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Pat O’Connor is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Limerick, and Visiting Professor, Geary Institute, University College Dublin. She was the first woman full Professor of Sociology in Ireland; and the first woman to be a full Professor in any discipline and faculty Dean in the University of Limerick. A feminist and a sociologist, she was a member of the   HEA National Review on Gender Equality in Irish Higher Educational Institutions (2016). In addition to this memoir, she has published 120 academic publications including eight books, 80 refereed journal articles and more than 30 book chapters.

 

Pat  O’Connor is an academic insider who is an engaging, humorous and brutally honest speaker. Her memoir: ‘ A ‘proper’ woman? One woman’s story of success and failure in academia’ (Peter Lang, 2024) was reviewed in the   Irish Times and   Sunday Independent, with an edited extract published in   the UK Times Higher Education and a book launch at Kings College, London. A full professor and former Dean, she has published widely on higher education, its gendered processes and the gendered aspects of women’s lives over a 46-year academic career as she tried to create change in academia, organisationally, nationally and internationally

 

Pat was the first woman full Professor of Sociology in Ireland; and the first woman to be a full Professor in any discipline and faculty Dean in the University of Limerick. A feminist and a sociologist, she was a member of the   HEA National Review on Gender Equality in Irish Higher Educational Institutions (2016). In addition to this memoir, she has published 120 academic publications including eight books, 80 refereed journal articles and more than 30 book chapters.

This event was hosted by the ISS21 Genders, Sexualities & Families research cluster and the MA Women’s Studies in association with UCC Futures – Collective Social Futures. Professor Maggie O'Neill provided opening remarks, while Dr. Evelien Geerts chaired the event.