Carol Ballantine

I am an intersectional and interdisciplinary feminist social scientist, interested in gender, sexualities, and violence. My research is critical, qualitative and creative wherever possible.

I received my PhD (2020) from the School of Global Women’s Studies in the University of Galway, focusing on narratives of violence in the lives of African women living in Ireland. I have an ongoing interest in the individual and collective construction of narrative identities in the aftermath of violence, and popular representations of sexual and gender based violence. My academic career is enhanced by my work before and since my PhD in the international development sector, where I have worked as a practitioner, researcher and advisor with a focus on public policy related to gender, human rights and refugee issues. 

At UL, I work as the postdoctoral researcher on a project funded by the Higher Education Authority, exploring experiences of reporting (and not reporting) sexual and gender-based violence and harassment in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland.

I am interested in intersectional feminist theorising about violence; narrative constructions of victims and survivors; and racialised sexual and gender based violence.

Following on from my involvement in Beyond Opposition, an ERC research project led by Professor Kath Browne, I am interested in the changing transnational patterns of sexual exclusions in the twenty-first century, and the impacts of contemporary social polarisations related to gender and sexuality. 

My approach to research is always qualitative, trauma-informed and creative, and I am interested in the possibilities of arts and creativity to develop alternative and nuanced thinking in my research topics.