Dr Aoife Duffy

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Email
aoife.duffy@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 872562
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Location
5S.6.14, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
Mondays 16.00-17.00
Profile
Biography
Dr. Aoife Duffy is senior lecturer in international human rights law and an interdisciplinary scholar with the University of Essex’s Human Rights Centre/Law School. Previous to this she held lectureships at University of Galway and Dublin City University. Aoife has been the recipient of various awards and grants, including the prestigious Department of Foreign Affairs Andrew Grene scholarship in conflict resolution for her doctoral studies. With a broad horizon of research interests, Aoife has published on topics ranging from indigenous peoples’ rights to conceptual paradigms for human rights in world-leading peer reviewed interdisciplinary journals such as Human Rights Quarterly, the International Journal of Transitional Justice and the International Journal of Human Rights. Her transitional justice scholarship has produced new historiographies shedding light on legacy issues across various case studies (e.g. including the ground-breaking book - Torture and Human Rights in Northern Ireland: Interrogation in Depth). While developing legal histories, she has accumulated expertise on intelligence/security operations, detention without trial, interrogation and torture. Aoife’s interdisciplinary scholarship has evolved, examining the interplay between photography and international law, a conceptual framework on universality, reproductive autonomy and critical archival work. Current projects focus on how the British colonial past is understood in the present. A particular sensitivity is given to excavating subaltern or marginalised narratives that might otherwise be missing from the socio-historical record. Aoife's academic research and activism is animated by social justice goals; in particular, the achievement of substantive equality and the elimination of discrimination in society. In order to address structural injustice, systemic marginalisation and exclusion, human rights practice and scholarship is strengthened by different disciplinary perspectives. In that regard, she would welcome human rights PhD supervision in a cross disciplinary arrangement. In 2022, Aoife was invited to participate in the International Expert Panel: State Impunity and the Northern Ireland Conflict (report available here: https://www.jus.uio.no/smr/english/about/id/law/nipanel.html). Aoife has also acted in an advisory/consultative capacity for various stakeholders on post-conflict legacy issues, human rights training and social justice research.
Qualifications
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PhD International Human Rights Law National University of Ireland Galway,
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LLM International Human Rights Law National University of Ireland Galway,
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M.Phil International Peace Studies Trinity College Dublin,
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BA (Hons) Applied Psychology University College Cork,
Appointments
University of Essex
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EDI Co-Lead, Law, University of Essex (16/1/2023 - present)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Interdisciplinary Human Rights Scholarship
Current research
Critical approaches to human rights and international law
Conflict/Post-conflict/Peace-building
Consent in International Human Rights Law
Torture, Detention & Security Operations
Tackling Marginalisation/Discrimination & Exclusion. Social Justice & Social Change
Conferences and presentations
Lesser Known Forms of State Torture: Northern Ireland
Invited presentation, Seminar, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, 5/11/2024
Impunity for Torture during the Northern Ireland Conflict
Invited presentation, Bitter Legacy: State Impunity in the Northern Ireland Conflict, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 22/10/2024
Land Dispossession & Colonial Violence in Nigeria & Kenya: Reading British Colonial Archives “Against the Grain”
Invited presentation, Socio-legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference, University of Portsmouth, 27/3/2024
State Torture during the Northern Ireland Conflict
Humanitarianism and Human Rights in Irish History, 5/7/2023
Pushing Human Rights Education Beyond the Law
Future of Human Rights Education conference, Human Rights Centre, Colchester, United Kingdom, 10/12/2020
Interrogation in Depth
Invited presentation, Transitional Justice Seminar Series, University of Ulster, 10/12/2019
Torture and Human Rights in Northern Ireland
Invited presentation, Symposium on the First Decade of the Troubles, University of Salford, 19/6/2019
Exploring the Dissonance between Human Rights Utopia and Reality
Law and Society Association, Law and Society Association, Toronto, Canada, 9/6/2018
Bearing Witness to Atrocity Crimes: Photography & International Law, Whitaker Institute Seminar Series, 14 December 2016.
2016
Memories of Violence in Law, Conflict, Humanitarianism and Security Research Symposium, NUIG, 4 May 2016.
2016
Beyond the Law: Counter-Terror Interrogation, Violent Contexts: Ireland and the Wider World, University College Cork, 1 April 2016.
Cork, Ireland, 2016
Ireland v United Kingdom,Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Seattle 28-31 May, 2015.
Seattle, United States, 2015
Gardens of (In)Justice: Detention without Trial in the British Empire, Critical Legal Conference, Stockholm, 14-16 September, 2012.
Stockholm, Sweden, 2012
Deciphering the Nomos of the Camp, International Studies Association, Montreal, March 2011.
Montreal, Canada, 2011
UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security: Incorporating a Gender Perspective, Liberia Timor-Leste Ireland, Department of Foreign Affairs Rapporteur on Transitional Justice, Monrovia, Liberia, 13-16 April, 2010.
Monrovia, Liberia, 2010
Human Rights and Conflict in Darfur, War, Virtual War and Human Security Conference, Budapest, May 2008.
Budapest, Hungary, 2008
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Selected Issues in Human Rights (HU300)
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Legal Research and Academic Skills (LW517)
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International Human Rights: Theories and Institutions (LW924)
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Postgraduate research methods and professional development (LW987)
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Advanced Legal Research (LW948)
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Legal Research Skills (LW254)
Previous supervision

Degree type: Occasional Postgraduate Study
Awarded date: 13/1/2019
Publications
Journal articles (9)
Duffy, A., (2025). Applying Critical Pedagogies to Human Rights Education. The International Journal of Human Rights. 29 (2), 382-406
Duffy, A., (2023). Universality: recognizing the right to have rights. Intercultural Human Rights Law Review. 18, 77-110
Duffy, A., (2018). Bearing Witness to Atrocity Crimes: Photography & International Law. Human Rights Quarterly. 40 (4), 776-814
Duffy, A., (2016). Searching for Accountability: British-Controlled Detention in Southeast Iraq, 2003–2008. International Journal of Transitional Justice. 10 (3), 410-431
Duffy, A., (2015). Legacies of British Colonial Violence: Viewing Kenyan Detention Camps through the Hanslope Disclosure. Law and History Review. 33 (03), 489-542
Duffy, AM., (2012). Detainee as Exile: Theorising the Politico-legal Underpinnings of Executive Detention. Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law. 7 (1), 1-17
Duffy, A., (2010). A Truth Commission for Northern Ireland?. International Journal of Transitional Justice. 4 (1), 26-46
Duffy, A., (2008). Expulsion to Face Torture? Non-refoulement in International Law. International Journal of Refugee Law. 20 (3), 373-390
Duffy, A., (2008). Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights: Developing a Sui Generis Approach to Ownership and Restitution. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. 15 (4), 505-538
Books (1)
Duffy, A., (2019). Torture and Human Rights in Northern Ireland Interrogation in Depth. Routledge. 0367030454. 9780367030452
Book chapters (3)
Duffy, A., (2023). The Right to Withdraw Consent to Continuing an Unwanted Pregnancy. In: Consent: Gender, Power and Subjectivity. Editors: James-Hawkins, L. and Ryan-Flood, R., . Routledge. 139- 151. 9781003358756
Duffy, AM., (2017). Recuperación de la verdad tras los conflictos en Irlanda del Norte?. In: Historia y Actualidad. Editors: Jimeno, R., . Thomson Reuters Aranzadi
Duffy, AM., (2015). Expulsion to face torture? Non-refoulement in international law. In: Refugees and Rights. Editors: Crock, M., . Routledge. 109- 126. 1472455797. 9781472455796
Conferences (2)
Duffy, A., Applying Critical Pedagogies to Human Rights Education
Duffy, A., Torture & the International Perspective
Reports and Papers (1)
Dooley, B., Duffy, A., Guembe, MJ., Erikson, KE., Dudai, R. and Kvanvig, G., (2024). Bitter Legacy: State Impunity in the Northern Ireland Conflict. Report of the International Expert Panel
Other (1)
Duffy, A. and Al Khateeb, K., Conflicting Narratives Post-Conflict: The Agree to Disagree
Grants and funding
2022
Agree to Disagree? Responding to Intolerant Narratives in Initiatives for Transformative Justice
University of Essex (ESRC IAA)
Contact
Academic support hours:
Mondays 16.00-17.00