Eilish Dillon

About

Having transferred from Kimmage Development Studies Centre in 2018, Eilish Dillon is now Head of the Department of International Development, Maynooth University. Eilish also co-ordinates the MA in International Development. She has developed and facilitated a range of classroom-based and online development-related programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level including modules on development theory and practice, media and development, social movements and globalisation, and research methods. Her current teaching focuses on contemporary development issues and theories as well as on qualitative research, and she has responsibility for supporting participants’ primary research at postgraduate level.

Eilish has been actively engaged in development education and activism in Ireland for nearly 30 years and her work has straddled both formal and non-formal education contexts. She has recently (2017) completed Doctoral research entitled ‘How Critical is Talk? Discourses of Development Education among Facilitators in Ireland’. She is particularly interested in exploring different constructions of criticality when it comes to development and development education and is actively engaged in research and publications on discourses and representations of and within development policy and practice in Ireland.

Eilish has worked in a variety of contexts including in Southern Africa and in Central America. She has presented papers, organised conferences and seminars, and facilitated courses and strategic planning for various groups and organisations on issues such as development education and campaigning skills, NGO representations of development, curriculum development, human rights education and volunteer development work. She has facilitated courses in different countries such as Albania, Cyprus, Russia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia and Tanzania.
 
Recent Research and Publications
2018 – Dillon, E (2018) 'Critical History Matters: Understanding Development Education in Ireland Today through the Lens of the Past', Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, Vol. 27, Autumn, pp. 14-36. https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue/issue-27/critical-history-matters-understanding-development-education-ireland-today-through
2018 - (forthcoming) Paper to be published in the International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning – How Critical is the Global? Discursive Shifts in Development Education in Ireland.
2017 – Dillon, E (2017) ‘How Critical is Talk? Discourses of Development Education among Facilitators in Ireland’, Doctoral Thesis, Department of Adult and Community Education, Maynooth University. http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/9558/
2016 – Book Chapter – In: Chenker, M., Hadjivasiliou, L., Marren, P., and Rooney, N., (eds) Development Education in Theory and Practice: An Educator’s Resource. Title of Chapter: Development Education in Third Level Education. https://developmenteducation.ie/resource/development-education-in-theory-and-practice-an-educators-resource/
2015 – Dillon, E (2015) 'What Questions are We Asking? Challenges for Development Education from a Discourse Analysis of National Surveys on Attitudes to Development in Ireland', Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, Vol. 20, Spring, pp. 37-62. https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue/issue-20/what-questions-are-we-asking-challenges-development-education-discourse-analysis
2012 - Review of the Dóchas Code of Conduct on Images and Messages, process facilitation and report writing.
2009 – Book Chapter in Forde, C. Kiely, E. and Meade, R. (eds) Youth and Community Work in Ireland: Critical Perspectives, Blackwell, Dublin. Title: ‘Youth and Community Work in Ireland in the context of Globalisation – Towards a Politics of Transformation’