Professor Máiréad Nic Craith BEd, BA, MA, PhD, MRIA

Chair of European Culture and Society

School of Sociology and Applied Social Sciences

University of Ulster

Magee campus

Northland Road

BT48 7JL

Northern Ireland

Ph: 028 7167 5519

Email: m.niccraith@ulster.ac.uk

 

Since her initial appointment to UU in 2001, Máiréad has maintained an on-going research interest in heritage as a window on the past. More recently she has been working on the intersection between heritage and human rights. Last year she co-edited a volume on Cultural Diversity, Heritage and Human Rights: Intersections in Theory and Practice, with Routledge (2010). Contributors include a number of international academics working on the theme of heritage and human rights, which is a research field she would like to develop further, particularly in a Northern Irish context. Since the publication of this book, she has been involved as a consultant with the United Nations in Geneva on the compilation of a report by Farida Shaheedon, the independent expert in the field of cultural rights, on access to heritage as a human right. The final report  was presented to the General Assembly in March.

Máiréad has maintained a strong research interest in heritage, culture and Identity politics in Northern Ireland. Her publications in the field include Plural Identities: Singular Narratives – the Case of Northern Ireland, Berghahn (Co-winner of 2004 Ratcliff Research Prize) and Culture and Identity Politics in Northern Ireland, Palgrave Macmillan. She is especially interested in tensions between the local and the global, with particular reference to immigration. Along with Rachel Naylor, Elly Odhiambo and Moyo Khanyisela, she conducted a Community Relations funded project on Africans in the North West. A number of her PhD students have published monographs and essays on immigrants here.

Máiréad has also been working on international legislation dealing with issues of culture and heritage - with issues such as the Council of Europe's Charter for Regional and Minority Languages as well as UNESCO's Charter for Intangible Heritage. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.