Biography
Dr Anne O’Connor is a graduate of Dublin City University where she completed her undergraduate studies in International Marketing and Languages, and MA in Applied Languages (French and German). She completed her PhD in the Department of Sociology in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth under the supervision of Professor Séan O’Riain. She has been based at SETU Carlow since 1993 and has taught to level 8 in French, German, English as a Foreign Language, Comparative Business Culture, Organisational Behaviour and has supervised final year dissertation students at level 8. She has had poems published in the Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, The SHOp, Boyne Berries, Poetry Ireland Review, The Oxfam Calendar, and in other publications.
Research Interests
Dr O'Connor's research interests include: Qualitative Research Methods; The Sociology of Work; Occupational Choice Theory; Charitable Organisations and Volunteering; Ethnography; Symbolic Interactionism; Human-Animal Interaction, Twenty-First Century Workplaces; AI, Automation and the Question of UBI (Universal Basic Income); Organisational Theory; Socio-Cultural Change; Polyani’s Moral Economy.
Engagement and Collaboration
I have extensive volunteering experience with animal charities, some of which formed the respondent pool and ethnographic observation sites for my PhD dissertation.
I have to date only supervised undergraduate dissertations. In the future I would be happy to consider a supervisory role for qualitative studies in Sociology in my area of expertise.
Publications and Outputs
Peer Reviewer for Society & Animals 2023
Invited to be a member of the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journal, Social Sciences, p-ISSN: 2326-9863
Peer-reviewer for Society and Animals 2022
Asked to review a book proposal for the University of Georgia Press.
'Finding Sanctuary in the Occupational Choice of Animal Shelter Work', Society & Animals, Volume 29: Issue 2, p.153-171.
Conference Paper at the British Sociological Association (BSA) annual conference, Leeds University 2014: ‘The Best Job in the World? An Ethnographic Study of Animal Shelter Work.
Conference Paper at the Irish Philosophy Society annual conference, Carlow College 2017: Finding Sanctuary: The Occupational Choice of Animal Shelter Work.
Pending publication (2018) in the Sociology journal Society and Animals: “They See Me Properly" : Finding Sanctuary in the Occupational Choice of Animal Shelter Work.
I am currently working on adapting my PhD thesis to book form, and extending its scope to examine the meaning of work in the Twenty-First century.