Kate Flynn
My areas of expertise include:
• Critical Peace-Building and Democratization
• Foreign Aid and Civil Society
• Transitional Justice (including, but not limited to, Truth Commissions)
• National / Ethnic Identities and Conflict
• Contested and Prison Heritage
• Public Policy in Divided/Transitional Societies
Geographic Areas: Cyprus, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Spain and parts of the former USSR; subsidiary interest in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa as well as Colombia and the Middle East.
My current interest is in contemporary heritage development in Northern Ireland with plans to then embark on a study of peacebuilding and the effectiveness of donor funding, also in Northern Ireland. I am a public appointee to a prison Independent Monitoring Board and volunteer in assisting locally housed asylum seekers under the UK’s dispersal programme.
I led the EU/EuropeAid project "Reconciliation and Peace Economic in Cyprus," 2010 – 2012. I also headed the project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation (UK), "Post-Conflict Settlement, Heritage and Urban Regeneration in South Africa and Northern Ireland: the Redevelopment of the Old Fort and Long Kesh / Maze Prisons" (2007 – 2008).
I was Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) until applying for severance in 2012. At UWE I was programme founder and leader of the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies (2009 – 2012) and founding convenor of the University Peace and Conflict Research Cluster from June 2010 until leaving UWE.
Other prior posts include:
• Senior Lectureship in International Studies at Monash South Africa near Johannesburg
• Lectureship in Politics and International Relations on behalf of the Civic Education Project in Donetsk and Odessa, Ukraine; and
• Research Fellowship at the Institute for German History, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
I've served on the international assessment board for the Irish Research Council’s Research Development Initiative (IRC-RDI), acted as peer reviewer for the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and been a member of the Education and Learning Reference Group, convened by the Strategic Investment Board Northern Ireland (SIBNI), for the former Maze Prison / Long Kesh site redevelopment. I was an accredited observer for the UK 2016 referendum and elections, and was in Northern Ireland for polling on 5 May. I again observed polling in Northern Ireland for Assembly elections on 2 March 2017 and council elections on 2 May 2019.
I was on the editorial board for the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies for over two decades, and have refereed submissions to: Ethnopolitics; Human Rights Review; Identities; International Journal of Heritage Studies; Journal of British Studies; Journal of Contemporary History; Journal of Democracy and Security; Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe; Peace and Conflict Studies; Politics; and journal and book proposals for Manchester University Press, Routledge and SAGE.
In addition to doctoral supervision, my postgraduate teaching and training portfolio includes:
• Foundations for Peace and Conflict Studies
• Peace and Conflict Studies Dissertation Workshops
• The Politics of Human Rights
• Comparative Nationalisms
At undergraduate level, I've taught introductory and survey courses on European politics, comparative politics, international relations, political ideologies, contemporary history and current affairs. Specialist modules covered international migration, international development (focus on sub-Saharan Africa and human security), nationalism in Europe, and ethnic conflict in world politics. This last course covered not only theory and case-studies but also strategy, tactics, international security, peace operations and international law. I've supervised a large number of undergraduate dissertations.
At undergraduate I attained a double BA in Political Science/International Relations (Departmental Distinction of High Honors) and English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. With the support of an Oxford Overseas Bursary and an Overseas Research Student Award, I earned a DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College). My doctoral dissertation was on early twentieth century nationalist movements, ideologies and violence, supervised by Prof Peter Pulzer, then the Gladstone Professor of Government and Public Administration and Fellow at All Souls College.
• Critical Peace-Building and Democratization
• Foreign Aid and Civil Society
• Transitional Justice (including, but not limited to, Truth Commissions)
• National / Ethnic Identities and Conflict
• Contested and Prison Heritage
• Public Policy in Divided/Transitional Societies
Geographic Areas: Cyprus, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Spain and parts of the former USSR; subsidiary interest in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa as well as Colombia and the Middle East.
My current interest is in contemporary heritage development in Northern Ireland with plans to then embark on a study of peacebuilding and the effectiveness of donor funding, also in Northern Ireland. I am a public appointee to a prison Independent Monitoring Board and volunteer in assisting locally housed asylum seekers under the UK’s dispersal programme.
I led the EU/EuropeAid project "Reconciliation and Peace Economic in Cyprus," 2010 – 2012. I also headed the project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation (UK), "Post-Conflict Settlement, Heritage and Urban Regeneration in South Africa and Northern Ireland: the Redevelopment of the Old Fort and Long Kesh / Maze Prisons" (2007 – 2008).
I was Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) until applying for severance in 2012. At UWE I was programme founder and leader of the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies (2009 – 2012) and founding convenor of the University Peace and Conflict Research Cluster from June 2010 until leaving UWE.
Other prior posts include:
• Senior Lectureship in International Studies at Monash South Africa near Johannesburg
• Lectureship in Politics and International Relations on behalf of the Civic Education Project in Donetsk and Odessa, Ukraine; and
• Research Fellowship at the Institute for German History, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
I've served on the international assessment board for the Irish Research Council’s Research Development Initiative (IRC-RDI), acted as peer reviewer for the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and been a member of the Education and Learning Reference Group, convened by the Strategic Investment Board Northern Ireland (SIBNI), for the former Maze Prison / Long Kesh site redevelopment. I was an accredited observer for the UK 2016 referendum and elections, and was in Northern Ireland for polling on 5 May. I again observed polling in Northern Ireland for Assembly elections on 2 March 2017 and council elections on 2 May 2019.
I was on the editorial board for the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies for over two decades, and have refereed submissions to: Ethnopolitics; Human Rights Review; Identities; International Journal of Heritage Studies; Journal of British Studies; Journal of Contemporary History; Journal of Democracy and Security; Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe; Peace and Conflict Studies; Politics; and journal and book proposals for Manchester University Press, Routledge and SAGE.
In addition to doctoral supervision, my postgraduate teaching and training portfolio includes:
• Foundations for Peace and Conflict Studies
• Peace and Conflict Studies Dissertation Workshops
• The Politics of Human Rights
• Comparative Nationalisms
At undergraduate level, I've taught introductory and survey courses on European politics, comparative politics, international relations, political ideologies, contemporary history and current affairs. Specialist modules covered international migration, international development (focus on sub-Saharan Africa and human security), nationalism in Europe, and ethnic conflict in world politics. This last course covered not only theory and case-studies but also strategy, tactics, international security, peace operations and international law. I've supervised a large number of undergraduate dissertations.
At undergraduate I attained a double BA in Political Science/International Relations (Departmental Distinction of High Honors) and English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. With the support of an Oxford Overseas Bursary and an Overseas Research Student Award, I earned a DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College). My doctoral dissertation was on early twentieth century nationalist movements, ideologies and violence, supervised by Prof Peter Pulzer, then the Gladstone Professor of Government and Public Administration and Fellow at All Souls College.
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (46)
Uploads
Articles, essays & briefings by Kate Flynn
This briefing assesses bicommunal peacebuilding in Cyprus as promoted and funded by foreign donors. This is undertaken by considering policy versus outcome-based conditionality and the suitability of the two modes for attaining short- versus long-term results. Emphasis is on the two largest donors: EuropeAid; and the United Nations Development Programme — Action for Cooperation and Trust (UNDP-ACT). EuropeAid funded the Cypriot Civil Society in Action Programme with the first three rounds (2007–2012) evaluated by two reports. UNDP-ACT was also evaluated, but in less detail, by one report (UNDP-ACT 2013) over a broader time frame, 2005–2013. The briefing is further informed by my experience of running a EuropeAid project in Cyprus, 2010–2012.
considers the relationship between public history and civic nation building in South Africa, as well as problems in trying to develop an inclusive public history through museums. Case studies drawn from Grahamstown and Mthatha in the Eastern Cape are explored as examples of the redevelopment of the old and establishment of the new public history as part of
the negotiated transition.""
Conference presentations & panels by Kate Flynn
It is broadly accepted that heritage development and/or renovation can contribute to reconciliation and transitional justice through museums and memorialization. In Northern Ireland this is the rational for publicly funding a range of heritage projects by, for example, the Special EU Programmes Body. But within the Northern Irish heritage sector overall the trend towards fragmented, rather than multivocal, commemoration may well challenge the stated conciliatory intent of specific heritage projects. This, in turn, calls into question the effective use of public money.
This paper will especially consider both the Orange Heritage initiative and the Maze/Long Kesh site. The Orange Heritage initiative opened two interpretive centres – one in east Belfast, the other in Loughgall (Co. Armagh) – in the summer of 2015. Meanwhile plans for the Maze/Long Kesh site, just outside Lisburn, have been dogged by controversy since 2003 when a proposal was tabled to develop a museum. While most of the prison buildings have since been demolished, a representative sample was retained; it is the question of their potential re-use for heritage purposes that has occasioned especially heated debate.
To date no universal mechanism or procedure has been agreed to deal with the overarching victims’ legacy in Northern Ireland. However, heritage development – as asserted by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission – can contribute to transitional justice by providing symbolic reparation for past wrongs through museums and memorialization. In short, a transition in the present requires a transition of the remembered past.
With the support of public funding, the trend in Northern Ireland is now towards a fractured heritage that expresses the contested past through different narratives, often for different audiences, at different locales. This includes the segmented commemoration of victims. Such fragmented commemoration reflects the saliency of violent division, both social and political, into the present day. But it also poses a challenge regarding the use of heritage as symbolic reparation contributing to reconciliation and transitional justice, especially on behalf of victims across the board.
Discussion about remembering victims and heritage in Northern Ireland will draw on two specific initiatives. One is the redevelopment of the former Maze Prison/Long Kesh. Eight miles southwest of Belfast, it is one of the primary sites associated with the violence of the Troubles. In 2003 proposals were tabled, by an organization representing republican (mainly IRA) ex-prisoners, to develop a museum there. While most of the prison buildings have since been demolished, a representative sample was retained. Years of controversy ensued over their potential re-use for heritage development alongside a new EU-funded peace centre. While for some time it seemed that the project may go ahead, it stalled - perhaps permanently - in 2013. A core reason given for withdrawal of the necessary cross-party consensus regarding redevelopment was an ”insensitive attitude towards IRA victims.”
The other is the Orange Heritage initiative and its two interpretive centres, one in east Belfast and the other in Loughgall (Co. Armagh), opened in 2015. The stated intent is “educating and encouraging a mutual understanding and respect for the culture and traditions of the Orange Institution.” This includes active outreach and educational programmes. Importantly the sites also memorialize the Orange Order’s 332 members – a good proportion of whom served in the security services - killed during the Troubles. Given this and the Order’s association with Protestant history, institutions of state power and contentious parades, the initiative has both a challenging and complex mandate.
EU consultancy by Kate Flynn
This briefing assesses bicommunal peacebuilding in Cyprus as promoted and funded by foreign donors. This is undertaken by considering policy versus outcome-based conditionality and the suitability of the two modes for attaining short- versus long-term results. Emphasis is on the two largest donors: EuropeAid; and the United Nations Development Programme — Action for Cooperation and Trust (UNDP-ACT). EuropeAid funded the Cypriot Civil Society in Action Programme with the first three rounds (2007–2012) evaluated by two reports. UNDP-ACT was also evaluated, but in less detail, by one report (UNDP-ACT 2013) over a broader time frame, 2005–2013. The briefing is further informed by my experience of running a EuropeAid project in Cyprus, 2010–2012.
considers the relationship between public history and civic nation building in South Africa, as well as problems in trying to develop an inclusive public history through museums. Case studies drawn from Grahamstown and Mthatha in the Eastern Cape are explored as examples of the redevelopment of the old and establishment of the new public history as part of
the negotiated transition.""
It is broadly accepted that heritage development and/or renovation can contribute to reconciliation and transitional justice through museums and memorialization. In Northern Ireland this is the rational for publicly funding a range of heritage projects by, for example, the Special EU Programmes Body. But within the Northern Irish heritage sector overall the trend towards fragmented, rather than multivocal, commemoration may well challenge the stated conciliatory intent of specific heritage projects. This, in turn, calls into question the effective use of public money.
This paper will especially consider both the Orange Heritage initiative and the Maze/Long Kesh site. The Orange Heritage initiative opened two interpretive centres – one in east Belfast, the other in Loughgall (Co. Armagh) – in the summer of 2015. Meanwhile plans for the Maze/Long Kesh site, just outside Lisburn, have been dogged by controversy since 2003 when a proposal was tabled to develop a museum. While most of the prison buildings have since been demolished, a representative sample was retained; it is the question of their potential re-use for heritage purposes that has occasioned especially heated debate.
To date no universal mechanism or procedure has been agreed to deal with the overarching victims’ legacy in Northern Ireland. However, heritage development – as asserted by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission – can contribute to transitional justice by providing symbolic reparation for past wrongs through museums and memorialization. In short, a transition in the present requires a transition of the remembered past.
With the support of public funding, the trend in Northern Ireland is now towards a fractured heritage that expresses the contested past through different narratives, often for different audiences, at different locales. This includes the segmented commemoration of victims. Such fragmented commemoration reflects the saliency of violent division, both social and political, into the present day. But it also poses a challenge regarding the use of heritage as symbolic reparation contributing to reconciliation and transitional justice, especially on behalf of victims across the board.
Discussion about remembering victims and heritage in Northern Ireland will draw on two specific initiatives. One is the redevelopment of the former Maze Prison/Long Kesh. Eight miles southwest of Belfast, it is one of the primary sites associated with the violence of the Troubles. In 2003 proposals were tabled, by an organization representing republican (mainly IRA) ex-prisoners, to develop a museum there. While most of the prison buildings have since been demolished, a representative sample was retained. Years of controversy ensued over their potential re-use for heritage development alongside a new EU-funded peace centre. While for some time it seemed that the project may go ahead, it stalled - perhaps permanently - in 2013. A core reason given for withdrawal of the necessary cross-party consensus regarding redevelopment was an ”insensitive attitude towards IRA victims.”
The other is the Orange Heritage initiative and its two interpretive centres, one in east Belfast and the other in Loughgall (Co. Armagh), opened in 2015. The stated intent is “educating and encouraging a mutual understanding and respect for the culture and traditions of the Orange Institution.” This includes active outreach and educational programmes. Importantly the sites also memorialize the Orange Order’s 332 members – a good proportion of whom served in the security services - killed during the Troubles. Given this and the Order’s association with Protestant history, institutions of state power and contentious parades, the initiative has both a challenging and complex mandate.
( A shortened version of this talk was also given on 7 March at ICESI, Cali, Colombia)
As an evaluation of the Shared Future policy, this Roundtable will critically discuss the relationship between public policy and community engagement as part of peace-building in Northern Ireland. The resulting tensions between the top-down and bottom-up approaches impact across an array of policy areas where contested claims to power, legitimacy and primacy of cultural expression are played out in practice. These policy areas include, as indicative examples, urban regeneration, transitional justice, heritage and social provision, such as housing and education. Discussants will contribute from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including history, politics, psychology and media studies.
The Roundtable will be guided by, but not limited to, the following questions:
1) What agendas are being served and what are the unstated and unintended consequences of such publicly funded peace-building?;
2) How effective can peace-building initiatives be in impacting on their intended communities, especially when decisions about funding, design and implementation are not always made in effective consultation at community level?; and
3) Is a goal of sustainable peace and reconciliation being furthered by various top-down efforts to deal with the complex legacy of the Troubles?"