A freelance writer and translator with 7+ years working in communications, advocacy and activism with international development organisations including the UN and INGOs in Ireland, Guatemala, Mexico, Bolivia and Timor Leste. I was awarded a PhD in Sociology from the University of Galway in 2023 and I hold an LLM in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and a BA in Sociology, Politics and Spanish.
My PhD focused on feminist practices of healing justice in Guatemala and was supported by the Andrew Grene Postgraduate Scholarship for Post-Conflict Resolution from the Irish Research Council. Throughout my PhD I published articles in academic and popular publications including Third World Quarterly, LSE Engenderings Blog and RTE Brainstorm. I currently work as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Limerick on a project exploring alternative pedagogies in Palestine.
Previous research projects include historical memory in Guatemala, published in Interfere Journal in October 2020, feminist activists facilitating access to safe abortions in Mesoamerica, published in the Feminist Review in March 2020, women and land rights in Guatemala and Honduras which resulted in the publication of the study Economies of Dispossession and indigenous education alternatives in Mexico which resulted in a publication in the Irish development education review Policy and Practice.
I write across genres with features, essays and fiction published or forthcoming in Al Jazeera, Electric Lit, Catapult, Lithub, RTE Brainstorm, Refinery 29, The Mary Sue, Open Democracy, Litro Online, Barren, Rejection Letters and others.
My short story A Creeping Ulcer won the 2022 Michael Mullen Charity Fund writing competition. My essay ‘The Center of the Universe’ was selected as runner up in the So To Speak CNF Prize for 2021 and my essay ‘Misplaced Loyalties‘ was a finalist in the Phoebe Spring 2022 CNF Contest.
In 2019 I was awarded funding from the Simon Cumbers Media Fund to report on maternal health in Guatemala for two feature articles published in The Irish Times and The Sunday Business Post.
You can see my all digital publications here:
I have experience translating between English and Spanish including reports, policy documents and project proposals for Trócaire, Peace Brigades International, WeEffect, AWO International and the International Centre for Research on Women among others.
My experience in interpreting includes consecutive interpretation in Ireland and Guatemala at workshops, seminars, press conferences, accompanying international delegations and field visits for Trócaire, The Latin American Solidarity Centre, the International Land Coalition and Friends of the Earth, Ireland.
“Creeping Ulcer was a very strong story with one hell of an opening line – It came in the night, crab-like through the shadows, looking for a new host. A suspenseful, vivid story, highly sensory it brought a body horror lens to it’s subject. The story is the highly confident work of a writer in … Continue reading Niamh Boyce – Judge – Michael Mullen Charity Fund
“‘The Centre of the Universe’ is a slow burn, seared and bathed in the author’s longing—an examined life of the earliest wish to merge with one’s first true love. The prose creates connections to the gut and back. The language is a monument to a mother’s ember, burning bright.”
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