Susie Deedigan, programme manager for ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South), was recently selected to join Young Academy Ireland, a prestigious all-island network of early-career researchers and innovators. She is one of 21 new members from Ireland and Northern Ireland who were selected after a competitive process launched by the Royal Irish Academy last year.
Deedigan is a historian who holds a Ph.D. from Queen’s University Belfast.
Her work with ARINS — a joint academic project of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies in the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and the Royal Irish Academy — combines historical scholarship with engagement across policy, public, and academic audiences. Based in Belfast, she contributes to policy engagement, co-produces podcast series, and organizes academic and public events.
Deedigan’s research examines women’s political activism, imprisonment, and cross-border networks in 20th-century Ireland.
Her scholarship includes a monograph in preparation that offers the first dedicated study of Irish female republican imprisonment during World War II. She has produced peer‑reviewed outputs on female activism in the 1940s, collaborative women’s networks across Ireland and Britain, and women’s political participation in Northern Ireland. She has held competitive grants and fellowships, including a visiting research fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, and has presented at major international conferences and research seminars.
Lynn Scarff, executive director fo the Royal Irish Academy, said of the new Young Academy Ireland cohort, “Through YAI, we are investing not only in their professional development, but in their capacity to shape policy dialogue, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and contribute meaningfully to the societal challenges facing Ireland and beyond.”