Following the recent publication of the report into mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries in Northern Ireland, which underlined the traumatic and isolating experience of so many women, there is a pressing need to address further the histories of women affected by unmarried pregnancy in Northern Ireland. Dr Olivia Dee, who worked as PDRA on that research directed by project PI Professor Sean O'Connell, Queen's University Belfast, has been awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship. This will enable Dr Dee to extend many of the significant research avenues opened up by the report.  In Northern Ireland, over 10,500 women entered mother and baby homes between 1922 and 1990, these numbers peaking during the 1960s and 1970s. By looking beyond these institutions, this Leverhulme Fellowship will dramatically advance our understanding of the long-term physical and mental ramifications of these pregnancies, and the societal, familial and religious stigmas that accompanied so many of them.  

Speaking about the receipt of the Leverhulme Fellowship, Dr Dee said:

"I am so privileged to be given the opportunity to collect and archive the narratives of these women who feel that they have been excluded from the historical record, but whose experiences reflect the oppression and stigmatisation of unmarried pregnant women still present today. I am so grateful to Leverhulme and Queen’s for giving me the time, resources and support to create this research."

 

Dr Olivia Dee