Dr Johanne Devlin Trew

Overview

Dr Johanne  Devlin Trew has been a lecturer in the School of Criminology, Politics & Social Policy since October 2010, having transferred from the School of English & History where she was researching and teaching Irish history and politics. Prior to joining Ulster University, she held research and teaching posts at Queen's University Belfast, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and Concordia University, Montreal. Since 2004, she has also been a research associate on several joint projects with the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park.

Dr Devlin Trew completed her education in Ireland and Canada, including: PhD, University of Limerick; MA, McGill University, Montreal; MLIS (Information Science), University of Western Ontario; B. Mus., University of Ottawa; and PG CHEP, Ulster University.

Her principal research is in two key areas: migration/diaspora and memory studies, but she also maintains a strong interest in Canadian and Québec studies and is a fluent French-speaker. She also has a keen interest in Irish, British and Canadian history and is committed to employing historical approaches and narrative methodologies in social policy.

Dr Devlin Trew’s research findings have been published in key international journals including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Immigrants & Minorities and she has authored two monographs: Place, Culture and Community(CSP, 2009), and Leaving the North: Migration and Memory, Northern Ireland, 1921-2011 (Liverpool UP, 2013; pbk 2016). Her next book, Rethinking the Irish Diaspora, co-edited with Dr Michael Pierse, is forthcoming with Palgrave Macmillan in 2017.

She has been the recipient of several research grants as principal researcher and co-investigator, including five awards from the AHRC (2006-2016) representing altogether £1 million in funding. With a background in IT, Dr Devlin Trew has also been involved in the creation and design of several digital humanities projects, such as the AHRC-funded digital resource, Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration and is always on the lookout for new technology applications for research. She has recently been appointed to the AHRC Peer Review College for a 4-year term beginning January 2017.

Dr Devlin Trew has a strong record of community engagement and is frequently an invited guest speaker/facilitator for local community groups. Since 2014, she has been a co-investigator for the AHRC funded Living Legacies 1914-18 Engagement Centre, where she has led community engagement activities in oral history, creative writing and drama in relation to the on-going centenary commemorations of the First World War; work which will continue through to the end of 2019. She is also currently on the steering committee for the Coiste na nLarchimi (Republican ex-prisoners) Heritage Lottery funded project: Irish Republican Prison Craft: Making Memory and Legacy.