Laurence Cox

Biography

In my main field of social movement studies, I co-founded the practitioner-oriented journal Interface; co-founded the Council for European Studies’ social movements research network; and organised Ireland’s first conference on social movements since 1998. In 2016-17 I am also a Directeur d’études associé (visiting scholar) at the Collège d’études mondiales / Fondation maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris. I have been keynote, plenary or invited speaker at the European University Institute (COSMOS), CUNY Graduate Center, Ruskin College Oxford, the British Sociological Association and the Collège d’Etudes Mondiales; the universities of Gothenburg (Forum for Civil Society and Social Movement Research), Milano-Bicocca, Oslo, Bergen, Nottingham (Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice), Queens University Belfast and University College Dublin as well as for the Reykjavik Academy, the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Popular Education Network conference, Networked Politics / Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, KnowledgeLab / Lancaster Institute for Advanced Studies, the William Thompson weekend school, and UCD Equality Studies Centre. I have secured over €75,000 in 9 different social movement-related grants. I have co-organised symposia with the European Consortium for Political Research’s and European Sociological Association’s social movement networks at Harvard’s Berkman Center and the Transnational Institute Amsterdam; and have given talks among others to the PianoTerra Lab social centre (Milan), the People's Forum in Erris, Occupy Dame Street, Community Workers Co-op, Latin America Solidarity Centre, Workers Solidarity Movement, Seomra Spraoi and the Grassroots Gathering among others. I co-direct the MA on Community Education, Equality and Social Activism and run a PhD-level programme of participatory action research in social movement practice. In my secondary field of Buddhist Studies, I co-founded the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religion (ISASR); co-organised Ireland’s first academic conference on new religious movements and ISASR’s second conference; and have twice guest-edited the journal Contemporary Buddhism. I have been an invited speaker to a joint Kyoto University / Ryokoku University conference on Asian Buddhism, the University of Heidelberg's "Asia and Europe" cluster of excellence, King’s College London Buddhist Studies Research Seminar, a SOAS Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions / Buddhist Forum seminar, Trinity College Long Room Hub, the National Library of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland. The Dhammaloka project, with Prof. Alicia Turner (York U Toronto) and Prof. Brian Bocking (UCC), has attracted over €240,000 in grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Irish Research Council, the Dhammakaya Foundation and York University Toronto. I have written for or been interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Discover Society, OpenDemocracy, e-IR, The Ecologist, the BBC, STT (Finland), RTÉ, Newstalk, Dublin City FM, the Irish Times, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Klassekampen (Norway), ROARmag, Ceasefire, Irish Left Review and the Religious Studies Project among others about my work.

Research Interest

social movement studies