Hello from our new co-editor Cadhla O’Sullivan

Hello, my name is Cadhla O’Sullivan, and I am excited to receive the opportunity to join RRO as an editor. I am a research fellow at the Children’s Policy Centre, based at The Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

In December 2023, I was awarded my doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland where I conducted qualitative, participatory research with children and youth in Colombia for peace. Prior to this, I completed a master’s degree with the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast, with a focus on conducting genuinely rights-based research with children and young people.  This led me to receive a studentship to conduct my PhD studies with the LINKS team based between Queen’s University in Belfast and Lancaster University in the UK.

My research interests involve conducting participatory, rights-based research with children all of ages but particularly within the middle childhood period (6-12 years). My research revolves around issues of child justice. My current research with the Children’s Policy Centre focuses on child poverty and wellbeing, looking at the structural barriers that perpetuate cycles of entrenched disadvantage. Within this research project, my colleagues and I have worked specifically with a group of children from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds.  My past research has involved addressing childhood disadvantage in the post-conflict environment of Colombia, using creative arts-based methods in educational settings for peace.  

I have undertaken research with children of all ages from 4-18 years across the geographical contexts of Ireland, the UK, Colombia and now Australia.