Dr Kenneth Burns, Dr Siobhan O'Sullivan and Professor Alastair Christie of the School of Applied Social Studies have received the European Social Work Research Association's 'outstanding publication award'. The award was received for a research article published in the British Journal of Social Work. This highly prestigious award is presented once a year by ESWRA for a research paper of outstanding quality. The unanimous decision by the selection committee recognised the uniqueness of the study design, impact and the quality of the research undertaken. You can read more about the paper on the journal's webpage: https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjsw/bcz083/5523053?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Full reference:

Kenneth Burns, Alastair Christie and Siobhan O'Sullivan (2019) 'Findings From a Longitudinal Qualitative Study Of Child Protection Social Workers' Retention: Job Embeddedness, Professional Confidence and Staying Narratives'. British Journal of Social Work, advance internet edition.

Professor Fred Powell delivered the keynote speech at the National Volunteering Network Conference, which took place in Athlone from 11-12 February 2020.  The theme of the conference was Sharing Knowledge: Strengthening the Future of Volunteering in Ireland.

Professor Powell's speech was entitled Volunteering and Active Citizenship: Past, Present and Future.

The official launch of the School of Applied Social Studies / ACE UCC Certificate in Social Farming Practice took place in Caherciveen, Co. Kerry on Friday 1st November 2019.

Human distress has almost exclusively been understood and responded to as either a biological disorder or a psychological deficit. This has led to the development of powerful structures, 'mental health systems', that have dominated thinking and practice around mental health and been controlled by the psychiatric profession. Despite widespread recognition that such systems are often ineffective and can even be harmful, the bio-medical ethos, with its focus on 'mental illness' and primary use of drug treatments, continues to prevail in mental health practices.

This book showcases user-centred, context-informed, non-medical ways of helping people experiencing distress. The first section of the book includes projects located inside mainstream services that seek to influence change from within; including the education of future generations of practitioners. The second section describes projects that have been established outside mainstream structures and services, giving themselves the freedom to be truly radical in their approaches and to influence by example. In a final section, the book looks at work aiming to challenge the wider societal influences that maintain the status quo and perpetuate factors that lead to mental distress.

The School of Applied Social Studies would like to congratulate all our students who graduated this week. 

13 AND 14 NOVEMBER 2019

BROOKFIELD HEALTH SCIENCES COMPLEX, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, IRELAND

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

Booking: Email Harry Gijbels at h.gijbels@ucc.ie and make sure you give your name, and indicate the day(s) you wish to attend (either Wednesday 13 November, Thursday 14 November, 2019 or both days). Booking will be confirmed by return email. Please bring the booking confirmation slip with you to the conference registration desk on the day(s) you are attending.

Congratulations to our colleague, Professor Fred Powell, whose book The Politics of Social Work has just been published in Chinese.

The Síreacht book series features in The Irish Times today.  Published by Cork University Press, the books in the series are short, topical and provocative texts that confront controversial issues in contemporary society but do so with a distinctively Irish focus.

Edited by Dr Orla O'Donovan, Dr Fiona Dukelow and Dr Rosie R Meade from the School of Applied Social Studies, and Dr Heather Laird from the School of English, UCC, there are four titles already in bookshops and others on the way.

The editors were keen to ensure that the books are attractive to a wide readership. Therefore, authors address important and controversial topics but write accessibly, and they "take sides" in a way that invites the curiosity of the reader.

The Department of Justice & Equality is holding a competition for the purpose of creating a Locum Probation Officer panel to fill short term priority vacancies in Cork (full-time).

Closing date: 17 April 2019.

See http://www.probation.ie/EN/PB//WebPages/WP19000005 for further details.

Contact Name for this competition: Ms Jennifer O'Riordan, Probation Service, St Nicholas Church, Cove St., Cork.  Email psrecruit@probation.ie /Tel. 021-4836700.

19 March 2019, 11am - 5.30pm, CACSSS Seminar Room ORB G27 & Film and Screen Media Centre in Kane Building B10 (Basement)

Speakers:

• Joanna Sofaer, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton
• Margaret Werry, Theatre Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota
• Anna Furse, Department of Theatre and Performance, Goldsmiths University of London
• Oonagh Kearney, Independent Film-maker

This transdisciplinary workshop, which will include a screening of Oonagh Kearney's award winning film Five Letters to the Stanger who will Dissect my Brain, is the fourth in the series of workshops in the project Living Well with the Dead in Contemporary Ireland (see https://livingwithdead.wixsite.com/website). This project aims to find new ways of thinking about, researching and responding to contemporary public disquiet in Ireland about uncared-for dead bodies.

School of Applied Social Studies and Doctor of Social Science Seminar

New Directions and Reflections for Refugee Related Research

Professor Alice Bloch (University of Manchester)

7^th February 2019

2.00-3.00pm, CACSSS Seminar Room, G27 O'Rahilly Building

A successful CPD event on Social Media and Young People was held on the 29^th November 2018 in the Digital Humanities Space in UCC.  The event, which was organised by Micheál O'hAodáin, Catherine Forde and Dave O'Donovan from the School of Applied Social Studies, covered young people's use of social media and digital citizenship, the role of social media in influencing and generating social change, and policy and practice on young people's social media usage.

Speakers were Dr Debbie Ging, Associate Professor in the School of Communications at Dublin City University (DCU); Kathy O'Hare, radio documentary maker, researcher and youth worker and PhD candidate in Digital Humanities in UCC; and Fergal Harrington, specialist classroom teacher in digital technology and PhD candidate in the School of Education in UCC.  20 people attended the event; these included youth workers and other professionals working with young people.

Professor Fred Powell and Dr Margaret Scanlon from the School of Applied Social Studies were part of a research team whose report was launched in UCC last week.

The report Making a Difference: A Research Report on Student Volunteering in UCC shows that 46% of UCC students volunteered with local community organisations, clubs and campus groups in the last six months.

Over 2,000 students were surveyed from March to June 2018.  Only 9% of respondents said that they had never volunteered, with a huge 85% saying they aimed to volunteer after college.

The research also shows that 32% of UCC's student volunteers contribute over 10 hours a month to volunteering.

Applied Social Studies staff were involved in an Irish Research Council-funded project A Social and Economic Analysis of Legal Services (SEALS) used by Tusla.  Taking a multidisciplinary perspective, this project explored Tusla's engagement with legal services, particularly in the contexts of child protection and welfare, and educational welfare services. The project examined a range of issues relating to why and in what contexts Tusla staff use legal services. The project undertook a review of policy and practice in comparator countries, with a view to identifying best practice. An econometric analysis was undertaken using data obtained from Tusla relating to its legal expenditure. A national survey of child protection and welfare social workers and educational welfare professionals was carried out.  This was followed by group and individual interviews with social workers and solicitors. The project set out, not only to produce an evidence-base to support policy making and practice, but also to inform the development of social work education, particularly in relation to legal matters.

During a recent visit to UCC, Martyn Hammersley, Emeritus Professor of Educational and Social Research at The Open University, presented two seminars entitled Ethnography  and What is Research Integrity?  The seminars were jointly organised by the School of Applied Social Studies and the School of Education. 

These lectures are now availabe to view online: 

• Ethnography
• What is Research Integrity?

Date: Thursday, 29th November 2018

Time: 10.15am - 2.00pm

Venue: CACSSS Seminar Room, O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork.

Speakers:

• Dr Mary Murphy, Department of Sociology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth;
• Dr Aodh Quinlivan, Department of Government, University College Cork;
• Aiden Lloyd, Chair of the Rights Platform and member of South Dublin PPN Secretariat and LCDC;
• Dr Catherine Forde, School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork.

The School of Applied Social Studies would like to extend warm wishes to our students who graduated in October 2018 - well done on all your hard work!

Professor Carol Bacchi, Department of Politics, University of Adelaide, delivered a lecture and workshop in UCC on 11 October 2018.  The title of the lecture was Introducing the 'What's the Problem Represented to be?' (WPR Approach): Bringing new questions to policy analysis.

Samhain 2018

Wednesday, 31 October 9am to 1pm

CACSSS Seminar Room ORB (O'Rahilly Building) G27

This second workshop in the series Living Well with the Dead in Contemporary Ireland will begin by returning to some of the themes explored in the September workshop, Social Imaginaries of the Dead, and especially the paper presented by Margrit Shildrick (University of Stockholm). In this paper, (available at https://livingwithdead.wixsite.com/website), Margrit proposes a response informed by Derridean hauntological ethics to the current public disquiet in Ireland about the dead from so-called Mother and Baby Homes, who are not resting in peace. 

Critical Perspectives On and Beyond 'Recovery': Ten Years On

14 and 15 November 2018

Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, University College Cork

School of Nursing and Midwifery and School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Ireland, with Critical Voices Network Ireland

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

The first in a series of workshops in the project Living Well with the Dead in Contemporary Ireland will be held in UCC this month.  The workshop will take place on Wednesday, 19 September 2018, in the CACSSS Seminar Room, ORB G27, O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork.

This day-long workshop will explore how un/cared-for dead bodies have been variously conceptualised and researched in the medical humanities and social sciences, focusing on forensic archaeology, cultural history, militant anthropology and feminist and post-humanist social theory.  Particular emphasis will be placed on explanation and discussion of Laqueur's (2015) concept of 'the work of the dead' and Derrida's (1993) 'hauntology' and ethical project of 'learning to live with ghosts'.

This book investigates the often-fragmented nature of Ulster Nationalist / Republican / Roman Catholic politics, culture and identity. It offers a companion publication to The Contested Identities of Ulster Protestants (2015). Historically the Catholic community of Ulster are regarded as a unified and coherent group, sharing cultural and political aspirations. However, the volume explores communities of many variants and strands, belying the notion of an easy, homogenous bloc in terms of identity, political aspirations, voting preferences, and cultural identity. These include historical differences within constitutional nationalism and Republicanism, gender politics, partition, perceptions of this community from The Republic of Ireland, and more. 

Late applications will be accepted during August for this part-time Masters in Voluntary and Community Sector Management from applicants with at least a 2:2 undergraduate degree and an interest in working in the voluntary and community or public sectors. 

The programme, which has been successfully running since 2008, is taught one day a week (Wednesdays, 10.00am-4.30pm) over two years with contributions from seven different departments across UCC (Applied Social Studies, Law, Management, Business Information Systems, Economics, Government, Food Business and Development).  Fees are €3,080 per year.

Professor Fred Powell is this year's recipient of the Richard Titmuss Book Award, which was presented at the Annual Social Policy Association (SPA) Conference 2018 in York. 

Síreacht: Longings for another Ireland is a thought-provoking new book series, with a UCC editorial team at the helm, which will force readers to reimagine Ireland, from the law to interpersonal relationships.