Vicky Conway

Biography

Dr Vicky Conway joined the School of Law and Governance in DCU in July 2015, having previously held positions at the University of Kent, Queen's University Belfast, the University of Limerick and the University of Leeds. Vicky is a graduate of UCC (BCL 2001, LLM 2002), the University of Edinburgh (MSSc Criminology 2003) and Queen's University Belfast (PhD 2008, PGCert Higher Education 2010). Vicky is currently Chair of the BCL Programme and a committed socio-legal scholar who believes that academic research should be innovative and challenge and aim to directly inform legislative and policy developments. Vicky is a leading researcher on policing in Ireland with an emphasis on the intersection between social change, police culture and police accountability. She has conducted innovative qualitative research in this area, funded by the British Academy, which has resulted in two two monographs on policing in Ireland (The Thick Blue Wall: The Morris Tribunal and Police Accountability in the Republic of Ireland and Policing Twentieth Century Ireland: A History of an Garda Síochána). Her expertise in this area has been recognised through Vicky's appointment by the Government in December 2015 to the newly created Policing Authority which is tasked with oversight of an Garda Síochána, Ireland's police service.Area of her research is the criminalisation of abortion law. She was part of group commissioned to develop legislation that might be adopted in Ireland post-reform of the constitutional position on abortion and has subsequently advised numerous political parties, NGOs, student groups and activist organisations on the legal aspects of repeal the 8th. In the coming year she will undertake research with the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland to consider how Irish law concerning abortion has contributed to the trauma of rape survivors.

Research Interest

Crime Law, Social Change, police governance and accountability.