Prof. Pat O'Connor

Biography

Professor Pat O'Connor is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Limerick and Visiting Professor, Geary Institute, University College Dublin. Education: Ph.D University of London; M.Soc Sc (1st) UCD; B.Soc Sc (1st) UCD. Pat O'Connor's research interests currently revolve around gender equality in higher education: with a particular focus on leadership and management,organisational culture, constructions of excellence, early careers, micropolitics and STEM. Her roughly 120 publications include eight books and over 80 peer reviewed refereed journal articles (see Researchgate). A sociologist and feminist, she was the first woman to be appointed at (full) professorial level in the University of Limerick in 1997; and the first woman Faculty Dean there in 2000 and the first female professor of sociology in Ireland. She has been active in promoting gender equality at an organisational and national level and was a member of the National Review on Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEA, 2016). A member of WHEM (Women in Higher Education Management Network) she has been involved in a number of international research consortia: including FESTA, an EU funded project (2012-17). She has held visiting professorships at the Universities of London; Aveiro; Linkoping; Deakin and Melbourne. A research evaluator for the European Science Foundation; for Nordic Spaces; for the Austrian Science Foundation etc, she was Chair of the International Research Panel for Linnaeus funding. She has been on the Advisory Boards of a number of international research projects including TARGET, CHANGE and RESET. She has edited/co-edited a number of Special Issues incl on Gender and Leadership (2018) and Creating Change: Gender, Leadership and Higher Education (2020). In the early part of her career, Pat O'Connor's research interests focused on women's worlds: their attitudes to familial roles and their close ties (friendships; mother/daughter; sister/sister and marital pleasure). Her publications from this period include Friendships Between Women (2002/1992: Harvester Wheatsheaf (UK) Guilford (US)): nominated by Choice in the US as an Outstanding academic book. Her research interests later returned to these areas: focusing on the gendering of children and young people's lives. Irish Children and Teenagers in a Changing World (2008) reflects this focus. In the 1990s, she became concerned with organisational and institutional gendered power: in semi-state structures, in higher education, in the family and in the wider society. Emerging Voices: Women in Contemporary Irish Society (1998/1999) reflects the beginning of these interests. They are also reflected in her more recent focus on higher education, in Management and Gender in Higher Education (2014); Gendered Success in Higher Education: Global Perspectives (2017); Gender, Power and Higher Education in a Globalised World (2021) and Creating a Totally Inclusive University (2023) as well as in an extensive range of refereed journal articles and chapters (see Reseachgate: Pat O'Connor, University of Limerick). Her next book is a memoir: A 'Proper' Woman: One woman's story of success and failure in Academia, to be published by Peter Lang.