The Team

Prof. Aoife O’DonoghueProfessor in Law, Durham University (E-Mail | @aoifemod)
Dr. Ben T.C. WarwickLecturer in Law, Birmingham University (E-Mail | @btcwarwick)
Mr. Colin R.G. Murray, Reader in Law, Newcastle University (E-Mail | @mastermanmurray / @performidentity)
Dr. Sylvia de Mars, Senior Lecturer in Law, Newcastle University (E-Mail | @sylviademars)
Dr. Megan Armstrong, Research Associate, Liverpool John Moores University (E-mail )
Dr. Clare Rice, Research Associate, Newcastle University (E-mail | @Clare_Rice_ / @performidentity)

We work on Northern Ireland and Ireland in the context of huge change in both the UK’s constitutional structures and its place in the world. Combining knowledge of UK & Irish Constitutional Law, EU and International Law, Human rights, Trade & WTO law the project brings specific insights into how Northern Ireland’s role in the UK and its relationship with Ireland and the EU will evolve in the coming years.

Our current project is called Performing Identities: Post-Brexit Northern Ireland and the reshaping of 21st-Century Governance. It is funded by an ESRC Governance after Brexit award and aims to explore some of the effects that Brexit will have in Northern Ireland through the following research questions:

  • What novel performances of identity will be required by Northern Ireland’s inhabitants post Brexit?
  • How will these new arrangements expose the shifting nature of 21st-century governance?
  • How do Northern Ireland’s inhabitants experience these fundamental adaptations to citizenship and governance?
  • Can Northern Ireland’s inhabitants shape this citizenship/governance settlement through their identity performances?

The work will involve a combination of desk-based and archival work, as well as a very exciting Participant Access methodology, whereby we will employ a critical and feminist framework using participant researchers to co-produce materials with us and aid us in assessing how identity performance interacts with citizenship law. The project partners with a number of other actors, including the Roots and Wings creative collective in Newcastle upon Tyne and the Human Rights Consortium in Belfast.

Our previous project was called Constitutional Conundrums: Northern Ireland, the EU, and Human Rights. It was funded by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, and resulted in four years (2015-2019) of analysis of critical questions regarding the future of Northern Ireland post-Brexit and Human Rights reform. You can find all the work we produced under the Constitutional Conundrums heading here.