A graduate of English, Media and Cultural Studies, with a focus on gentrification and the public sphere. Mary has a decade of experience working directly with groups from marginalised communities through Community Development principles.  By applying critical approaches to engagement across cultural and economic divides she brings an interdisciplinary approach to the programmes she engages with; indigenous Travellers in Ireland, Israeli and Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, economically marginalised youth in Europe. Having focused on interfaith based initiatives and the intersection of race, gender and class, Mary became interested in how competing narratives frame our understanding of self and ‘the other.’  This informs her work in Production in the Irish Film Industry.

As an experienced trainer in intercultural youth work, development education, inclusion and youth empowerment she is a contributing member of IDEA’s Development Education Advisory Group to the Irish Government regarding their commitment to mainstreaming the global Sustainable Development Goals.

As a lecturer in the English, Drama and Film school of the University College Dublin she coordinates the under-graduate course in ‘Gender and Sexuality in Modern Middle Eastern Film and Literature’

The course explores works produced by women and the LGBTQI+ community across various cultural and religious contexts in the modern Middle East and North Africa. Topics covered in the course include: colonialism, de- and post- colonialism, Islam in everyday life, gender, kinship, sexuality, war, structural violence, intersectionality, art, globalisation, the state, globalisation, social movements, and revolution.