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PhD Students

Zoë O' Reilly

Personal Information

Name:	Zoë O' Reilly
Position:	Doctoral Fellow NIRSA
Department:	NIRSA / Geography
Organisation:	NUI Maynooth
Location:	Postgraduate Lab, Iontas Building, NUI Maynooth
E-mail:	zoe.oreilly.2009@nuim.ie
Telephone:	++ 353 1 708 6731
Fax:	++ 353 1 708 6456

Biography

I graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2000 with a BA in French, Spanish and Portuguese. I subsequently obtained an MA in Social Anthropology of Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Previous to beginning my PhD, I ran the Súil Eile Project, working with marginalized groups through participatory photography in Dublin and in Orissa, India. I began my PhD in NUI Maynooth in 2008 through the NIRSA Graduate Education Programme. This PhD is being funded by the ISSP.

Thesis

Thesis Title:

'In between spaces': understanding the experiences of asylum through participatory photography

Abstract

I am interested in the 'spaces between' and the potential of creative approaches to explore these: the space between two or more places, between citizenship and non-citizenship, between loss and hope, knowing and not knowing, between hospitality and hostility. I am interested in finding alternative ways to explore, express and describe the 'spaces between' experienced through migration and displacement, through and with the voices of migrants themselves. My thesis aims to explore the subjective experiences of asylum seekers living in the 'direct provision' system in Ireland, through an ethnographic participatory photography project. The project also aims to explore the potential of this type of work for challenging existing stereotypes around refugees and asylum seekers, and to work towards creating alternative representations.

Supervisors

Dr Mary Gilmartin (NUIM/Dept. of Geography), Dr. Gavan Titley (NUIM/ Dept. of Media), Dr. Anthony Haughey (DIT/ Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice)

Scholarships and awards:

• PhD scholarship from the Irish Social Sciences Platform (ISSP) via The National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA), NUIM.
• Qualitative Research Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) student award - PhD Level (2010)
• South Dublin County Council Individual Artist Bursary Award (2009)
• Simon Cumbers Media Award (2008)

Presentations and exhibitions

• ISSP/NIRSA anniversary conference, NUI Maynooth (2011): 'In between spaces': understanding the experiences of asylum through participatory photography' (poster)
• Association of American Geographers (AAG), Seattle (2011): 'Dialogical aesthetics: a critical framework for participatory creative practice in geography/social sciences?'
• 'New Bridges': an exhibition of photographs and stories from direct provision. NUI Maynooth (2010)
• 'After you bought me': an exhibition of photographs and text by young tribal women exploring the causes and effects of human trafficking. Irish Aid Centre, Dublin (2010), Conference of Irish Geographers, NUI Maynooth (2010)
• NIRSA Advanced Methodologies Seminar (2009) 'The art project as research method: context and challenges'
• Conference of Irish Geographers (2009) 'Counter topographies of forced migration: Transnationalism, refugees and participatory photography'
• NIRSA Migration Salon (2009) 'Transnationalism and the study of refugees: conceptual premises for research'
• NUIM Department of Geography Postgraduate Research Seminar (2009) 'Counter topographies of forced migration'