Professor Maggie O'Neill

Maggie O’Neill is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at University College Cork (UCC), where she is Director of the UCC Futures: Collective Social Futures Institute. An elected member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences, she is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Until recently, she was Vice President of the European Sociological Association (ESA) and a member of its Executive Committee (2021–2026). Maggie is also a former Chair of ESA Research Network 03, ‘Biographical Perspectives on European Societies’ (2011–2015).

An interdisciplinary scholar, her long research career demonstrates expertise in critical, cultural and feminist theory, as well as ethnographic, participatory, biographical and arts-based research (ethno-mimesis). She has dedicated her career to advancing social justice through research and critical pedagogy, with a specific focus on working with marginalised communities, people on the move/forced migration, race, crime and justice, sex work/sexual exploitation and, since the mid-2000s, borders, bordering and walking borders through arts-based biographical methods.

Her collaborative work with artists, filmmakers and communities translates scholarly research into impactful, policy-oriented praxis, working together to create change.

Before joining UCC in 2018, she served as Professor of Social Science at Durham University and Principal of Ustinov College, and as Chair of Sociology/Criminology at York University, where she co-founded the Migration Network and CrimNet.

At UCC, she is a member of the DSIS project and the ERICA project and contributes to teaching on the MA Women’s Studies and MA Migration, Mobility and Culture, as well as through PhD supervision. Her latest co-authored book is Walking as Critical Pedagogy (Routledge). Maggie was awarded a Research Career Award from UCC in 2026 and was named Engaged Researcher of the Year in 2022.

Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4616-3388

UCC Page: https://research.ucc.ie/en/persons/maggie-oneill/

Links: https://crossborder.ie/guest-contributions/professor-maggie-oneill/

Professor Agnieszka Golczyńska-Grondas

Agnieszka Golczyńska-Grondas – a biographical sociologist and professor in the Department of Sociology of Culture at the Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz. Conducts qualitative research on poverty and social exclusion, as well as the helping professions. Interested in ethical issues, particularly in compassion as the social phenomenon. She is a member of the Sociology Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the 2024–2027 mandate. Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Przegląd Socjologiczny (Sociological Review), a member of the Editorial Board of the Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies and the Editorial Board of the Ministry of Justice’s quarterly journal Probacja. Deputy Chair of the Łódź Section of the Polish Sociological Association; she is a member of the Executive Board of RN03 of the European Sociological Association. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including books on the life experiences, social roles and identities of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Her book, co-authored with Małgorzata Potoczna, Archipelagi wielkomiejskiej biedy (Archipelagos of Urban Poverty: History, Methodology, Key Findings of the Łódź Centre for Poverty Research) (Łódź 2024) was awarded in 2025 as the best academic monograph addressing the issues of poverty and social exclusion in the Professor Elżbieta Tarkowska Prize Competition, and received a special mention in the Ludwik Krzywicki Prize Competition.

https://www.uni.lodz.pl/en/employee/agnieszka-golczynska-grondas

Conach Gibson-Feinblum

Conach Gibson-Feinblum is a PhD researcher with the EUROBORDERWALKS project and an affiliated member of both the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21) and UCC Futures: Collective Social Futures at University College Cork, Ireland. She holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology from University College Cork, where her dissertation offered an ethnographic exploration of how Ukrainian migrants navigate and make sense of life in Ireland through food practices.

Her current doctoral research examines the very meaning, experience, and practice of the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border. In partnership with a cross-border beekeeping club, Conach’s project adopts a more-than-human approach, investigating how both human and non-human actors are shaped by, and contribute to, the shaping of these borderlands. Her research employs an ethno-mimetic approach, integrating ethnographic, biographical, and arts-based methods to advance the field of Critical Border Studies (CBS).

Her doctoral research is supervised by Professor Maggie O’Neill,  Dr. Tracey Skillington, and Dr. Michael McLoughlin.

You can find more information about Conach on the following links:

LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/conach-gibson-84584a1aa

Dr John Perivolaris

Dr John Perivolaris is an independent documentary and fine art photographer who photographs cities, islands, and borders. he holds degrees from the University of London (BA hons) and the University of Cambridge (PhD). In 2006 he became the Board Chairman of the Look 07 International Photography Festival, Manchester (2006 – 08). Since that time, he has worked on a range of commissions, projects, and exhibitions in Europe and North Africa, often dealing with questions of migration, refugee experience, diaspora, and memory. The recipient of a Creative Scotland Open Fund Award in 2025 for his travelling exhibition Isola: An Island Song in Photographs, Poems, and Music, he is the author of twenty self-published photobooks and zines, copies of which have been acquired, among others, by the National Library of Scotland as part of its Photography Collection.

Dr Krešimir Žažar

Krešimir Žažar PhD, associate professor, is since 2008 affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb (Croatia). His scientific interests encompass area of general sociology, epistemology of social sciences and social/sociological theories, social dynamics, and more recently sociology of borders as conducting qualitative research of external EU borders at ‘EUROBORDERWALKS – Walking Borders, Risk and Belonging. Advances in Ethno-mimetic Research in Making and Re-making of three European Borders' project (funded by a Research Ireland Advanced Laureate grant in the time framework 2024-2027). Krešimir Žažar is the PI of the Croatian research team. He has co-published 3 books and around 30 scientific articles and presented at approx. 50 conferences. Since 2019 he has become the member of the board of ESA’s RN29 – Social Theory and the member of steering committee of International Social Theory Consortium. From 2021 he is senior research fellow at Next Society Institute of the Kazimieras Simonavičius University in Vilnius (Lithuania) and in 2026 becomes external associate of Centre for Social Theory at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (US). Since 2025 he is associate editor of “Kybernetes” peer-reviewed scientific journal (ISSN: 0368-492X eISSN: 1758-7883), a member of Presidency of Croatian Sociological Association, as well as the vice-president of Balkan Sociological Forum for the term 2025-2027. Since 2020 he is co-director of Social Systems Theory annual conference series taking part in Dubrovnik and Cambridge. From 2021 to 2024, and 2024 to 2026 he served as a member of the ESA Executive Committee with the key task of chairing Postgraduate Committee.                

E-mail: kzazar@ffzg.unizg.hr

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kresimir-Zazar

Professor Marek Domański

Professor Marek Domański, PhD, is a full professor and head of the Photographic Imaging Studio at the Institute of Photography and Multimedia at the Academy of Art in Łódź. He is an active educator, curator, and researcher, and regularly contributes to academic and professional publications.

As an artist, he primarily works with staged and documentary photography, employing a wide range of techniques, from traditional silver gelatin processes to digital methods. He is also a dedicated advocate of pinhole photography. His exhibitions often feature projects combining photographic and drawing techniques with three-dimensional objects.

His research focuses on ecology and border studies. He is particularly interested in areas shaped by conflict and crisis, examining the consequences of postcolonial and capitalist systems that exploit both the environment and human populations.

He has undertaken numerous collaborative projects with sociologists, in which photographic images have served both as an integral part of the research process and as a means of communicating findings through exhibitions and books.

Dr Aleksandra Sobańska

Aleksandra Sobańska, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher working on the international EuroBorderWalks project and based at the Department of Sociology of Culture, Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Łódź, Poland. Her research interests include interpretive sociology, biographical research, borderland studies, queer studies, and social work (with a focus on homelessness). She is the author of the book (2026) "Polska T. Doświadczenia transpłciowych kobiet w perspektywie socjologicznej" (Poland T: The Experiences of Transgender Women from a Sociological Perspective), based on research conducted as part of her doctoral studies between 2019 and 2024. The book explores the biographical experiences of transgender women in the Polish social context. As part of the EuroBorderWalks project, she currently contributes to research on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Her research in this area focuses on biographical experiences, identity, belonging, and the social meanings of life in borderland spaces shaped by mobility, political change, and diverse personal histories.

More information about Aleksandra can be found on her ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0003-3563-0582

Professor Tomasz Ferenc

Tomasz Ferenc, sociologist, Head of the Department of Sociology of Art, University of Łódź, lecturer at the The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź. Academically interested in visual sociology, borderlands studies and biographically oriented art sociology. Occasionally, he curates exhibitions and photographic projects. In recent years, he has increasingly shifted his focus from photography to film, seeking a form of expression that brings together sociological observation, interviews, sound, and imagery. Recent publications: Morality and Sensation. Notes on the Aesthetic and Non-Aesthetic Experience of Art (2023, with Kamila Biały and Dagna Kidoń), Borderlands. Tensions on the External Borders of the European Union (2019, with Marek Domański). In 2025 he published book about Ukrainian artists and institutions of culture during war (Trwoga powietrzna. Ukraińscy artyści i instytucje kultury w czasie wojny). 

E-mail: tomasz.ferenc@uni.lodz.pl

Orcid profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0748-889X

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tomasz-Ferenc

Dr Vladimir Ivanović

Vladimir Ivanović, PhD, is a post-doctoral researcher employed in the international EuroBorderWalks project and the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. He wrote his PhD thesis on the resilence of Croatian rural residents. His scientific work so far relied mostly on qualitative methods in topics of rural and environmental sociology, gender inequalities and environmental attitudes and movements. His project work focused on working with vulnerable and peripheral populations such as rural residents (SECRURAL – 2020-2024), complex patients and informal care workers during the Health Observatory project (2020), and the Roma minority (2017). Currently he is researching life at the Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina border as a researcher fully employed by the EuroBorderWalks project, funded by Research Ireland. As a key focus in the EuroBorderwalks project he is exploring the intricacies and value of biographical methods in Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina border spaces that are rich with history, trauma, mobilities and constant change.

You can find more information about Vladimir on the following links:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimir-ivanovi%C4%87-24a11b114/

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PpHns5AAAAAJ&hl=en

Dr Michael McLoughlin

Michael McLoughlin is artist, researcher, and lecturer in Fine Art at Limerick School of Art & Design, Technical University of the Shannon, Ireland.

Michael has created soundworks, drawings, videos, and sculptural installations since the mid 1990’s. Much of this artwork has sociological inquiry at its core and frequently examines the mechanisms of social interaction and the infrastructures that support them. His work has been commissioned and purchased by many public and private institutions and collections. Michael first studied Fine Art (Sculpture) in Limerick School of Art & Design (1994) and a PhD in Sociology (UCD, 2022).

He has made site-specific work in Limerick (Cumann: An Audio Map of Limerick, Limerick City Gallery of Art), Drogheda (Cumann, Droichead Arts Centre; Beyond the Pale, Highlanes), and Dublin (Rest Here, UCD Sutherland School of Law; Ocean Wonder, Resort Revelations, Portrane). Michael was the inaugural UCD College of Social Science & Law Artist-in-Residence (2015) and Artist-in-Residence with Dublin City Council 2017/18; Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia (2019); Rūcka, Cēsis, Latvia (2019/20); PRAKSIS Oslo, Norway (2018). He was Artist in Residence in Draíocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown (2017-2019) and presented civic soundworks in Cēsis, Latvia (2021) and Ennistymon (2023).

Michael is working on EUROBORDERWALKS on the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border with Prof. Maggie O’Neill. In 2026, Michael also developing work on two islands on opposite sides of Irelands Atlantic border; Governors Island, New York and at Áras Éanna, the EU’s most westerly Arts Centre, on Inis OÍrr, Aran Islands.

Professor Katarzyna Waniek

Katarzyna Waniek, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Sociology of Culture at the Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Łódź, Poland. She wrote her PhD thesis under the supervision of Prof. Fritz Schütte at Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany. She then worked as a research assistant on the EU FP7 'EUROIDENTITIES' project, and as a researcher on 'The Experience of the Process of Transformation in Poland: Sociological Comparative Analysis Based on a Biographical Perspective', and is currently working on 'Post-Transformation in the Perspective of Biographical Experiences of People Born Between 1980 and 2005'. A Sociological Analysis' projects, which are financed by the NCN programme. Dr Waniek was awarded her PhD by Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. She has many years of experience conducting and analysing autobiographical narrative interviews. Her research interests include biographical methods, European identity, collective memory, immigration, intercultural communication, liaison work, transformation, suffering, and stigmatisation. She has published a book in Polish entitled Escape as a Reason Behind the Mobility of Europeans: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Social Processes in Autobiographical Narratives' (2020), and she co-authored a manual for autobiographical narrative interviews with Kaja Kaźmierska

Dr Erika Herrera Rosales

Erika Herrera Rosales is a postdoctoral researcher in the Sociology and Criminology Department at University College Cork. Her research focuses on border practices, transnational migration and qualitative methodologies. Her doctoral thesis explored the power asymmetries between non-state actors and Central American immigrants at the US-Mexico border. She obtained her PhD in Sociology from the University of Warwick and served as a Teaching Fellow at the same university, lecturing on issues of gender, racism, development and criminology.

In 2025, she published her book: “Ambivalent Humanitarianism and Migration Control: Colonial Legacies and the Experiences of Migrants in Mexico” and was nominated for the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize (2026). It explored the role of international agencies, bordering practices and everyday resistances from postcolonial/decolonial perspectives. She also received a postdoctoral research grant (SLAS) to examine further state violence, family separation and migrant detention in Latin America. Currently, as part of the EuroBorderWalks project, she contributes to the analysis of the Irish border and co-develops the research impact outputs, especially the educational curriculum and policy brief. 

More information about Erika can be found on the following links:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-herros/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NxZ51lcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao