatre, accompanied by Belmont academic Professor Amy Hodges Hamilton (front row, second from right). The screening was followed by a conversation and question and answer session about the impact of The Troubles conflict era in Northern Ireland and the restorative power of storytelling. The discussion was led by Citizen Educators from the WAVE Trauma Centre in Belfast, along with experts on trauma including Grainne McKenna, the Trauma Education Officer at WAVE. Joe Duffy noted the students’ appreciation of the screening and the experience shared, commenting on the “real sense of the powerful learning messages that the students and ourselves witnessed at this very special event”.