Kathy Reilly

Biography

Dr Reilly completed her BA degree at NUI Galway in Geography and English in 2003 and went on to complete a Higher Diploma in Education in 2004. As a secondary school teacher Dr Reilly spent some time working in Essex in the UK and returned to NUI Galway to complete her PhD in Geography in 2005. Funded by the Irish Research Council Dr Reilly's PhD explored geographies of educational opportunity across three case study sites (one in Ireland, the UK and France). In 2009 Dr Reilly was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher, working on a project with Dr Valerie Ledwith (funded by the Irish Research Council), exploring migrant educational experiences in Galway City and urban-fringe; this project focused specifically on issues of educational attainment, achievement and aspiration. In 2010 - 2011 Kathy was appointed as Teaching Fellow at St Patrick's College Drumcondra, where she developed her interest in critical geographies of children, young people and families. In 2012 Dr Reilly returned to NUI Galway as a University Fellow (Teaching and Research and in 2014 she was appointed as lecturer in geography (below-the-bar-) at NUI Galway, specialising in social and cultural geography.  

Research Interest

Central research interests straddle a number of arenas within critical geographic inquiry; these include: geographies of children, young people and families; geographies of education and social justice; and participative field-based research practice.