The NUIM Department of
Sociology, one of CEESA's two parent departments, will be hosting Dr Cristina Flesher
Fominaya for two years from autumn 2013. Dr Flesher Fominaya has been awarded
the prestigious Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for a research project entitled ‘Contentious
politics in an age of austerity: a comparative study of anti-austerity protests
in Spain and Ireland’, working with Prof. Seán Ó Riain, who
is also working on a five year research project comparing change in European capitalisms and workplaces.
is also working on a five year research project comparing change in European capitalisms and workplaces.
The two-year
project will research Irish and Spanish social movements to explain their
emergence, development and dynamics and the differences between their responses
to austerity in the two countries. The question of why the Irish response has
not been comparable to the levels of protest and resistance seen in Spain,
Greece or Iceland has been widely discussed on an anecdotal basis; this project
represents the first systematic attempt to answer it as a piece of public
sociology.
Dr Flesher Fominaya is founding co-chair of the Council for European
Studies’ social movements research network, founding co-editor of the social
movements journal Interface and gave the keynote address at the 2011 Maynooth conference on social movements. She has published widely on social movements, gender, culture and
political violence and has two books forthcoming: Social movements and globalization: challenges, possibilities and
dynamics (Palgrave MacMillan) and Understanding
European movements: new social movements, global justice struggles,
anti-austerity protests (Routledge, co-edited with Laurence Cox). She
brings a particular expertise in comparative European research and the study of
autonomous (non-institutional) social movements to this project.
The Dept of Sociology at NUI Maynooth is
Ireland's leading centre of excellence in social movement studies. It has several
members of staff and a number of PhD students working in the area; a research
cluster in Critical Political Thought, Activism and Alternative Futures; a
dedicated MA in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism (co-hosted with Adult and Community Education); and
undergraduate modules in the field. The department is the base for the journal Interface,
now in its ninth issue; hosted Ireland's first social movements research
conference since 1998 as well as a long-running series of research seminars and
workshops in the area; and has been awarded an Irish Research Council
collaborative grant (€100,000) as well as the Marie Curie scholarship for
social movement research projects.
During the project Cristina will work closely with other researchers and students, including participants on the CEESA course, as well as engaging more widely with movement practitioners. We look forward to it!