Paul Connolly is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Ulster University. He is also Professor of Education and internationally known for his research on early childhood, diversity and inclusion and is currently Director of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Early Childhood Development for Peacebuilding (‘LINKS’). He has an extensive track record of research and publications spanning over 25 years and has been successful in attracting over £18.5m of external grants from over 60 projects during his career to date. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, was a member of the REF2014 Sub-Panel on Education and served for nine years on the ESRC Grants Assessment Panel.

Paul began his academic career at Ulster University as a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Sociology (1994 – 2003) before then joining Queen’s University Belfast as Reader and then Professor of Education (2003 – 2019). During his time at Queen’s, Paul has been Head of the School of Education, Dean of Research for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Interim Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise. Most recently, Paul has been Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster University (2020 - 2022).