Caitriona Dowd

Caitriona Dowd is Assistant Professor in Security Studies at DCU's School of Law and Government.

Her research focuses on the dynamics of political violence in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular attention to the role of conflict in humanitarian crises, civilian targeting and terror tactics, and the use of new and emerging methodologies for violence monitoring. Employing a combination of quantitative, geographic and qualitative methodologies, Caitriona's research explores patterns of conflict in comparative contexts, in both cross-national and country-focused cases. Caitriona's work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals including African Affairs, Terrorism and Political Violence, Political Geography, Peacebuilding, The Journal of Modern African Studies and Annals of the American Association of Geographers.

Caitriona has led graduate-level teaching on the governance of violent conflict, international security in global politics, the political economy of violent conflict and research methods.

In her previous role as a peace and conflict specialist in the humanitarian sector, Caitriona worked in Somalia, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Mali, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan. She holds degrees from the University of Sussex, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Trinity College Dublin.

Research interests

Research interests include violent conflict, violence monitoring systems, humanitarian crises, and data. Regional focus in sub-Saharan Africa; experienced in qualitative, mixed methods, statistical and geographic research methods.