Dr Irena Loveikaite

2014 Sept-Present Waterford Institute of Technology

Position: Lecturer

Subjects: Sociology of Contemporary Ireland (Level 8), Interdisciplinary Seminars (Level 8), Race and Ethnicity (Level 8), Modernisation and Social Change (Level 7), Social Facts and Structures (Level 7), Key Themes in Sociology (Level 7), Sociology of Gender (Level 8), Personal and Professional Development (Level 7/8), Northern Ireland: Sociology of Peace and Conflict (Level 8), Sociology of Deviance (Level 8), History of Social Care in 20th and 19th Century (Level 7)

My research interests are in qualitative methods,  Foucauldian feminist research, interdisciplinary approaches, participatory research, sensuous research methods and carnal hermeneutics, embodiment, teenagers' lived experiences, social media and exercise of power. 

2012-2018 PhD Teenage girls in Ireland negotiating media messages about ‘appropriate’ femininity in the construction and presentation of their subjectivity on Social Networking Sites, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

2018 June 5-day IPA Summer School Tricksterology: The Political Anthropology of Evil, UCC/WIT/Cambridge University and Roskilde University (Copenhagen), Italy

2017 June 5-day IPA Summer School The Political Anthropology of Subversion: On a secret technique of transformation, UCC/WIT/Cambridge University and Roskilde University (Copenhagen), Italy

2017 May 1-day Workshop with Tom O’Donoghue (University of Western Australia) Challenges in qualitative mixed methods research, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

2016 November Masterclass The Value of Social Science to Human Existence in Hypermodernity, UCC, Ireland

2015 November 3-day International EU COST Action Training School Assessing appearance dissatisfaction in marginalised and socially disadvantaged groups, University of Malta, Malta

2015 May 5-day International PhD Economy and Society Summer School, WIT and UCC, Ireland

2014 Sept 2-day International Workshop with Nora Bateson Gregory Bateson and systemic thinking, The Centre for Creative Practice, Ireland

2014 May 4-day International Intergender Doctoral Course Revisiting ‘doing gender’: language and gender in interaction, Karlstad University, Centre for Gender Studies, Sweden

2014 April 1-day Workshop with Tom O’Donoghue (University of Western Australia) Grounded theory, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

2013 Nov 4-day International Intergender Doctoral Course Sex machines: politicising contemporary sexual pleasures, Linkoping University, Centre for Gender Studies, Sweden

2012 April 5-day Theory and Philosophy Summer School Transgression and progressivity,

University College Cork (UCC), Ireland

2012 Dec 2 weeks Winter School Qualitative Methodology, University of Limerick (UL), Ireland

2012 Oct 1-day Masterclass Teen pregnancies and fatherhood, National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland

2012 Nov 2-day Workshop Comparative research methods and teenagers’ sexuality, National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland

2012 Sep 1-day Workshop Gender dimension during the research process, Irish Research Council (IRC), Ireland

2009-2012 Waterford Institute of Technology

BA Level 8 (Hons) Applied Social Studies in Social Care

Awarded: 1st Class Honours (76% overall)

2009-2011 Waterford College of Further Education (WCFE)

FETAC Level 6 Supervision in Childcare course

Awarded: Overall distinctions

2008-2009 Waterford College of Further Education (WCFE)

FETAC Level 5 Certificate in Childcare

Awarded: Overall distinctions

2007-2009 Waterford College of Further Education (WCFE)

FETAC Level 5 Certificate in Special Needs Assistant

Awarded: Overall distinctions

2006-2007 WIT Practical Psychology course

2006-2007 WIT Foundation Certificate in Child and Social Care Studies

2018 March-June Organising Committee for IPA Summer School

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: coordinating application process between applicants and the management team, coordinating communication between applicants and the management team, coordinating the programme events, organising travelling arrangements for the School’s participants, managing the School’s documentation.

2017 May Organising Committee for WIT and Family Therapy Institute Singapore Summer School

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: coordinating programme events between WIT and Singapore team, strategizing and keeping records for future collaborations, managing day to day activities, responding to Singapore team’s queries and concerns, booking and organising the accommodation for Singapore team, resolving any arising issues concerning accommodation with the management

2015 Sept-2017 April EU COST action Appearance Matters

Position: Team member of Working group 10 Media and Appearance

Duties included: Collaborating with the international multidisciplinary team in creating and delivering group’s research strategy, conducting and analysing research data, presenting research data during COST conferences, establishing international links with other researchers, applying for COST funding

2014 March Organising Committee for International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland)

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: Organising the programme and activities for the week, coordinating the programme events between WIT and Belgium team, finding venues for the events, meeting and greeting international delegates, negotiating discounts for group meals with the local restaurants

2011 March Organising Committee for International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland)

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: Organising the programme and activities for the week, coordinating the programme events between WIT and Belgium team, finding venues for the events, meeting and greeting international delegates, negotiating discounts for group meals with the local restaurants  

15th November 2017 – International seminar on Youth and Social Care Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium

Workshop: ‘I’m sexy and I know it’ Teenage girls’ self-presentations on social media Considerations for the practitioner.

21-22 April 2017 - International COST Initiative Conference ‘The impact of appearance in our society’, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Poster: ‘Pretty is the new body shape’: teenage girls negotiating contemporary media discourses of appropriate femininity

31st March-2nd April 2015 - International Interdisciplinary Conference ‘Talking bodies: identity, sexuality, representation’, University of Chester, UK

Paper: Bodies in, with and through secrets during research

2015 Interview with Emma Rees (University of Chester) on my conceptual considerations about qualitative research process in Times Higher Education (Rees, E., 2015, ‘Self-reflective study: the rise of ‘meresearch’’, Times Higher Education, online)

9-11 March 2015 - International Seminar on Children’s rights, University of Leuven, Belgium

Workshop: Young people and social networking sites: reflections for professional practice

10-14 March 2014 - International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland), Waterford, Ireland

Workshop: Teenage girls’ identity construction through Facebook: reimagining work with teenagers

29-30 November 2013 - Sixth International Political Anthropology Workshop in Ireland on

‘Poesis: The ambivalent creation of the truth’, Waterford, Ireland

Paper: The everyday poesis on Facebook: teenage girls’ perspectives 

22-24 October 2013 - Intergender Doctoral course ‘Sex machines: politicising contemporary sexual pleasures’, Linkoping, Sweden

Paper: Bodies in becoming: teen girls’ desiring and mechanical bodies

31st April 2013 - WIT Research day, Waterford, Ireland

Poster: 'How can I become a woman?' Media discourses and a feminine identity creation among teenage girls in Ireland: a qualitative study

3-4 July 2012 - Appearance Matters 5 Annual International Conference, Bristol, UK

Poster: The impact of media messages on teenage girls’ bodies: a qualitative study

12-13 May 2012 - SAI Annual Postgraduate Conference, Maynooth, Ireland 

Poster: How media texts affect teenage girls’ bodies in globalised Ireland

2018 March-June Organising Committee for IPA Summer School

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: coordinating application process between applicants and the management team, coordinating communication between applicants and the management team, coordinating the programme events, organising travelling arrangements for the School’s participants, managing the School’s documentation.

2017 May Organising Committee for WIT and Family Therapy Institute Singapore Summer School

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: coordinating programme events between WIT and Singapore team, strategizing and keeping records for future collaborations, managing day to day activities, responding to Singapore team’s queries and concerns, booking and organising the accommodation for Singapore team, resolving any arising issues concerning accommodation with the management

2015 Sept-2017 April EU COST action Appearance Matters

Position: Team member of Working group 10 Media and Appearance

Duties included: Collaborating with the international multidisciplinary team in creating and delivering group’s research strategy, conducting and analysing research data, presenting research data during COST conferences, establishing international links with other researchers, applying for COST funding

2014 March Organising Committee for International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland)

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: Organising the programme and activities for the week, coordinating the programme events between WIT and Belgium team, finding venues for the events, meeting and greeting international delegates, negotiating discounts for group meals with the local restaurants

2011 March Organising Committee for International Social Care Student exchange week (Belgium-Ireland)

Position: Organising Committee Team Member

Duties included: Organising the programme and activities for the week, coordinating the programme events between WIT and Belgium team, finding venues for the events, meeting and greeting international delegates, negotiating discounts for group meals with the local restaurants