Irish society can be said to be globally ‘connected’ in many ways – technologically, economically, culturally and historically, but how connected is the Irish sociological imagination? Undoubtedly, migration, diaspora and more millennial narratives of ‘global Irishness’ are all central themes, but there are many more ways to think about ‘connection’.
The 2019 Annual Conference will open up opportunities to debate, think through and share research, reflections, commitments and concerns about the content of sociology and its connectedness or disconnectedness, but also the types of connections that sociology makes to other disciplines and practices, to different social realities, experiences, communities, persons, narratives and practices.
This annual meeting will offer stimulating opportunities to engage in conversations concerning what sociology is for and who it is about, and to find ways to articulate and speak about the state of sociology and the currently very challenging wider contexts of higher education, research, teaching transformations, the political and policy contexts and engagement with different publics.
The 2019 Annual Conference will open up opportunities to debate, think through and share research, reflections, commitments and concerns about the content of sociology and its connectedness or disconnectedness, but also the types of connections that sociology makes to other disciplines and practices, to different social realities, experiences, communities, persons, narratives and practices.
This annual meeting will offer stimulating opportunities to engage in conversations concerning what sociology is for and who it is about, and to find ways to articulate and speak about the state of sociology and the currently very challenging wider contexts of higher education, research, teaching transformations, the political and policy contexts and engagement with different publics.

Keynote
Professor Gurminder Bhambra, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex
Author of Connected Sociologies (Bloomsbury, 2014)
In her groundbreaking book, Connected Sociologies, Gurminder K. Bhambra re-thinks the classical concerns of sociology and social theory through an engagement with postcolonial studies and decoloniality. Bhambra offers a critical diagnosis of the fragmented condition of sociology and challenges the hegemonically Western focus of sociology as a discipline. Somewhat counter to Burawoy’s optimistic view of a sociology engaged with broad and dissident publics, Bhambra critiques a core of sociology that remains generally indifferent to dissident and peripheral perspectives. The concerns with ‘connections’ set out a more inclusive version of global intellectual history and the place of sociology in global social science. The concerns of this book are also inseparable from the consideration of the contemporary context of transformations in the higher education research and teaching landscape. The book offers a defence of the public university as a site for contesting current transformations, and sets sociology at the centre of processes of opening up and democratizing knowledge production.
Professor Gurminder Bhambra, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex
Author of Connected Sociologies (Bloomsbury, 2014)
In her groundbreaking book, Connected Sociologies, Gurminder K. Bhambra re-thinks the classical concerns of sociology and social theory through an engagement with postcolonial studies and decoloniality. Bhambra offers a critical diagnosis of the fragmented condition of sociology and challenges the hegemonically Western focus of sociology as a discipline. Somewhat counter to Burawoy’s optimistic view of a sociology engaged with broad and dissident publics, Bhambra critiques a core of sociology that remains generally indifferent to dissident and peripheral perspectives. The concerns with ‘connections’ set out a more inclusive version of global intellectual history and the place of sociology in global social science. The concerns of this book are also inseparable from the consideration of the contemporary context of transformations in the higher education research and teaching landscape. The book offers a defence of the public university as a site for contesting current transformations, and sets sociology at the centre of processes of opening up and democratizing knowledge production.
Plenary
Professor Maggie O'Neill, University College Cork Recently appointed to the School of Sociology at UCC, and previously Chair at York University and Professor at Durham University, Maggie O'Neill will address the theme of methodological innovation, drawing on her own work with participatory action research in the study of borders, risk and belonging. |
Special Panels & Roundtables
Political Socialisation of Youth: The Role of Education.
Educating for Global Justice: Connecting Sociology to the Pluriverse.
Methodologies at the Intersections of Art & Research: Aest-Ethical Challenges for a Decolonial Sociology
Connecting open research, the sociology of knowledge and citizen science
Critical Connections: Sociologies of Transformation and University Studies
‘Sociologists who count’: what does it mean, where are we going and what do we do?
Experience meets Theory. Adapting Collective Memory-Work for Sociology as a Political Project.
Dis\\connecting sociology from/with the neo-liberal university? Entanglement, De-colonisation, Voice, and Democracy.
Plus 11 streams:
Political Socialisation of Youth: The Role of Education.
Educating for Global Justice: Connecting Sociology to the Pluriverse.
Methodologies at the Intersections of Art & Research: Aest-Ethical Challenges for a Decolonial Sociology
Connecting open research, the sociology of knowledge and citizen science
Critical Connections: Sociologies of Transformation and University Studies
‘Sociologists who count’: what does it mean, where are we going and what do we do?
Experience meets Theory. Adapting Collective Memory-Work for Sociology as a Political Project.
Dis\\connecting sociology from/with the neo-liberal university? Entanglement, De-colonisation, Voice, and Democracy.
Plus 11 streams:
- Decolonization and connectedness
- Social, economic and cultural infrastructures of connection
- Connecting sociology and work
- Connection, wellbeing and resilience
- Narratives of time and progress
- Connecting Sociological presents, pasts and futures
- Connecting Sociology with its publics
- Connecting Sociology and place
- Connecting Sociology and policy
- Connecting Sociology and allied disciplines and practices
- Connecting Sociology and politics