Dr. Caitriona O'Brien

Biography

Caitríona O'Brien is an Assistant Professor in Applied Sign Linguistics at the Centre for Deaf Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Trinity College Dublin, an M.Sc. in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition from the University of Oxford, and a B.A. in French and Spanish from Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on language acquisition and identity transformation in families raising deaf children in Ireland, with a particular emphasis on Irish Sign Language and grounded theory methodology. She also works on multilingualism and language policy in educational contexts. Caitríona teaches across the Deaf Studies and Joint Honours Linguistics undergraduate programmes and has previously taught postgraduate modules on multilingualism. She supervises undergraduate Capstone projects and M.Phil. dissertations. Her recent work includes a forthcoming book chapter in Routledge"s Grounded Theory in Practice: Real-Life Applications Across Disciplines, Routledge), and her doctoral thesis, The Becoming Theory of Parental Transformation: A Grounded Theory Study of Parents Raising Deaf Children in Ireland and Acquiring Irish Sign Language, available via TARA, Trinity College Dublin. She also co-authored a chapter in the Guide for the Linguistic Inclusion of Migrants (Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca). She is an active member of the Irish Deaf Research Network and served on its organising committee from 2017 to 2024. Committed to advocacy and inclusion in higher education, she has served as Postgraduate Convenor for the School and as AHSS representative for PhD workspaces, and was recognised on the Dean of Students Roll of Honour for voluntary work supporting people experiencing homelessness. She is fluent in English, French, and Spanish, with advanced proficiency in Irish and intermediate proficiency in Irish Sign Language.