Centring on Ireland, north and south: Cross-border conflict and cooperation; EU integration (inc. ‘Brexit’ and its impact on Ireland); Peace and conflict processes; Political sociology; Political discourses, protest and violence.

Katy Hayward is a Reader in Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast and a Senior Fellow of the ESRC-funded UK in a Changing Europe initiative, working full-time on the topic of Brexit and Northern Ireland/the Irish border.

She is an Eisenhower Fellow (2019) and a Fellow in the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University. She is also a member of the Centre for International Borders Research and on the Steering Group of the Institute of Irish Studies in Queen's. Outside the University, she is a non-executive Board member of Conciliation Resources and the Centre for Cross Border Studies. 

Dr Hayward has  over twenty years’ research experience on the impact of the EU on the Irish border and peace process, including as part of the EU FP5-funded EUBorderConf [EU and border conflicts] project and the current SSHRC-funded ‘Borders in Globalization’ programme.

She is the author of around 200 publications, including most recently the report Bordering on Brexit: Views from local communities in the central border region of Ireland/Northern Ireland and co-author (with Prof David Phinnemore) of UK Withdrawal (Brexit) and the Good Friday Agreement commissioned by the AFCO committee of the European Parliament.

Dr Hayward has presented widely to various audiences on the topic of Brexit and Northern Ireland/Ireland (especially with a view to the Irish border and the peace process). She has also given written and oral evidence before several parliamentary committees in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

She has engaged extensively with local, national and international media, especially on the topics of contemporary Northern Ireland and Brexit. This includes writing op-eds and articles/blogs and giving interviews with newspaper and online media. It also includes interviews in various media, including live (in studio and down-the-line) and recorded TV, live and recorded radio, and podcasts. 

Dr Hayward has a BA (Hons.) in Peace and Conflict Studies (UU Magee, 1999) and a PhD on the impact of European integration on cross-border relations on the island of Ireland (University College Dublin, 2002). She held a number of post-doctoral research fellowships, including for an EU FP5 project on the EU and Border Conflicts (EUBorderConf) and a Government of Ireland fellowship at the Institute for British-Irish Studies. 

Today Dr Hayward is one of the leading political sociologists of the island of Ireland (e.g. co-ed. Dynamics of Political Change in Ireland, 2017), with a high profile in relation to European integration (e.g. co-ed. The Europeanization of Party Politics in Ireland, 2010), political violence (e.g. co-ed. Nationalism and Organised Violence, 2013), and the application of discourse analysis (e.g. co-ed. Political Discourse of Peace and Conflict, 2009). Her recent funded research includes TRUST Tracing Risk and Uncertainty in Security Technology (RCUK, 2013-15), and Conflict in Cities and the Contested State (ESRC, 2010-14). She is currently lead partner for the Irish case study of the Canadian $2.8m SSHRC-funded project ‘Borders in Globalization’ (PI: UVic, British Columbia).

Twitter: @hayward_katy