I am a Professor of Sociology, although my academic path began in Anthropology, where I completed my PhD at Queen’s University Belfast. Since then, my career has taken a somewhat interdisciplinary and international route, spanning research, teaching, and policy engagement across a range of institutions.

I have held posts at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s, INCORE (the United Nations Research Centre for the Study of Conflict at Ulster University), the University of East London, and the University of Aberdeen, where I served as Reader in Sociology. Alongside these roles, I have held visiting positions as a Fellow at University College London, Visiting Professor in the UAE, and Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. These experiences have informed a research profile that is both comparative and cross‑disciplinary, with a strong interest in questions of identity, conflict, and social transformation.

Currently, I am a Fellow and advisory board member for SEPAD (Sectarianism, Proxies & De‑sectarianisation) at Lancaster University’s Richardson Institute. At Queen’s University Belfast, I am also a Fellow of The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies.

For several years, I co‑edited the Irish Journal of Sociology, including its 30th anniversary issue, which featured contributions from President Michael D. Higgins. I also serve on the editorial boards of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and Social Sciences.

My research has been presented in academic, public, and policy forums, including invited talks at the Foreign Policy Centre and the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. I have published nine books and numerous journal articles, and my work has appeared in The Conversation, Slate, The Independent, and Times Higher Education. It has also been highlighted by Al Jazeera, Reuters, the Financial Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Belfast Telegraph. I have contributed expert commentary to BBC News, Sky News, BBC Scotland, and LBC.

I have served on review and advisory boards for the Irish Research Council and the Carnegie Trust, and my research has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and the Scottish Funding Council.

Supervising PhD research is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work. I have had the privilege of working with doctoral students exploring topics such as masculinity in extractive industries, Indian migration and identity in Scotland, gender and policing in Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and humanitarian practice in Nigeria. Collectively, these projects reflect my broader interest in how people experience and negotiate power, identity, and social change.

For recent discussions and public engagement, you can listen to [this podcast] or watch [this video clip].

Research Themes

Below are some of the core themes that inform my work — many of which overlap with the expert domains of John Nagle at Queen’s, enabling rich interdisciplinary dialogue:

• Divided and post‑conflict societies — how communities respond to legacy conflict, power‑sharing arrangements, and processes of de‑sectarianisation. (Nagle focuses on divided societies, power‑sharing and consociationalism.) (Queen's University Belfast)

• Social movements and inclusion — particularly non‑sectarian movements (including LGBTQ, feminist, and class‑based groups) mobilising in deeply divided or transitional contexts. (Nagle’s current work engages with non‑sectarian activism in Lebanon, Syria and Northern Ireland.) (Queen's University Belfast)

• Identity, memory and urban space — how identity is contested, remembered, and negotiated in urban settings shaped by conflict, sectarian legacy, and changing governance. (Nagle has studied memory‑work, right‑to‑the‑city protests in divided cities such as Beirut and Manama.) (Pure Admin)

• Power, marginality and mobility — exploring how power is exercised, resisted or transformed through migration, masculinities, humanitarian work, policing, and gender in various global contexts.

• Conflict, peace‑building and institutional change — a focus on how institutional arrangements (such as power‑sharing, transitional justice, de‑sectarianisation) interact with grassroots movements, social identity, and structural transformation. (Nagle’s concept of “zombie power‑sharing” builds on critique of weak or inert consociational systems.) (Pure Admin)

• Global comparative sociology — drawing on settings from Northern Ireland, the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria), Sub‑Saharan Africa (Nigeria), and beyond to understand how people experience, negotiate and shape change in diverse social, cultural and political environments.