TRiCC Doctoral Researchers

Rodolfo Pezzi

Rodolfo is a third-year PhD candidate in Sociology at the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy. His research focuses on the sociology of education, social stratification, quantitative methods, the school-to-work transition, social class, inequality, and social exclusion.
He holds a double MSc in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Trento and the University of Bamberg. Previously, he worked on how social origins shape unequal educational opportunities, challenging the myth of meritocracy.
Currently supervised by Dr. Yekaterina Chzhen, his PhD research explores the profound inequalities stemming from the COVID-19 crisis, with a particular focus on its impact on children's and youth's education, economic well-being, and mental health.

Contact Rodolfo at pezzir@tcd.ie

Katie E Deevy

Katie is a second-year PhD researcher in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, specialising in health inequalities and cultural studies focusing on marginalised communities. Her research employs Foucauldian Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate how sexual health discourses shape knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among young adult Travellers. The study benefits from a partnership with Pavee Point, who assists with recruitment and guidance. As part of this collaboration, Katie works with Pavee Point for 4-6 months, contributing to their initiatives. This ethical partnership ensures cultural sensitivity and mutual benefit while the research remains independently funded and academically driven. A recipient of the 2020-2030 School of Nursing and Midwifery PhD Scholarship, Katie is a registered general nurse, children’s nurse, and nurse prescriber (RGN, RCN, RNP). She also holds a Master of Science in Global Health from Karolinska Institute, where she defended her thesis on domestic violence injuries against children in Maputo, Mozambique. Her current work critically explores power dynamics, cultural norms, and access to health resources, aiming to identify barriers and inform culturally sensitive interventions.

Contact Katie at deevyk@tcd.ie

Manar Alsulimani

Manar Mohammad Alsulimani is a doctoral researcher in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Manar is in the fourth year of her Ph.D. under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Mary Hughes & Dr. Louise Gallagher and her research interests are in children's health and well-being.

Manar's Ph.D. thesis is on the lived experience of working mothers planning to continue exclusively breastfeeding their infants upon the return to work in Saudi Arabia: an interpretative phenomenology analysis study.

Contact Manar at alsulimm@tcd.ie

Tracey O Neill

Tracey O' Neill is a PhD student in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Tracey is a registered children’s nurse and a registered nurse in intellectual disability. Tracey is a clinical nurse tutor in children’s nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery in TCD. Tracey’s experiences include teaching and assessing children’s and general nursing skills, lecturing on the CGIDP and Higher Diploma in children’s nursing programmes and engaging in teaching activity using high fidelity simulation. Tracey also supports undergraduate children’s nursing students in the clinical practice setting.

Tracey’s PhD project title is The use of technology in the management of Type 1 Diabetes in the primary school environment: the experiences of Irish school-aged children and their parents.

Contact Tracey at toneill@tcd.ie

Thomas Dinneen

Thomas is investigating genetic variation in a cohort of individuals carrying the NRXN1 deletion copy number variant using whole genome sequencing. NRXN1 is a presynaptic, transmembrane protein important for synapse formation and neuronal signalling. Genomic and animal model studies show that NRXN1 deletion contributes to impaired neurodevelopment and cognitive deficits. It is most associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Schizophrenia, Intellectual Disability and Speech and Language Delay.By investigating genetic variants that are common and specific to individuals with NRXN1 deletion, potential genomic markers can be selected for further investigation.

His project is part of the AIMS-2-TRIALS initiative. This is a pan-European, collaborative effort amongst 48 institutions whose aim is to develop effective treatments for ASD. It is the largest grant ever awarded for a neurodevelopmental disorder and is supported by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, EFPIA, Simons Foundation, Autism Speaks, and Autistica (https://www.eu-aims.eu/).

Contact Thomas at dinneent@tcd.ie

Aileen Hartnett

Aileen is a doctoral researcher in the School of Medicine. Aileen is a qualified biomedical scientist in the disciplines of microbiology, clinical chemistry, immunology, haematology, histology and blood transfusion. Her PhD research will investigate the molecular epidemiology of E.coli associated with neonatal sepsis using whole genome sequencing. A central aim of this research is to measure the invasiveness of isolated cultures to enhance our understanding of neonatal sepsis.

Contact Aileen at hartneai@tcd.ie

Graham King

Graham is a neonatology specialist registrar doctor (RCPI) who has worked in many neonatal and paediatric departments around Ireland. Graham studied both medicine and engineering in university. He has worked clinically for many years in both paediatrics and neonatology and has also managed to combine his clinical work with medical research.

Graham has a keen interest in investigating methods to predict infant neurodevelopmental outcomes, infant brain resilience and infant brain plasticity, and possible future clinical applications of fMRI in neonatology. He is a member of the The Cusack Lab, based at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience.

Learn more about The Cusack Lab

Aideen Lynam

Aideen is a Speech and Language Therapist, who graduated from Trinity’s Clinical Speech and Language Studies undergraduate programme in 2017. She has experience working with people who have a physical disability, and who use augmentative or alternative means of communication.

Aideen has research interests in many areas, including communication difficulties in both children and adults with physical or intellectual disabilities, narrative development and intervention in childhood, and in augmentative and alternative communication.

Aideen is currently conducting her PhD at the School on Linguistics and Communication Sciences at TCD, with a focus on the experiences of siblings of individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication, not only in their day to day lives but also regarding their involvement in Speech and Language Therapy. Aideen hopes to use this information, along with input for other stakeholders, to create a communication partner training intervention tailored to siblings of individuals who use AAC.

Contact Aideen at lynamai@tcd.ie

Lara McCarthy

Lána is a doctoral researcher in the School of Linguistics, Speech and Communication Sciences. She holds a M.A by research from Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). Lána is a registered teacher with the Teaching Council and has over twenty years’ experience developing and delivering family literacy programmes to adults and children.
Lána is funded through the Irish Research Council’s Employment-Based Programme and is employed by Youngballymun as their Language and literacy Coordinator. The focus of her PhD is the multiple perspectives of parents & practitioners on parental engagement strategies employed in the family literacy programmes in an area of socio-economic disadvantage. Lána’s research seeks to develop practitioners’ understanding and awareness of the complex interactions involved in the process of engagement in areas of socio-economic need, and to support their engagement practice: their efforts at recruiting, enrolling, in-session engagement and at home utilisation based on the evidence of what works in engagement.

Contact Lána @ mccartln@tcd.ie

Caitríona O’Brien

Caitríona is a second year PhD candidate in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, funded by a Trinity College Dublin Postgraduate Research Studentship. Her research interests relate to applied linguistics, language acquisition and sociolinguistics, and how they interact with language policy.

Caitríona holds a BA in French and Spanish from Trinity College and an MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition from the University of Oxford. For her Masters research, Caitríona explored the language, culture and identity of Irish CODAs - hearing children who are raised by d/Deaf parents.

Her PhD research at the Centre for Deaf Studies is supervised by Professor Lorraine Leeson. Using Grounded Theory methodology, the study focuses on Irish families who have a d/Deaf child, or d/Deaf children, and their experiences learning and using Irish Sign Language.

Caitríona is currently (August 2018) recruiting participants. If you think your family might like to participate, and you would like more information, she would love to hear from you.

Learn more about Caitríona's current call for participants, and watch her ISL video

Contact Caitríona at obriec40@tcd.ie

Sarah Parker

Sarah is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Prior to undertaking her PhD, Sarah worked for several years as a researcher at the Children’s Research Centre (TCD) and has co-authored a number of publications arising from a range of commissioned research projects including a biographical study of homeless women, a qualitative longitudinal study of homeless youth and a survey-based project that ‘mapped’ homeless services for women in the Dublin Region. Her most recent publication was a book she co-authored with Dr Paula Mayock entitled Living in Limbo – Homeless Young People’s Paths to Housing, which was launched by former President Mary McAleese in May 2017.

Her current research is a mixed methods longitudinal study that was supported by a Government of Ireland Scholarship awarded by the Irish Research Council in 2017. A core goal of the project is to advance understanding of family homelessness and help bridge the gap between theory, research and practice in homelessness prevention, policy planning and service delivery for families experiencing housing exclusion.

Contact Sarah at parkers1@tcd.ie

View Sarah’s publications

Youkun Shen

Youkun Shen is a doctoral researcher in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, where she is carrying out her PhD project on the status quo of the development of inclusive education in Chinese primary schools, particularly involving children with intellectual disabilities and left-behind children.

Prior to her current studies, she received an M.Phil. degree in Comparative Literature from Trinity College Dublin, during which course she explored interdisciplinary research interests on education and social policy. She has former experience working with pupils.

Contact Youkun at sheny@tcd.ie

Amy Stapleton

With the aim of bridging practice and policy, Amy Stapleton is currently undertaking a PhD in TRiCC, under the supervision of Dr. Paula Mayock. The aim of this research to explore the experiences of separated children who have transitioned to adulthood in two European contexts (France and Ireland). This research has been funded by the Irish Research Council under the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Programme.

Coming from a background in international development and policy, with a strong focus on migration and youth issues, in 2012, Amy was awarded a two-year Erasmus Mundus scholarship to study on the MITRA Masters programme in Intercultural Mediation: Identities, Mobilities and Conflicts. Upon qualifying, Amy lectured Intercultural Communication, Migration, Research Methods and English in the University of Lille and the Catholic University of Lille. In parallel, she ran a NGO developing projects in the make-shift camps in Northern France, particularly with young migrants and refugees.

Since 2015, as associate editor of the Student Forum with the international journal AI & Society, and as founder of the a Young Researchers Forum within an international technical committee (TC9.5 Technology, Ethics, International Stability and Culture (TECIS), IFAC), Amy has been working to promote the increased participation of young researchers, particularly from developing countries and marginalised communities, within academia. She is also actively involved promoting young refugee rights and representing refugee organisations at a European level, regularly invited to participate in and develop trainings for international and European youth events.

Contact Amy at amstaple@tcd.ie

Explore Amy’s previous work and research

Sinéad Whiting

Sinéad Whiting is a doctoral researcher in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, She graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1998 with a BA in History and went on to complete a Masters in Social Work. Sinéad been employed as a professional social worker since 2001. This work has spanned the areas of families in crisis, children-in-care, crisis pregnancy and adoption. The knowledge gained from this professional experience has informed her PhD topic and will inform her research as it progresses.

Her research interests relate to identity development for children and young adults who are adopted and who have been in state care. Her PhD research will investigate how being adopted during late teenage years by long-term foster careers impacts identity development, focusing, in particular, on the transition to early adulthood.

Contact Sinéad at whitings@tcd.ie