Maggie O'Neill

Maggie O’Neill is Professor in Sociology & Criminology at University College Cork, Director of the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century and UCC Futures: Collective Social Futures. Maggie is an inter-disciplinary scholar with a long history of conducting: critical, cultural and feminist theory; creative, participatory, walking, arts based biographical methodologies; and praxis, making policy relevant interventions especially in relation to sex work, migration, forced migration, sexual violence. O’Neill’s PhD in Sociology explored the transformative possibilities for conducting feminist participatory action research with sex workers and was awarded in 1996.

An avowed feminist, her unwavering commitment is to creating intellectual and practical spaces and processes to include women’s voices, particularly marginalized women, in research and policy making.

A team member of Walk Create: walking publics/walking arts, she co-leads a book series on Advances in Biographical Methods with Policy Press and is a co-editor of the Irish Journal of Sociology. Inspired by walking artists, Maggie introduced walking into her practice in 2007. She is a member of the walking artists network you can see an example of her work here: https://www.walkingborders.com

Her last book was co-authored with a groups of feminists committed to biographical /narrative and participatory methods: Criminal Women- Gender Matters

Dr. O'Neill is an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy, which is the highest academic honor in Ireland. She is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is an Executive Committee member of the European Sociological Association, and a member, former Vice Chair and Chair of Research Network 3 'Biographical Perspectives on European Societies'.