Guest lectures series, seminars and workshops

ISPA has organised a number of seminars, panel discussions and workshops since its inception in 1997. Most recently, the Association hosted a seminar on longitudinal studies, with presentations by Prof James Williams (ESRI), a Director and Co-PI for"Growing Up in Ireland", the Irish longitudinal study on children, and Prof Brendan Whelan, the Director and a Co-PI of TILDA (the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing). ISPA members can access their presentations here.

In 2008, Prof Tony Fahey (School of Applied Social Science, UCD) was invited to speak on Social Comparison, Relative Deprivation and Social Cohesion in Europe: Challenges for Social Policy Research. ISPA members can access his presentation here.

Earlier seminars organised by ISPA since 1997 include  a seminar was co-hosted with the National Disability Authority on forthcoming disability legislation, a workshop focusing on Integrated Responses to Drug Misuse, seminars on the Report of the Commission on the Family in 1998 and on the Green Paper on Abortion in 1999. Guest speakers in the lecture series have included Johnathon Bradshaw from the University of York, Dr Sile O'Connor, NESC, Dublin, Frances Fox-Piven from City University of New York and Richard Cloward, Columbia University, Professor Fiona Williams from the University of Leeds and Professor Ramesh Mishra from York University in Toronto, Canada.

Conferences

The Association has organised a number of conferences since 1997. The most recent conference organised by ISPA was entitled "Who Pays? Access and Equity in the Irish Healthcare system", and took place in Trinity College Dublin. The aim of the conference was to explore the structural, cultural and financial barriers to healthcare in Ireland from a social policy perspective and to identify methods of improving access from research and best practice elsewhere. The conference will bring together some of the best Irish and international experts on healthcare, including Sir Richard Wilkinson, Prof Dale Tussing, Sir Charles Normand, to discuss equity in and access to Irish healthcare services. Presentations can be downloaded by ISPA members here.

In 2006, ISPA organised a conference aiming to discuss social policy in both the North and South of Ireland. The conference brought together a host of well-known Irish speakers to discuss particular aspects of social policy as they related to the Republic and to Northern Ireland, including Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Professor Bernadette Hayes, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Professor Derek Birrell, University of Ulster, Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Professor Vani Boorah (University of Ulster) and Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Professor Christopher Whelan (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin). Presentations can be downloaded by ISPA members here. 

Earlier conferences have taken place on the themes of inequality, global social policy, poverty, housing and migration.

Annual Post-graduate Conference

ISPA also organizes a postgraduate conference in order to provide postgraduate students of social policy with an opportunity to meet others engage in postgraduate research on social policy in Ireland and to provide a supportive forum at which to present their work to their peers and receive feedback on their thoughts and ideas.

 The 2008 Post-graduate conference took place in Trinity College. Previous events have taken place in Queen's University Belfast, University College Cork and University College Dublin.

For more information about the workings and ideas of the Irish Social Policy Association please do not hesitate to contact us:

Lorna Roe (ISPA Secretary): This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Catherine Anne Field (Post-graduate Officer): This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it