Sociology

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3 College Green
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland
D02 DK07

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sociology@tcd.ie Gaeilge
Dr. Philomena Mullen

Dr. Philomena Mullen

Assistant Professor, Sociology

3531896 2701

Biography

I am Assistant Professor of Black Studies and am located in the Department of Sociology. I teach on the Trinity elective which introduces students to the epistemology of Black Studies as an intellectual pursuit. This is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field of knowledge that interrogates historical events that have impacted on those who are racialised as Black, while centring the perspectives of Black people in constructing and deconstructing these events.

I lead a research project to recover the lived experiences and sociological impact of African students that came to Trinity in the early 20th century which amplifies our understanding of Blackness in pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Through extensive conference work, a process which is highly generative in terms of theory, I have grown research networks across Irish, Northern Irish, Scottish and US universities, where collaboration is developing to look at the local hidden histories of the black population in Ireland, an emerging and exciting site of investigation.

I have to date introduced funding to the value of €153,500 to my research, which comprises clear strands of enquiry in the field of Black Studies, archival recovery, critical race, gender, and ethnicity studies, and aligns with the Department of Sociology's research streams. My research on Africans and Black mixed-race in Ireland moves the concept of being Black in Ireland beyond a current research focus that is mostly limited to a migratory lens, to embrace a more in-depth analysis of sociohistorical strands and intercommunal framing of what it means to be Black in 21st century Ireland.

I am a member of the Centre for Forced Migration Studies Network (TCD), and my work corresponds with the transitional justice strand of the work of the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice.

My research is strongly motivated by the decoloniality of epistemology and educational practice, and accompanying social activism which underpins Black Studies as a discipline. My work in this regard has included inter alia the introduction of decolonial practice into the courses on which I lecture; international conference presentations; national newspaper opinion pieces in Irish and US media; my role(s) on the advisory board member of Trinity-Inc and Trinity Colonial Legacies Project; and Co-Chair of the Race, Ethnicity, and Equality Working Group (REEWG). I am a co-author of REEWG"s EDI Report 2021/22 and I lead the development of the Action Plan for College.

I am a Ministerial appointee to the National Advisory Committee on the Restitution and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage board.

I have developed my doctoral research into a creative format, using podcasts which will be supported with a forthcoming documentary short, and a written conversation series in collaboration with Skein Press, and Afua Hirsch former journalist at the Guardian and now teaching at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Philomena Mullen, Black baby box[ed], Irish University Review, 50, (2), 2020, p252 - 255Journal Article, 2020, DOI
  • Philomena Mullen, On Being Black, Irish and a Woman, Women's Studies Review, 6, 1999Journal Article, 1999
  • Philomena Mullen, Defying the exclusionary homogeneity of Irish whiteness: mixed-race children in Irish industrial schools in the twentieth century, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 46, (7), 2022, p1456-1477Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
  • Philomena Mullen, Black Unsettlement. Embodied Blackness and Black Studies in the Irish Context, Irish Journal of Sociology, Special Issue, 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Philomena Mullen, Race in Irish Literature and Culture, Review of Race in Irish Literature and Culture, by Edited by Malcolm Sen and Julie McCormack Weng , Ethnic and Racial Studies, 48, (13), 2024, p2739"2742Review, 2024, DOI
  • Philomena Mullen, The Insistence of Blackness and the Persistence of Antiblackness in Ireland, Australian Journal of Social Issues, 0, (Special issue), 2025, p1-9Journal Article, 2025, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Philomena Mullen, The new racial regime. Recalibrations of white supremacy, Review of The new racial regime. Recalibrations of white supremacy, by Alana Lentin , Ethnic and Racial Studies, 49, (13), 2025, p2860-2862Review, 2025, DOI , URL
  • Stephen Hewer, Philomena Mullen, Jairo I. Fúnez-Flores, Decolonising medieval Irish History? The (im)possibility of challenging existing practice, Postcolonial Studies, 2026, p1-20Journal Article, 2026, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Philomena Mullen, Racialising Irishness: The 2004 citizenship referendum and its enduring legacy, Special Issue: Racialised from the Start: Revisiting the 2004 Citizenship Referendum, Volume 34, (2), 2026, p221 - 238Journal Article, 2026, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Philomena Mullen, Performing Inclusion and Decorative Diversity: On the Limits of EDI in White Academic Spaces, The Sociological Observer: Rethinking inclusion: EDI in a time of uncertainty, (6), 2026, p28-36Journal Article, 2026, URL
  • Philomena Mullen, Horizontal hostility among historically present Black Irish, African migrants and their `Irish-born' children?, Identities, 2026Journal Article, 2026, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Amon Sharifi Isaloo, Philomena Mullen, Modern Racism and the Far Right. Contemporary Cases and Responses, First, London, United Kingdom, Routledge, 2027, 300ppBook, 2027
  • Black Irish women are denied equity within the workplace in, editor(s)Ebun Joseph , Equity in the Workplace. Stories from Black Irish women in Ireland, Dublin, 2024, [Philomena Mullen]Book Chapter
  • Phil Mullen, 'In the Half Light: Voices from Black Ireland', Skein Press, https://skeinpress.com/conversations/, 2025, -Broadcast

Research Expertise

My research establishes a pioneering field within Irish academia, which is agenda setting, focusing on the interdisciplinary study of race, blackness, and historical processes of racialisation in Ireland. By mapping the sociological positioning of people of African descent from the Mesolithic to the Celtic Tiger, my most recent work (forthcoming in 2027 in two volumes) informs contemporary national dialogues on belonging, identity and institutional injustice.

A primary pillar of my research explores how race intersects with Ireland's institutional histories of care, including industrial schools and mother and baby homes. Drawing on archival recovery and critical theory, this work contributes high-impact scholarship to debates on historical trauma.

I demonstrate significant research leadership, output, and methodological innovation. Methodologically, I pioneer interdisciplinary approaches, using autoethnography to critically reflect on how institutional history and critical race pedagogy intersect, a reflective framework that directly informed my curriculum leadership in successfully establishing Black Studies at Trinity.

My research trajectory is marked by high-quality peer-reviewed outputs, published in leading journals and edited collections, demonstrating strong peer validation. Beyond Trinity, my scholarship has secured prominent international and national recognition. As well as being invited as a keynote speaker to national conferences, the global reach of my work is reflected in my collaboration with academics such as Professor Christine Kinealy (Director of Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University), through whom I network with visiting American scholars investigating transatlantic histories of abolition, race, and diaspora. My expertise has also been recognised with an invitation to join as a co-lead, a high-level, international AHRC research bid in the UK (pending).

By translating cutting-edge archival and sociological research into permanent institutional infrastructure, international networks, and publications with real impact, I demonstrate ongoing research excellence and disciplinary leadership requisite for progression through the Merit Bar.

  • Title
    Archiving Harmony: A Documentation and Digitization Strategy for an Irish Anti-Racism Group in the 1980s and 1990s
    Summary
    The aim of this research project is to digitise the Harmony archives, so as to memorialise the activities of the group and to contribute to the historical record of anti-racism work in an Irish setting, pre the Celtic-Tiger era and large scale inward migration to Ireland.
    Funding Agency
    Royal Irish Academy
    Date From
    01/06/2024
    Date To
    09/05/2025
  • Title
    Start-up Fund
    Summary
    developing your research and you can charge eligible expenses to it (e.g. additional conference travel, research materials, research assistance etc).
    Funding Agency
    Department of Sociology
    Date From
    02 February 2024
    Date To
    20 December 2025
  • Title
    Black History Month - Elmer Dixon
    Summary
    The first Black History Month event in TCD, funded through BDO and TDA to bring a former high profile Black Panther, Elmer Dixon to give public lectures and to promote Black Studies at TCD. MR Dixon was also invited tot address The Phil and was presented with the Gold Medal by the Udomo society.
    Funding Agency
    BDO /TDA
    Date From
    19/10/2022
    Date To
    22/10/2022

Sociology of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism, Sociology of the life course, Sociology of human rights, Other social sciences, Sociology of gender, Sociology and related studies, Sociology of inequalities, Sociology of race,

Recognition

  • IRC Government of Ireland Postgraduate scholar 2017
  • Member of the Sociology Association of Ireland 2026
  • Member of the British Sociological Association 2025
  • Trustee and Company Secretary of Association of Mixed-Race Irish (AMRI) advocacy group 2016
  • Member of AFSAI (African Association of Scholars in Ireland) 2020
  • Board member Skein Press - not-for-profit publishing house for underrepresented voices. October 2024
  • Ministerial appointee - member of National Advisory Committee on the Restitution and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage board. October 2023
  • Board Member of UNIDPAD 2014 -2028 (International Decade for People of African Descent), and Chair of UNIDPAD's Education subcommittee. Chair of the Education sub group 2022-2024. 2019
  • First reviewer on articles submitted to, European Societies, History of Education, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Irish Journal of Sociology, Quality Education for All, African Journal of Strategy, Defence and Security Studies (AJSDSS) Whiteness and Education. 2023
  • Board member of LUAIL - the first All-Ireland Dance Ensemble company funded by The Arts Council 2024