Professor Nicola Carr, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, will deliver her Inaugural Lecture entitled ‘Doing Time: rationalities, practices, and experiences of punishment’.
Date: Wednesday 03 December 2025
Time: 18.15 - 19.15
Location: Robert Emmet Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin.
Please click here to register your attendance or on the image below.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Doing Time: rationalities, practices, and experiences of punishment
Crime and punishment and how it is responded to are shaped by social, cultural, and political contexts that shift across time. Within contemporary criminal justice systems, punishment is justified through multiple, and sometimes competing, aims: incapacitation, rehabilitation, reparation, and retribution. These rationalities coexist uneasily, raising pressing questions about how they can be balanced in practice and how their tensions are experienced by those who work within, and those who are subject to, the system.
Central to these experiences is time. Time structures the penal process, from the duration of sentences, to process of rehabilitation, to the ways individuals are expected to demonstrate change. Time also shapes how professionals understand their practice, and how people serving sentences make sense of themselves, their past, and their futures. When, for instance, is a person considered rehabilitated? How should the passing of time be felt, used, or endured while ‘serving’ punishment? This inaugural lecture draws on research from across my career conducted with practitioners and individuals who have experienced the criminal justice system to explore how punishment is enacted and understood in everyday contexts. I explore how professional discourse and institutional practices define the ‘subject’ of criminal justice, and how people interpret and navigate these constructions. By foregrounding time as a central organising principle, the lecture highlights its constitutive role in shaping identities, expectations, and the lived realities of punishment.
Biography
Nicola Carr was appointed as Chair of Social Work and Social Policy in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin, in October 2024. She is an internationally recognised scholar in the fields of probation, youth justice and criminal justice policy. Prior to joining Trinity, she held academic posts at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Nottingham, where she was Professor of Criminology. Professionally trained as a probation officer, Nicola’s practice background continues to inform her academic work.
Her research focuses on the experiences of individuals and communities in contact with the criminal justice system. She has undertaken significant studies on probation practice, professional decision-making and wider criminal justice reforms. Her work has been supported by leading research funders such as the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the British Academy and the European Union, as well as governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Nicola is currently leading a major comparative study examining community supervision across five countries. Nicola has published widely on penal policy, rehabilitation, youth justice, and the lived experience of justice. Her contributions extend beyond academia through media engagement, public debate, and award-winning documentary making. She has also served in advisory roles to national and European bodies, including the Council of Europe and the Confederation of European Probation.
Further information on this inaugural lecture is available by emailing the Faculty Office, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at artshss@tcd.ie.