Maura Adshead is Head of Community Engagement and Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick (UL), where she leads UL Engage. Located in the Office of the Vice President for Global and Community Engagement, UL Engage is responsible for developing and supporting community-university partnerships, engaged research and community engaged learning at the University of Limerick. She is a former president of the Political Studies Association of Ireland and a regular political commentator on Irish TV, radio, newspapers and online journals in Ireland and internationally. She is a strong advocate for university-community engagement, using her position to hammer home the importance of communities driving their own development agenda - because when it comes to community development, people who live in communities are the best experts to consult and include.

 

Maura has published on Irish politics and public policy; engaged pedagogy and research in a variety of journals and carried out commissioned research for Combat Poverty, the Irish Health Services Executive (HSE), the Health Research Board (HRB), Irish Research Council (IRC) and the National Economic and Social Forum (NESF) and Government departments including the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Books include: Developing European Regions? Ashgate, 2002; (with Jonathon Tonge) Government and Politics in Ireland, Palgrave, 2009; (with Michelle Millar) Public Administration and Public Policy in Ireland: theory and methods, Routledge 2003; (with Peadar Kirby and Michelle Millar) Contesting the State: lessons from the Irish case, Manchester University Press, 2008; (with Tom Felle) FOI@15, Ireland’s experience of Freedom of Information, Manchester University Press, 2016; and Doing Community Research,2026, Boru Press.