Catherine O'Rourke

Dr Catherine O'Rourke is Director of the Transitional Justice Institute and Senior Lecturer in Human Rights and International Law in the School of Law. She researches, teaches and engages in policy work in the fields of gender, conflict, transitional justice and international law. As a scholar, she has a noted record of publications and research grants. Her research has been supported by funders such as the Socio-Legal Studies Association, the Irish government’s Reconciliation Fund and the UK’s Department for International Development. Her scholarship has been recognized with the Ulster University Faculty Distinguished Research Fellowship (2019/20), the Irish Fulbright Scholar Award (2016/17) and the Basil Chubb Prize (2010) for the best PhD in politics produced in an Irish university. Catherine holds an LLB Law with Politics from Queen's University Belfast and MSc Gender from the London School of Economics. Her PhD, from Ulster University Transitional Justice Institute, was subsequently published as a monograph, 'Gender Politics in Transitional Justice' (Routledge, 2013). Her monograph 'Women's Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law' is published with Cambridge University Press in 2020. She works with the Irish and UK governments, the United Nations and several non-governmental organizations in policy work related to her expertise. She is regularly commissioned by intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to conduct expert research, such as UN Women and the Office of the High Commission on Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court Trust Fund for Victims.