Dr Orla Ní Cheallacháin joined the Global Campus as EMA Programme Director in 2021. She is responsible for the operational and academic management of the programme, student support, and liaison with the network of EMA professors and other stakeholders.
She is also responsible for teaching the International Relations Rolling Seminar, academic skills, research methods and thesis proposal workshops in addition to other teaching contributions throughout the first semester.
Orla holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from University College Dublin, an MSc (Econ) in Terrorism and International Relations from Aberystwyth University, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Research Skills with a specialism in researching violently divided societies from the University of Ulster. She holds a BA in History and Language and Cultural Studies (Italian) from University College Cork.
Orla’s doctoral research comprised a critical discourse analysis of emergency counterterrorism debates in the United Kingdom with a view to understanding the politics of crisis legislating over time and how human rights are protected during times of crisis. The project analysed how terrorism was conceptualised by the legislature when introducing, renewing or expanding counterterrorism law and examined the legislature’s role in the normalisation of emergency powers. The project compared conceptualisations of terrorism during the Northern Ireland conflict and the so-called ‘global war on terror’. She is currently working on several articles informed by her doctoral research.
Orla’s research interests include critical approaches to International Relations and security studies, including feminist approaches, the role of gender in peace and conflict, issues of global justice in relation to the climate and biodiversity crises, and how different ‘ways of knowing’, including the arts, inform knowledge production and expertise.
Before joining the Global Campus, Orla taught courses on International Relations, critical security studies, and gender, peace and conflict at University College Dublin and provided teaching assistance on a range of courses including political theory, comparative politics and research methods. In addition, she worked as a Writing Instructor at the UCD Writing Centre providing tuition on academic writing skills, critical thinking and postgraduate thesis support.