Mitchell Institute Sabbatical Fellowship Scheme 2026-27
Call for Applications
The Mitchell Institute is pleased to announce the Sabbatical Fellowship Scheme for 2026-27.
This Scheme is open to all Queen’s University Belfast academic staff who have already been awarded Sabbatical Leave by their School during 2026-27.
For the duration of their Fellowship – up to one semester – each of the three successful applicants will be provided with office space in the Institute; will receive £4,000 to support research activities (as agreed with the Institute Director); and will present their research in a Mitchell Institute Lecture or Workshop during their period at the Institute.
How to apply
Applications should include:
- A one-page outline of the proposed research to be conducted during the applicant’s semester at the Institute (in line with what has been proposed to the applicant’s School). This must include:
- The case for its originality and importance
- Details of the work to be produced (e.g. planned publications)
- Clarification of alignment between the proposed research and work of the Institute
- Details of the applicant’s involvement with the Institute to date (if any)
- A CV of no more than 2 pages
- An indication of which Semester in 2026-27 the applicant would like to spend at the Institute
- Confirmation that the applicant has been awarded Sabbatical Leave from their School prior to the application deadline
Applications marked Sabbatical Fellowship Scheme 2026-27 should be emailed to Dr Wendy-Louise Smith at w.smith@qub.ac.uk by 24 April 2026.
Decisions will be announced by 29 May 2026.
Current Sabbatical Fellows, 2025-26
Dr Elena Caoduro, Senior Lecturer, School of Arts, English and Languages
Professor Declan French, Professor of Finance, Queen’s Business School
Professor Kathryn McNeilly, Professor, School of Law and Mitchell Institute Fellow
Previous Sabbatical Fellows
2024-25
Dr Siobhra Aiken, Senior Lecturer in Irish & Celtic Studies, School of Arts, English and Languages
Dr Eithne Dowds, Reader, School of Law
Dr Keira Williams, Reader, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics
2023-24
Professor Colin Harvey, Professor, School of Law and Mitchell Institute Fellow
Professor Debbie Lisle, Professor, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics
Dr Des O’Rawe, Reader, School of English, Arts and Languages and Mitchell Institute Fellow
Dr Laura Pfuntner, Senior Lecture, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics
2022-23
Dr Lauren Dempster, Senior Lecturer, School of Law and Mitchell Institute Fellow
Dr Peter McLoughlin, Reader, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics and Mitchell Institute Fellow
Testimonials
Sabbatical Fellow 2025-26
Professor, School of Law and Mitchell Institute Fellow
My Sabbatical Fellowship during the Autumn 2025-26 semester has been instrumental in shaping work on my ongoing monograph project International Human Rights Law Bodies and Institutional Time. The Institutive was a supportive and productive environment within which to develop the work, particularly given the unique interdisciplinary context that it fosters.
In addition to providing me with a dedicated office space and an network of colleagues working on intersecting topics and themes, the funding available to Sabbatical Research Fellows was highly beneficial. This enabled me to take up a Visiting Research Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, University of London during the 2025-26 academic year. This has been significant in providing opportunities for further discussion and presentation of writing in progress, allowing my research to reach new audiences and benefit from their feedback.
As a Sabbatical Fellow I was made to feel very welcome and was integrated into the daily and weekly life of the Institute. There was also opportunity to showcase my activities through the Institute’s regular newsletter. I look forward to continuing the fruitful connections that I have been able to develop this semester.
Sabbatical Fellow 2024-25
Senior Lecturer in Irish & Celtic Studies, School of Arts, English and Languages
I felt like I was spoiled rotten during my Mitchell Institute Sabbatical Fellowship. I was overwhelmed by the support and friendship of the Institute’s staff and students, and loved being able to learn about the exciting work happening at the Institute over cups of tea in the kitchen.
My time at the Mitchell Institute allowed me to develop my research project, which interrogates the utopian efforts of a group of Kerry-born immigrants in the industrial city of Springfield, Massachusetts to sustain an Irish-speaking enclave in their adopted home from the 1890s to the 1930s.
In addition to allowing me to travel to the US for research, my Sabbatical Fellowship at the Institute helped me to rethink my research project and consider how this microstudy is not only relevant in an Irish-language studies context but also provides a springboard to probe larger questions about migration and linguistic displacement, about assimilation and community cohesion, and about the language rights of minority and migrant groups.
Though my Sabbatical Fellowship has officially ended, I look forward to further developing my connections with the Institute over the coming months and years. In particular, I am very grateful to the Institute for supporting a symposium on representations of gender-based violence in contemporary literature in Irish, to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November 2025.
Sabbatical Fellow 2024-25
Reader, School of Law
My time as a Sabbatical Fellow at the Mitchell Institute in Semester One 2024/25 provided a valuable opportunity to develop my scholarship and build connections with staff at the Institute. During this time, I worked on completing my draft article, ‘Challenging the Role of Good Character Evidence in Rape Trials: Monsters, Myths and Mitigation’. I was also able to make use of the Fellows’ Room to host a collaborative lunch with key stakeholders in the sexual violence sector in Northern Ireland around a proposed project. This room provided a lovely space for meeting with colleagues from outside the university.
As my Sabbatical runs over two semesters, the flexibility of the Sabbatical Fellowship, in terms of timings for the research workshops and use of the supporting funding, has been really beneficial to me. I was able to forward plan - and resist the temptation to cram everything into one semester - by setting a date for my research workshop in semester two. This allowed me to work on my current projects while also formulating ideas for my book project, 'Sexual Consent and Legal Reform: towards a communicative responsibility approach’, to be tested and teased out during the research workshop. I was able to use my Sabbatical Fellowship Funding to travel to the University of Limerick for a conference as an invited speaker and some of the funding will go towards the costs associated with a conference delivered in June 2025.
The administrative support provided by the Institute was excellent. As a Sabbatical Fellow I felt very much integrated into the life of the Institute, with regular check-ins and inclusion in the monthly Newsletter, allowing me to keep up-to-date with the work of colleagues in the institute and to share my activities to a wide audience.
In sum, the Mitchell Institute Sabbatical Fellowship has been a brilliant experience, and I hope to continue my relationship with Institute and remain a part of the wonderful community it has created.
Sabbatical Fellow 2023-24
Senior Lecture, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics
I was a Sabbatical Fellow in the Institute in Semester 1 of the 2023-2024 academic year. During the fellowship, I focused on completing a chapter of my monograph on ‘Roman Civil Wars in the Empire: Provincial Experiences of Conflict and State Formation in the First Century BC’, as well as smaller projects on the history and archaeology of ancient Sicily. Funding from the fellowship enabled me to travel to Chicago to present a paper at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in early January, and during the semester, I also gave invited research seminars to audiences at University College Cork (online) and at the University of Trier (in person).
Although my School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics office is located just one door down from the Institute, I found the separate office provided during the fellowship to be very useful (as other fellows have observed), since it allowed me to focus on my research in a quieter, less ‘cluttered’ environment. I also enjoyed meeting some of the postgraduate students who give the Institute such a strong sense of community, and I am grateful for the practical support that Institute staff provided throughout my fellowship, and especially with navigating the vagaries of booking travel through CTM.
Finally, and most valuably, I had an opportunity to develop the ‘big picture’ arguments of my monograph by presenting some of the emerging themes from my research on Roman civil warfare and peacemaking at an Institute Workshop in December. The feedback I received from the audience will help me as I work to complete the draft of the monograph over the course of the next year, particularly as I think about how to frame my project to audiences beyond the field of Roman History. I was very sad to leave the Institute at the end of my sabbatical, but I look forward to continuing to be a part of its community by attending workshops and lectures.
Sabbatical Fellow 2023-24
Reader, School of English, Arts and Languages and Mitchell Institute Fellow
The Mitchell Institute’s Sabbatical Fellowship Scheme has been instrumental in enabling me to advance my current research on documentary film and the politics of mental illness. Thanks to the scheme, I have able to travel to London (where I viewed archival films at the British Film Institute, as well consulting resources at the Wellcome Library), Boston (where I met with researchers and curators at the Harvard Film Archive, as well as working at Boston Public Library, and attending a conference organized by the Centre for Irish Studies at Boston College).
In addition to my travels, I also very much enjoyed being part of the Institute’s vibrant and diverse research community, attending several workshops and research seminars held at the Institute as well as co-organizing a well-attended Belfast Film Festival screening and seminar event, and leading a research workshop on documentary filmmaking and various figures and movements associated with radical psychiatry.
The Fellowship Scheme offers a real opportunity to make the most of a sabbatical, and I am genuinely appreciative of the space, time, and resources it made available to me.
Sabbatical Fellow 2022-23
Senior Lecturer, School of Law and Mitchell Institute Fellow
I was a Sabbatical Fellow in the Institute in Semester 1 of the 2022-23 academic year. Having spent my Post-doctoral years in the Institute, I was delighted to have the opportunity to be based there once again. I found the experience to be hugely valuable for several key reasons.
First, I found having a separate space outside of my Law School office very useful for focusing on my planned Sabbatical activities. As a result, my time in the Institute was really productive. I am currently working on a monograph, co-authored with my colleague Dr Rachel Killean (University of Sydney) on the relationship between environmental harm and Transitional Justice, and made good progress on drafting several chapters during my time at the Institute.
Second, and relatedly, I was able to use the funding that came with the Fellowship to travel to Australia to advance this work, and I am grateful to Richard for approving this. As a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney's School of Law, I was able to work with Rachel on our monograph - having time in-person to develop our ideas was invaluable. During this trip we received useful feedback that we will be incorporating into our manuscript through delivering presentations at the 8th Annual Australian International Criminal Law Workshop in Sydney and at the Australia and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference in Darwin.
Third, while at the Institute I had the opportunity to present on another work in progress - an article I am authoring with Mitchell Institute Theme Lead (Rights and Social Justice) Prof Kieran McEvoy, on the relationship between embarrassment, non-state armed groups, and the transition from conflict. As always with Mitchell Institute workshops, we received helpful and thought-provoking feedback from the audience.
Finally, the Institute is such a valuable part of QUB and as an interdisciplinary researcher, I valued being part of this community.
Sabbatical Fellow 2022-23
Reader, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics and Mitchell Institute Fellow
Being a Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for the duration of my sabbatical had been wonderful, and was very sad to leave. Obviously, the funding that comes with this position had been hugely beneficial, allowing me to spend a number of weeks working in archives in Dublin and London to conduct research for my book on Irish-American and the Northern Ireland problem.
However, I also found working in the Institute itself to be great help. As well as the fantastic colleagues, the PhDs working here have been a huge inspiration – a reminder of what focused research is about after becoming so used to juggling teaching and admin commitments in a normal term.
As mundane as it sounds, having an office dedicated to research has also helped. Though only a few doors done from my HAPP office, it felt very different from that space – which is always messy, and has all the reminders of the usual teaching and admin demands. Having a office in the Institute made for far more productive writing. As a result, I was able to send completed chapters to OUP, and now hope for a positive response (fingers crossed) which would help spur me through the remaining chapters and editing process. The latter is always hardest for me, but I’m hoping that what I’m forced to cut will allow me to produce some new articles, none of which I could have done without the Fellowship.
I also received very useful feedback during my Fellowship, not least when by presenting one of my chapters at the Institute in November – thanks to all who attended. When the book is finished, I certainly hope to come back to speak about the project as a whole.
Being optimistic, perhaps we’ll also have our challenges with the Protocol sorted by then, so I can write a nice final chapter about President Biden visiting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. It would certainly be a good way to recognise the role of the Institute’s patron, Senator Mitchell, in helping to negotiate that accord. Here’s hoping.