
Pat O'Connor
UL
Pat O’Connor is an Irish sociologist and feminist. An emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Limerick (UL), she is a Visiting Professor at the Geary Institute, University College Dublin. Her 120 publications include eight books, over 80 peer reviewed journal articles and 30 book chapters. She is an internationally recognised expert on gender equality, with a particular focus on leadership, power and institutional resistance in higher education. She was the first female full professor (1997) and Faculty Dean (2000) in UL and the first full female professor of sociology in Ireland (1997). She has held visiting professorships at London, Aveiro, Linkoping, Deakin and Melbourne universities. A member of the National Review on Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Institutions (2016) she has been in a number of international research consortia including FESTA and WHEM. A member of a number of Advisory Boards for EU funded and other research projects including TARGET, CHANGE and Nordicore, she is currently on RESET. She is editor of a number of Special Issues on Gender and Leadership (2018, 2020). Her most recent book, edited with K. White is Gender, Power and Higher Education in a Globalised World: Where to now? (Palgrave Macmillan 2021).