Two major European Research Council grants landed in the department this year, with Professor Richard Layte and new arrival Professor Mark Ward set to lead studies into social connection and loneliness across dozens of countries. PhD student Yemi Adenuga, Ireland's first Black woman elected to public office, picked up six awards in the space of two months for her work in community leadership. And researchers compared nearly 18,000 Wikipedia pages with their equivalents on Grokipedia, Elon Musk's AI-written encyclopedia, finding real differences in style, sourcing and political leaning.

As Professor Paul O'Grady notes in his welcome, Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the EU puts the School in a strong position to shape the conversation on Europe's future. Sociology will do exactly that this autumn, when Dr Larissa Meier examines protest and distrust across Europe, on 15 October.

There's more inside. Read on for news from across the School.

Read the newsletter now