Global Womens Studies - Structured

Admission to a research degree in Women's Studies is based on a proposal from the applicant following discussion with the potential supervisor. Candidates for the PhD would usually be expected to hold a Master's degree in a cognate field. Applicants holding equivalent qualifications and/or relevant experience will also be considered.



As part of the doctoral training available on the Structured PhD programme, students avail themselves of a range of interdisciplinary taught modules. The wide menu of available options include modules that:



-are discipline-specific in that they augment the student’s existing knowledge in their specialist area, e.g., gender perspectives on social science research

-are dissertation-specific in that they supply core skills which are essential to completion of the research project e.g. qualitative and quantitative research methods

-acknowledge a student’s professional development, e.g., presentation of a paper at an international conference

-enhance a student’s employability through generic training, e.g., careers workshops, computer literacy



Each student will be assigned a primary Supervisor(s) and a Graduate Research Committee made up of experienced researchers to plan their programme of study and to provide on-going support to their research.

Candidates should have obtained an honours degree (Second Class Honours, Grade 1 [or equivalent international qualification ] minimum).

Applications are made online via the NUI Galway Postgraduate Applications System.

Areas of interest

Dr. Niamh Reilly

The gender dimensions of human rights as a legal, ethical and political paradigm. This includes examination of the role of human rights in transnational and local feminisms and of competing women's human rights concerns in multicultural contexts. Her current research is concerned with the interplay of religion and women's human rights.


Dr. Anne Byrne

Gender, identity, inequality, stigma, rurality, biographical-narrative qualitative research methodologies and historical sociology


Ms. Mary Clancy

Constructions and interpretations of public citizenship during periods of imperial distress, evolving agrarian, poor law and local democracy and post-women's suffrage and post-revolutionary contexts, with attention to biographical narratives and the West of Ireland.


Dr. Nata Duvvury

Gender, livelihoods, governance and social mobilisation, gender and development (with particular emphasis on gender inequality), domestic violence, rights-based approached to development, and civil society participation and accountability.


Dr. Kate Kenny

Identity and power in contemporary workplaces, and the use of post-structuralist feminist theory to explore these phenomena; gender and ethnicity, and how these relate to capitalist flows of power.


Dr. Vesna Malesevic

Religion and religious organisations, especially the Catholic Church, sexuality and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans-gendered) issues, civil society, Irish society and Central and Eastern Europe.