Speakers and Contributor's Bios

Sinéad Rice - Welcome, Belonging Panel 2: Art and Ireland Today

Sinéad Rice is Head of Education and Public Programming at the National Gallery of Ireland. A first generation academic with a professional background in education, curation and socially engaged arts practice, Sinéad has over twenty years experience in the cultural sector in Ireland and abroad. In her role at the Gallery, Sinéad ensures responsive, equitable, and inclusive opportunities are created for diverse audiences, and is committed to addressing barriers to the arts, exploring the pivotal role they may play not only in artistic, but also social and civic life.

Dr Ebun Joseph - Special Rapporteur

Dr Ebun Joseph is a leading race relations and inclusion consultant, academic, author and equality advocate. She is the Founder and CEO of the Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies (IABS) and serves as Ireland’s Special Rapporteur on Racial Equality and Racism. Her work sits at the intersection of race, belonging, representation, participation and structural inequality, with a particular focus on how systems shape the lives and opportunities of racialised and ethnic minority communities in Ireland.

Dr Joseph established Ireland’s first credit-bearing Black Studies module at University College Dublin (UCD) in 2018, where she is Module Coordinator and Lecturer. She is also the founder of the African Scholars Association Ireland (AfSAI), which she chaired from 2018 to 2022.

Her research and writing examine race, inequality and participation in Irish society. She is the author of Critical Race Theory and Inequality in the Labour Market (Manchester University Press, 2020) and the Equity in the Workplace series, which centres the experiences of Black Irish women, including Stories of Black Irish Women in Ireland and Stories of Black Irish Women in Academia. Her work has contributed to wider conversations about race, representation, belonging and structural inequality in Ireland.

An award-winning scholar, Dr Joseph received the Irish Journal of Management Prize for her paper, Composite Counterstorytelling as a Technique for Challenging Ambivalence about Race and Racism in the Labour Market in Ireland. She is also the producer of the documentaries Equity in the Workplace and Echoes of 2004, both of which explore questions of inequality, identity and belonging.

Through her academic research, public engagement and policy work, Dr Joseph brings a distinctive perspective to questions of belonging and representation. She is also the host of The DEeP Table, a national live dialogue platform bringing diverse voices into conversations about identity, inequality, belonging and the future of Irish society.

Brian Maguire - Opening Keynote

Brian Maguire’s painting practice is driven by the struggle against inequality and violence, and the pursuit of justice. Compelled towards the raw realities of human conflict, Maguire approaches painting foremost as an act of solidarity, rehumanising his subjects and recentering the narratives of the disenfranchised. Social engagement plays a central role, leading him to work closely and interactively with refugees, survivors of warzones, incarcerated peoples, and local newsrooms in locations including Sudan, Syria, São Paulo and Ciudad Juárez. This subject-led approach requires negotiating an exchange, establishing a method of working that attempts to “repay the debt” to its subjects. Maguire’s direct observation of conflict zones puts his practice adjacent to forms of war reporting or photojournalism, but while his artworks begin as acts of bearing witness, his task in the studio is to transform his testimony into blisteringly powerful works of art. There is a resulting tension between the raw and visceral nature of Maguire’s subject matter and the seductive, illusory nature of painting itself. Rather than abandoning aestheticism, Maguire uses painterly skill, surface and texture to draw us into an uncomfortable relationship in which ethical vision functions as part of the poetic imagination, resituating art in the concrete social structures from which it is so often removed.

Maguire is currently subject of a major solo touring exhibition, La Grande Illusion, touring from Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin (2024–25), to University of South Florida Art Museum, Tampa, USA (29 August – 6 March 2026) and Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chile in 2026. His work is also currently in the collection of IMMA: Art As Agency, Dublin (Group, continues until February 2028). Recent exhibitions include Converge 45, a biennial exhibition curated by Christian Viveros-Faune, Portland, USA; recent solo exhibitions include law of the land, Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen; The Clock Winds Down, Kerlin Gallery (both 2023); In The Light of Conscience, Missoula Art Museum, Montana (2022); Remains, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2021– 2022); Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, USA (2021); American University Museum, Washington DC and United Nations Headquarters, New York, USA (both 2020); Rubin Center, Texas University, USA (2019); Art Museum Ciudad Juárez, Mexico (2019) and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2018). Maguire’s work is represented in the collections of Irish Museum of Modern Art; The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; Museum of Fine Art Houston; the University of Chicago; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag; Alvar Alto Museum, Finland and The Tia Collection, Santa Fe.

Dr Jennifer Redmond - Memoir Session 1

Dr. Jennifer Redmond is Associate Professor in Twentieth Century Irish History in the Department of History at Maynooth University. She researchers, teaches and publishes in the areas of women’s and gender history with a focus on identity, motherhood, citizenship, employment, sexualities and migration. Having become fascinated with passports and identity documents, she created the research network HIDDEN: History of Identity Documentation in European Nations  (CA21120) funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology organisation. which brings together scholars in different disciplines across the EU to examine issues of identity documentation, in the past, present and future. She is also a member of the Women’s History Association of Ireland national committee and is the incoming President of the Irish Historical Society.

Dr Evgeny Shtorn - Memoir Session 2

Dr Evgeny Shtorn is an Irish Russophone writer, activist, and researcher. He left Russia in 2018 due to his civil society work and was granted international protection in Ireland in 2019. He completed his PhD at the University of Helsinki in August 2026. His research examines violence against LGBTIQ+ people in Russia and focuses on confronting authoritarian governance, analysing its effects on civil society, and supporting human rights work on the ground. In parallel, he develops autoethnographic writing grounded in lived experience, bridging research, advocacy, and narrative practice. He also collaborates with international partners on initiatives supporting human rights defenders at risk.

Brina Casey - Belonging Panel 1: Community & Care

Brina Casey holds the position of Education Manager: Special Projects at the National Gallery of Ireland, and is an accredited psychotherapist with the Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, in private practice. Having worked over two decades in a range of cultural and heritage organizations, Brina has a focus on championing research-led practice and collaborative projects across the Gallery, working to build positive links with local and national communities. Brina manages the Gallery’s ground-breaking programme of museum-based art psychotherapy, building a synthesis between the benefits of psychodynamic psychotherapy in a group setting, with the personal, therapeutic integration of cultural spaces and collections. Brina holds a Bachelor’s degree from Trinity College Dublin, graduate qualifications in art history and business management from University College Dublin, trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist with the Tivoli Institute, Dublin, and holds an MSc in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from TCD.

Lelo Mary Thebe - Belonging Panel 1: Community & Care

Lelo Mary Thebe is an events manager and community development worker based in County Roscommon. Originally from Zimbabwe, her lived experience of migration profoundly informs her advocacy work at the Roscommon Women's Network. Lelo bridges grassroots community building with creative expression, creating space for women to integrate into society with Women of Impact and AMDAF in the Connaught region. 

Andrea Plunkett - Belonging Panel 1: Community & Care

Andrea Plunkett is a trauma-informed Art Psychotherapist, researcher and Cultural Art Therapy practitioner. She holds an MSc in Art Psychotherapy from Ulster University and a BA in Psychology from Dublin City University along with over 2 decades of experience in community, social care and health care environments.

Andrea is the Cultural Art Psychotherapist in Residence here at the National Gallery of Ireland, where she facilitates 'No Words', a museum-based art psychotherapy programme working with diverse and vulnerable communities, including people affected by domestic violence, displacement, migration and social isolation.

Her work explores how art, culture and creative practice can create spaces for connection, expression and belonging, particularly when experiences are difficult or impossible to put into words. Cultural Art Therapy as an approach is trauma informed and seeks to bring together art psychotherapy, cultural identity, community and place.

Her practice and research have an increasingly international focus, including recent work and training initiatives in Southeast Asia and China.

Peace Chukwurah – Belonging Panel 1: Community & Care

Peace Chukwurah is a Nigerian-Irish primary school teacher and member of the UNESCO SDG4 Youth and Student Network where she co-chairs the Inclusion, Equity and Gender Equality working group. She works across primary education, global citizenship, and educational equity, focusing on creating inclusive learning environments where every learner belongs and bridging the gap between classroom practice and youth-led education policy. She is also education manager at Black & Irish.

Tolu Ogunware - Belonging Panel 2: Art & Ireland Now

Tolu Ogunware is a Nigerian-British artist, filmmaker and photographer based in Belfast. Tolu’s work often explores identity, belonging and community. Known for his striking visual storytelling, Tolu creates portraits and films that celebrate marginalized voices and challenge cultural narratives. His documentary Black, Northern Irish, and Proud aired on BBC in 2022. His photography has been exhibited in NAE Nottingham, Photo Museum Ireland, Belfast Exposed and OPW Dublin. Tolu's scripted film work has played at many notoable film festivals intenationally. Tolu blends technical craft with social consciousness. His practice centers on amplifying underrepresented communities and ensuring the enduring presence of Black creatives in contemporary visual culture.

Ala Buisir - Belonging Panel 2: Art & Ireland Now

Ala Buisir is an award-winning visual artist & journalist. Born in Ireland with Libyan roots, she is a graduate BA in Photography from TU Dublin and MA in Journalism from DCU and is currently undertaking a PhD by practice at the University of Limerick, in which she investigates the ‘othering’ of Muslim women in the Western world by societal Islamaphobia and Western tropes of Islam. In doing so, she aims to use this research to inform participatory arts-based interventions that challenge Islamaphobia against Muslim women by amplifying Muslim women's voices and creating avenues for digital storytelling in which these voices are agents in their narrative.

Ala’s work documents the social and political tension around us today. The aim is to raise awareness by presenting events through different perspectives in hopes that it may also bring about change.

She is also the co-founder of Gorm Media, an impact-focused digital media start-up with a mission of unifying across differences and advancing belonging for marginalised communities. Ala is also a board member of the Amal Women's Association, a Muslim women-led organisation which provides front-line services to Muslim women connected to the Muslim community nationwide.

Ben Malcolmson - Belonging Panel 2: Art & Ireland Now

Ben Malcolmson is a visual artist and curator from Belfast. His fine art practice explores the parameters of photography, video, and sculpture, using alternative photographic processes to examine land and identity. Recent solo and duo exhibitions include here and there at PS³, Belfast (2025); Horizon at Flax Art Studios Project Space, Belfast (2025); Shared Histories – Diverse Views at Nerve Centre, Derry~Londonderry (2025) and Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny (2024); Lands In-between at QSS, Belfast (2022); and Murmur at Belfast Exposed, Belfast (2020).

Selected group exhibitions include Picturing the Border: 1921 – 2026 at Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda (2026); Songs to a Siren at The Model, Sligo (2026); TALENTS at Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin (2025); Tilt the interval at IMMA, Dublin (2025/26); Belfast Film Festival (2025); and I feel how my eye turns at Screen Service x Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon (2025). He received a year long residential residency at Fire Station Artist Studios, Dublin (2027-28) and was awarded as commission artist on ‘Shared Histories – Diverse Views’ from Photo Museum Ireland (2024), he holds a First Class Honours BA in Photography with Video from Ulster University (2021) and diploma in International Studies at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (2019-20).

Suad Aldarra - Memoir Session 2

Suad Aldarra is a Syrian-Irish writer and engineer based in Dublin. She is the winner of the Rooney Prize Award for Irish Literature 2024. Suad holds a Master’s in Data Analytics from the University of Galway. Suad was selected as the Common Currency writer in residence for Cuirt International Festival and English/Irish PEN in 2021 and was awarded the Art Councils of Ireland English Literature bursary.

Her debut memoir, I Don’t Want to Talk About Home, published by Doubleday (Penguin) in July 2022, and was shortlisted for An Post Irish Book Awards – Biography of the Year. Suad has written several pieces for the Irish Times and Independent, among other places.

Dr Rita Sakr – Memoir Session 2

Dr Rita Sakr is Associate Professor of Postcolonial and Global Literatures at Maynooth University. Her research focuses on migration and forced displacement, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and modern and contemporary Arab literature and culture, with particular interests in the Mediterranean and SWANA regions. She is the author of Anticipating the 2011 Arab Uprisings and Monumental Space in the Post-Imperial Novel, and her forthcoming book, Arab Displacements, explores experimental literature, displacement and decoloniality. She is also co-founder of the Irish Network of Middle Eastern and North African Studies (INMENAS) and has worked extensively on research and initiatives relating to migration, sanctuary and belonging in Ireland.

Sally Hyden - Closing Keynote

Sally Hayden is an award-winning journalist, photographer and author. Her first book, My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route - which documents crimes against humanity taking place on Europe's borders - won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award, the Michel Déon Prize, the Terzani Prize, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, among others. This Is Also a Love Story: Searching for Good in a Divided World is Sally’s second book, published May 2026. She was named overall ‘Journalist of the Year’ at the Irish Journalism Awards in 2023 and 2025.

Lara Marlowe - Closing Keynote

Lara Marlowe was born in California and studied French at UCLA and the Sorbonne, then International Relations at Oxford. She started her career as an associate producer with CBS’s 60 Minutes programme, then moved to print journalism for the Financial Times and TIME Magazine. She has reported for a host of broadcast and print media and was a staff foreign
correspondent, based in Paris and Washington, for The Irish Times from 1996 until 2023.

Marlowe has reported from more than a dozen war zones and has won four press awards. She has completed five long reporting stints in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion of 24 February 2022 and continues to write a column for The Irish Times.

Marlowe makes her permanent home in Paris, where she has covered five French presidents. She became a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2006 for her contribution to Franco-Irish relations.

Marlowe is the author of How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying: Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko’s Fight for Ukraine, Love in a Time of War: My Years with Robert Fisk, Painted with Words and The Things I’ve See: Nine Lives of a Foreign Correspondent.

Yosef Phelan - Artist Documenting Art, Migration, and the Politics of Belonging

Yosef Phelan (he/him) is an Irish-Palestinian visual artist and animator based in Dublin. His work explores themes of identity, memory, location and belonging.

In his recent work, Yosef draws from intimate recorded conversations about his father’s experiences growing up in Palestine and the years thereafter. Yosef’s work aims to immortalise and archive his own experiences as part of the diaspora alongside his father's stories of Palestine through the medium of animation.

Yosef holds a BA degree in Visual Communication Design from TU Dublin. His work has been exhibited internationally. He was awarded Best Use of Typography at the IDI Graduate Awards for his project Roads of Return (2022). He is a member of A4 Sounds Studios in Dublin.