Awards

Outstanding Research Collaboration Award

Professor Amanda Haynes, Department of Sociology and Professor Jennifer Schweppe, School of Law, have received the top award at a ceremony which recognises staff at all University levels who have made outstanding contributions in the excellence and impact of their research beyond academia.

The winners, who are co-directors of the European Centre for the Study of Hate, have led a pioneering interdisciplinary collaboration, combining legal and sociological research to address hate crime in Ireland, supporting the development and eventual enactment of the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024, Ireland’s first dedicated hate crime legislation.

Irish Travellers Access to Justice: Impact Award

Launched in 2022, and funded by the COALESE programme through the Irish HumanRights and Equality Commission and the Irish Research Council,the Irish Travellers’Access to Justice project documents Travellers’ perceptions of, and experiences with,the criminal justice process, specifically policing and the courts system. The researchteam spoke with 1 in every 60 adult Travellers in Ireland for the study, which wasdescribed by the Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commissionas “ethically grounded in human rights principles of participation”, “a landmark studyin both its conduct and findings”, and “an empirical leap in delivering an authoritativeanalysis and evidence-based recommendations for measures to tackle theinstitutional racism in the criminal justice system towards Travellers.”​

In recognition of their work, Dr Sindy Joyce, Professor Amanda Haynes, and ProfessorJennifer Schweppe, were awarded the Interdisciplinary Arts, Humanities and SocialSciences Research Output Award at the recent President’s Research Excellence and Impact Awards in 2023.​

For more about the project, see www.ul.ie/ecsh/itaj