UCC Futures - Collective Social Futures Festival of Social Science 2025

6 Nov 2025

Happening On 24/11/2025

We have a wonderful line-up of contributors and events taking place over the week Monday 24 November - Friday 28 November.

You are warmly invited to the 3rd Festival of Social Science

hosted by UCC Futures - Collective Social Futures

24 November – 28 November  2025

Please note that some of the events listed below require advance registration.

Monday 24 November, 1.00pm-2.00pm. Venue - CACSSS Seminar Room, O'Rahilly Building, UCC.

Book launch and showcase event

The following were some of the books published by our community in 2025:

• 'Walking as Critical Pedagogy'   Maggie O'Neill, Danielle O'Donovan, John Barimo, Gerard Mullally, Amin Sharifi Isaloo, Kieran Keohane, Tom Spalding, Katharina Swirak, Tom Boland, Ray Griffin. Published 2025 by Routledge.
• 'Climate Change Resilience Across Societal Contexts, Potentials and Visions for the Future.', Editors: Tracey Skillington, Annalisa Setti. Published October 2025 by Palgrave
• ‘Lalenes tel kalbi  / Της καρδκιάς μου οι τουλίπες​ /Kalbimin laleleri  /My heart’s tulips’  (Ministry of Culture, Republic of Cyprus, 2025). Edited by Bahriye Kemal and Giovanna Terzi. This is the first poetry collection in the Sanna language (Cypriot Arabic hybrid of Aramaic, Arabic. Turkish and Greek ) spoken by the Maronite-Cypriots, which is a severely endangered language  (UNESCO) and community. 
• ‘Being a Researcher’ Nollaig Frost. Published in 2025 by McGraw Hill

Mon 24 November, 5.00pm-8.00pm. Venue - The Shtepps, The Hub, UCC.

Evening of Socially Engaged Music and Spoken Word

We are delighted to welcome Citadel, Rosie McCarthy and Oein DeBhairduin. The evening will begin with refreshments at 5:00pm, followed by opening remarks and the programme at 5.30pm.

Register for the evening event here Please note spaces are limited for this event. Register early.

Tuesday 25 November, 9.15am - 5.00pm. Venue - Dora Allman Room, The Hub, UCC.

A full-day symposium showcasing social science research across UCC.

• 9:15am – 9:40am: Opening Remarks
• 9:40am – 10:50am: First Panel: Social Transformations and Inclusions. (Dr Liam Weeks, Dr Kara Hosford, Dr Katharina Swirak) 
• 10:50am -11.10am: Coffee Break
• 11:10am -12:20pm: Second Panel: Climate Justice and Sustainability. (Dr Martin Galvin, Dr Liz Folan O’Connor, Dr Niall Dunphy, Dr Ian Hughes, Bob Grumiau)
• 12:20pm - 1:00pm: Lunch
• 1:00pm – 2:00pm: Keynote address: Professor Kathleen Lynch, UCD. Beyond Human Capitalist Education and Research: Epistemic and Affective Considerations
• 2:00pm - 3:10pm: Third Panel: Researching with marginalised and/or difficult pasts. (Professor Laura Mcatackney, Dr Orla O'Donovan, Dr Gema Kloppe-Santamaría. 
• 3:10pm – 3:30pm: Coffee Break
• 3:30pm – 4.40pm: Fourth Panel: Gender and feminisms: crafting and care. (Dr Kellie Morrissey, Professor Elizabeth Kiely, Dr Angela Veale)
• 4:40pm – 5:00pm: Closing Remarks

Abstracts & Bios available here

Register for the symposium here (Please let us know if you can join us for lunch for numbers for catering.)

Wednesday 26 November, 2:00pm-6:00pm. Venue -  Mary Ryan Seminar Room, The O’Rahilly Building, UCC.

Dementia Lifeworlds Project Symposium - “Conversations towards Death: Making an Advance Care Directive as a Rite of Passage for End of Life Transition”

Speakers: Mary Donnelly (Law, UCC); Shaun O’Keefe (National Consent Advisory Group); Caroline Dalton (Nursing, UCC); Valerie Smith (Hospice Foundation); Peter Kearney (Medicine, UCC). Chair & discussant: Joanna Latimer (York; Visiting Professor UCC).

Register for this symposium here: Dementia Lifeworlds Symposium Registration

For more information on Dementia Lifeworlds, visit About Dementia Lifeworlds

Organised by Professor Kieran Keohane, Department of Sociology and Criminology

Thursday 27 November, 1.00-3.00pm. Venue -  The Shtepps, The Hub, UCC

Women’s Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence and Substance Use

A Seminar hosted by the UCC Department of Sociology and Criminology, and ISS21 Crime and Social Harm (CSH) Research Cluster

Speakers: Dr Sarah Morton (UCD), Dr James Windle (UCC) and Dr Joan Cronin (UCC)

Details available here

All Welcome

Friday 28 November, 12.00pm – 6.00pm. Venue -The Shtepps, The Hub, UCC.

Pedagogical Praxis as a Site of Struggle Against Neoliberal Fascisms - a creative (un)conference event.

A SATLE-funded event in conjunction with the ISS21 Research for Civil Society, Environment & Social Action (REACT) Cluster.

Key contributors: Professor Jennie Stephens, Maynooth University and Dr Diretnan Dikwal-Bot, UCD with Creative inputs from Wise Water Academy and Lydia Cumiskey, BluePrint – MaREI

Organised by:  Michelle Bergin, School of Clinical Therapies; Titas Biswas and Catherine Forde, School of Applied Social Studies and UCC Students Union.

Details and registration available here

Future Events

Watch out for details of more Collective Social Futures associated events in early December including:

• Monday 1 December, “Empty Suffering, and Social Suffering” - A Colloquium. Details here
• Tuesday and Wednesday, 2-3 December, Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization conference “Enduring the Social Pathologies of (Late) Modernity: From Diagnosis towards Metanoia” Details here