How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?
My research has always been geared toward a variety of audiences, reaching across civil society and academia. I have been very involved in advocacy work, especially on gender and social justice issues. I am a former director of the Irish Feminist Network and a founding member of the Equality Budgeting Campaign (which was set up specifically to redress the disproportionate effects of austerity on women and marginalised populations). 

What is your proudest career achievement?
I'm proud of being awarded a Newton International Fellowship by the British Academy (2014-2016), and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship by the European Commission (2017-2020). I'm also grateful I had the opportunity to represent the Equality Budgeting Campaign at the UN CEDAW hearings (Ireland's examination of women's human rights) in Geneva in 2017.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?
Get in touch with colleagues at Queen's for advice and information before applying. People are really very helpful and can give you a good steer on what to expect. Most importantly, apply! It is a fantastic opportunity that will have a huge impact on your research, career development, and life more generally!

Pure: Dr Clara Fischer

How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?
Marrying across political and/or religious divides has often been a contentious issue; especially in Ireland, where the stakes of these allegiances are high. Despite the relative prevalence of the phenomenon and the vital insight that studying these marriage patterns could give us into an extraordinarily turbulent period in Irish and British history, there has been very limited research on this subject. This project redresses this urgent need to engage with a history that impacts on people's lives today. 

What is your proudest career achievement?
It is hard to isolate any one thing: I doubt I would have been successful in securing in my UKRI Fellowship without having secured my Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, and that I wouldn't have secured my that without my Irish Research Council Fellowship, or Leverhulme, or Fulbright...! And so on. Honestly, what gives me the greatest sense of achievement is sharing my experiences with others and seeing them go on to secure Fellowships and grants of their own. I'm truly delighted to be in a position where I can build a supportive research culture for my project group and hope that I can continue to do this.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?
Remember that Fellowships are different from Research Grants. They are much more about *you* as an individual and your development. Why are you the right person for this Fellowship and this project? What skills will you gain during the Fellowship and how will you be different at the end? And, of course, to remember that academia is astonishingly competitive and to try not to be disheartened with rejection. It really does happen to everyone. 

Pure: Dr Alison Garden

How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?
As I explore my research questions through the lens of performance, I assert the value of embodied forms of knowledge. While some of the project outputs are intended for an academic audience, a broader public audience will have the opportunity to engage with the practice-based elements (including workshops devised with dance company, Maiden Voyage).

What is your proudest career achievement?
The publication of my monograph, Women and Embodied Mythmaking in Irish Theatre (Cambridge UP, 2019). I'm particularly proud that the work has been described as 'poetic' as my goal was for the book to take a shape that reflects my argument, namely that we need to find alternative structures to assemble neglected histories. 

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?
Chat to peers who have applied for/ have held the fellowship. Have a longer term plan in mind when applying so that you can use the fellowship to work towards that goal.

Pure: Dr Shonagh Hill

How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?
The publication of an edition of the Boyle women’s letters will ensure that those rarely heard female voices are preserved and made more accessible for a wider, future readership. The recovery and re-reading of the letters will enable a much more complex and nuanced understanding of the past and how individual women perceived and sought to represent themselves and their place in Irish, British, and European history. 

What is your proudest career achievement?
My proudest career achievement is the publication of my first monograph in March 2020, The daughters of the first earl of Cork: writing family, faith, politics and place (Four Courts Press, Dublin).  

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?
Give yourself sufficient time to think creatively and consider how you might more closely integrate the different parts of your project.     

What is your proudest career achievement?

Difficult to choose one but it would probably be the award of this competitive Marie Curie fellowship funded by the EU.

How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?

Impact strategies include participation to intersectoral conferences and events, capacity building activities targeting social leaders and public servants, publication of a policy brief with the leading Human Rights NGO in Colombia, strategic litigation initiatives (of legal and non-legal nature) with the university legal clinic.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?

Take your time to design an ambitious but feasible proposal that can significantly contribute significantly to your career path.