Cadhla O’Sullivan completed her doctoral degree with Queen’s University Belfast in December 2023. Her research focused on a qualitative ethnographic style study with children and youth in Colombia, investigating a performing arts-based intervention for Peacebuilding and Peacekeeping. She has written two articles, a book chapter, and a case study style on her research and she has presented her findings at conferences throughout Ireland, the UK, and Australia.

She holds a first-class honours degree in Social Science with University College Cork in Ireland. In 2019, she was awarded a master’s degree in Children’s Rights with Queen’s University Belfast, leading to a studentship to conduct her PhD research with the LINKS team based between Queen’s University Belfast and Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. Conducting research with the LINKS team allowed her to gain experience as a research assistant, contributing to the production of a systematic review and an evidence and gap map (EGM) on Social Emotional Learning of children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Cadhla is now a research fellow at the Children’s Policy Centre, within the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

Cadhla’s research interests lie in the areas of children’s rights, childhood poverty and inequality, child and youth wellbeing, child and youth development, sustainable education, and social cohesion using qualitative methods that are often creative in design and participatory in their approach.