Geopolitics and Justice

The Battle for the Biosphere: The Political Ecology of Judith Wright

This project is focused on the political ecology writings of Judith Wright, one of Australia’s most beloved poets and public intellectuals. It explores how Wright became critically informed of the overlapping threats to the planet’s biosphere, propelling her to lead prolonged environmental campaigns. It illuminates how her activism and writing envisaged the trajectory of environmental crises in the Anthropocene and considered the key challenge of communicating a pathway to a more ecologically responsible world.

Principle Investigator: Prof John Morrissey
Research Funder: National Library of Australia
More Information: Project Announcement

Moving to Inequality? Young Migrant Educational Achievement in Galway, Ireland

This research focuses on the educational experiences of migrant teens in Galway, the most diverse city in Ireland. This mixed-method project examined young migrants’ experiences of educational opportunity; including a focus on access, participation, aspiration and attainment. The project also examined a variety of family, school and neighbourhood effects, to consider the influence of each on overall student experiences.

Principle Investigator(s): Dr Valerie Ledwith, Dr Kathy Reilly
More Information:  Publication / Irish Times article / Podcast

Haven: Intervening for Human Security in the Mediterranean Humanitarian Crisis

The Haven Project is focused on the biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War, the Mediterranean refugee crisis, and centrally addresses the challenge of envisioning and enacting a transformative and cooperative EU security strategy based on the UN’s concept of ‘human security’

Principle Investigator: Prof John Morrissey
Research Funder: Irish Research Council
Project Homepage: The Haven Project
Edited Book: Haven: The Mediterranean Crisis and Human Security (Edward Elgar Publishing)
Journal Article: Envisioning Human Security (Fennia: International Journal of Geography)
RTÉ Brainstorm Article: Why We Need to Examine the Geopolitics of Displacement

Bridging Academic Critique and Civic Engagement in Sarajevo, Bosnia

This University of Galway CKI project supported the initiation of participatory development field-based learning in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Masters students on the MA in Environment, Society and Development intersect with the work of the United Nations and a variety of other NGOs.

Principle Investigators: Prof John Morrissey and Dr Kathy Reilly
Research Funder: Community Knowledge Initiative
Journal Article: Field-Based Learning: The Challenge of Practising Participatory Knowledge (Journal of Geography in Higher Education)

CENTCOM and US Geopolitical Grand Strategy in the Middle East

This IRC research project critically interrogated the geopolitical scripting, political economy and biopolitics of US foreign policy in the Middle East and Central Asia, with a particular focus on United States Central Command (CENTCOM).

Principle Investigator: Prof John Morrissey
Research Funder: Irish Research Council
Book: The Long War: CENTCOM, Grand Strategy, and Global Security (University of Georgia Press)
Journal Article: US Central Command and Liberal Imperial Reach (The Geographical Journal)
RTÉ Brainstorm Article: The Long War: The United States Military and the Middle East

Creative Edge

Creative Edge is a project that promotes the active participation of local creative organisations and businesses in global markets, while also aiding them in their ability to attract and utilise local emerging creative talent in the creative economy.

Principle Investigator: Dr Patrick Collins
Research Funder: EU Northern Periphery Programme
More Information: http://whitakerinstitute.ie/project/creative-edge

Non-State Humanitarianism: From Colonialism to Human Rights

This research network connects two emerging strands of historical inquiry – from the academic world and from within the humanitarian sector – in a spirit of conversation and collaboration to examine questions of human rights in a transnational historical context.

Principle Investigator: Dr Kevin O’Sullivan
Research Funder: British Arts and Humanities Research Council
More Information: https://nonstatehumanitarianism.wordpress.com

Deconstructing Homelessness: Finding a Place for Geography

The project examines an emerging disconnect between the mediated representations of homeless communities in Ireland and the multiple lived realities of being homeless. In doing so the project aims to make a significant contribution to Irish policy interventions on homelessness.

Principle Investigator(s): Dr Kathy Reilly
Funded by: Irish Research Council

Heidegger, or the neglect of boundaries

Benedikt Korf’s recent invitation to re-think the deployment of Heidegger’s philosophy within geography is both opportune and essential: opportune, because the many and continuing controversies surrounding Heidegger’s political stance have been reignited following the on-going publication of his Schwarze Hefte; essential, because any invocation of “Heidegger” today arguably involves something additional to a reflection of the man, his politics and philosophy.

Principle Investigator: Prof Ulf Strohmayer
More Information: Publication link