Anna Bryson is a Professor in the School of Law and a Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. She was appointed Director of Research for QUB Law in 2023.

Her most recent research has developed at the intersection of socio-legal studies, transitional justice and oral history. A strong commitment to social justice underpins the diverse interdisciplinary projects she has developed over the years. She has a strong track record for research impact and won a Vice-Chancellor’s award for her contribution to a 4* Impact Case Study for REF 2021. This helped to place QUB Law joint-first in the UK for impact.

She is currently working on two RCUK funded projects - 'Enhancing Democratic Habits: An Oral History of the Law Centre Movement' (AHRC-funded collaboration with colleagues at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, and the British Library) and 'Apologies and Dealing with the Past' (Principal Investigator on ESRC Impact Acceleration grant). A British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship supported the completion of her fifth book (forthcoming with OUP) titled ‘Conflict and Civility: Memory, Identity and Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland’.

Anna has previously been co-Investigator on a number of externally funded research projects including ‘Apologies, Abuses and Dealing with the Past: A Socio-Legal Analysis’ (ESRC) and ‘Brexit and Northern Ireland: The Constitutional, Conflict Transformation, Human Rights and Equality Consequences’ (ESRC). The co-authored monograph (with K. McEvoy and L. Mallinder) arising from an ESRC-funded international comparative project on ‘Lawyers in Conflict and Transition’ was published by Cambridge University Press in March 2022.

Prior to her appointment to QUB Law in 2014, Anna was involved in a series of research projects exploring various aspects of the history and legacy of conflict (including, as co-PI, the €1.1million EU-funded ‘Peace Process: Layers of Meaning’ project). She has significant expertise in the theory and practice of oral history and has to date conducted more than 200 substantial interviews with a wide range of individuals including victims and survivors, former security force personnel, ex-combatants and former prisoners, lawyers, politicians and senior government officials. She is the Northern Ireland representative for the Oral History Society and provides accredited training on behalf of the organisation.

In 2020 Anna was elected as Chair of the independent human rights organisation, the Committee on the Administration of Justice. She is also a member of the AHRC Peer Review College. In 2021 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.

In recognition of her successful delivery of a range of modules at undergraduate and post-graduate level and the fact that her career is grounded in 'an integrated approach to teaching and research leadership' she was appointed Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in July 2021.

As Director of Research for the School of Law, Anna works closely with colleagues at School and Faculty level to help cultivate world-leading research that addresses both local and global challenges. She is the QUB staff representative for the Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series at Stormont and is an active member of the Board of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (and the Impact Award committee). Drawing on her previous experience as Chair of the QUB Law ethics committee she was appointed to the Royal Irish Academy’s ‘Ethical, Political, Legal and Philosophical Studies Committee’ for the 2022-26 term.

Anna’s impact work on dealing with the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland has involved intense and sustained engagement politicians, policymakers and victims to provide them with accessible legal and policy commentary. Outputs from the collaboration have included authoring over 30 policy documents and blogs, drafting ‘model legislation’, writing responses to government consultations and providing free technical legal and policy advice to key stakeholders in Northern Ireland (victims and survivors, civil society organisations, the British and Irish governments, political parties, veterans, former combatants, the British Army, the PSNI, religious leaders, politicians) as well the British and Irish governments and international actors e.g. Council of Europe, US Congress and the United Nations. With colleagues, she has organised twenty public seminars and six major conferences (attended by senior representatives of the British and Irish governments). Anna has given expert evidence to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Good Friday Agreement (2018), the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (2020, 2022) and the US House Foreign Affairs sub-committee on Europe (2022) and has contributed extensively to media analysis of issues relevant to her research (television, radio, blogs).