I am a Senior Lecturer in Modern Irish Social History and Director of the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland (CHOMI) at Ulster University

My research interests include women's history, history of sexuality and history of medicine in Ireland/Northern Ireland and I have published widely in these areas.  I have delivered talks on my research in Ireland, the UK and internationally and I was the Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies JNU New Delhi in 2018.  I was awarded a Distinguished Research Fellowship by Ulster University in 2016 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2018.  

I am presently working on an AHRC funded project, with Dr Elaine Farrell (QUB), 'Bad Bridget: Criminal and Deviant Irish Women in North America, 1838-1918'.  We have produced a five part podcast series on the project which is available here.  I was the co-author with Professor Sean O'Connell (QUB) of a  Department of Health commissioned report on Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland. 

In January 2022 I will begin work on a new AHRC funded project, Queer Northern Ireland: Sexuality before Liberation with Dr Tom Hulme (QUB).  

I am a member of the Library and Heritage Committee for the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland, a Stakeholder and User Forum member of Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, committee member of the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies and member of the Irish Humanities Alliance Medical Humanities Working Group.  I am currently an editorial board member for Irish Historical Studies and a have previously been the Book Reviews Editor for the  Women's History Association of Ireland. I am a member of the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement Advisory Group for History, 2021 and External Examiner on the UG History programmes at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Strathclyde.