Government

Contact Details

Title	Lecturer
Address	Government University College Cork Cork Ireland
Telephone:	+353-21-490-3000
Fax:	+353 21 490 3472
Email:	ei.ccu@sirrah.hgadolc
Homepage:	Web Page

Biography:

Dr Clodagh Harris is a lecturer in the Department of Government, University College Cork. Her research interests include; deliberative democracy, active democratic citizenship, political participation and the scholarship of teaching and learning in political science.  She has published in leading international journals such as Representation, European Political Science, PS Political Science and Politics and the Journal of Political Science Education .

In 2004 she was seconded to TASC an independent think tank in Dublin to manage its Democracy Commission project (funded by the JRCT) and edit its final report `Engaging citizens the case for democratic renewal in Ireland ' (2005). During her time with the Commission she organised its public consultations across the island of Ireland on issues of political participation particularly amongst the under 25s and those living in socially disadvantaged areas. Forum theatre and community art were used to engage with the target groups.

 Dr Harris is also one of the key authors of 'Power to the People: Assessing Democracy in Ireland' , New Island: Dublin (2007), the first comprehensive audit of the state of democracy in modern Ireland. This project was funded by Atlantic Philanthropies.

 

Dr. Harris' interest in active citizenship and political engagement has extended into her teaching. As Director of the MBS Government she incorporated the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice's voter education/active citizenship programme into one of her modules. Students have used this training to organise voter registration drives in UCC and the wider community. They have also assisted Dr. Harris in delivering it in Cork prison. In response to this she was commissioned by the Irish Prison Service to deliver workshops on voter education to prisoners and to train the prison education staff and officers in this innovative programme. In spring 2008 Dr. Harris received NAIRTL funding to develop the MBS Government service learning programme further.

Dr. Harris has also been commissioned by the National Forum on Europe and by the European Movement to facilitate the Irish strands of the European Citizens' Consultations. She has successfully organised academic conferences and public events using funding secured by the Department of Foreign Affairs and ISS21, the most recent ones being a deliberative event on women's voices in the EU (2009) a symposium on deliberative democracy (2010) and Beyond the Ballot (2012).

Dr Harris is a former member of the executive committee of the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) and with colleagues elsewhere on the island she has established and convenes its specialist groups on participatory and deliberative democracy and teaching and learning in politics.

 She is a member of the International Scientific Advisory board of `We the Citizens', which recently held Ireland's first Citizens' Assembly and a member of the International Observers' committee of the G1000, Belgian Citizens' summit.