Brigid laffan biography template
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Brigid continues to contribute to Irish and International media on EU affairs and has appeared on RTÉ, BBC, ITV, and many continental European channels.
In Ireland, Brigid has served on the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), the Government’s Asia-Strategy Group and was a founder member of the Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin.
She has also served as a Director and Board member of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice (MRFCJ), the founding Board of the Undergraduate Awards and the Advisory Board of ‘We the Citizens’.
Happily married for 40 years to Michael (whom she met at the University of Limerick while both were fellow students), the couple they have three children, Diarmuid, Kate and Roisin.
Brigid was also awarded a Doctorate honoris causa by the National University of Ireland (NUI) in 2015 and the University of Edinburgh in 2017.
Visiting fellowships have been held by Brigid at the Freie Universität Berlin, Harvard University Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, European University Institute (EUI), Peking University, University of Edinburgh, the University of Leiden and she has undertaken lecture tours in Japan and Australia.
In terms of research, Brigid has successfully competed for numerous EU funded projects, raising well over one million in funding prior to her arrival at the EUI.
She also was central to PRTLI bids at UCD that raised approximately 4 million. In 2012, both Brigid and Michael – along with all their classmates from the first class of students admitted to NIHE Limerick back in 1972 – were honoured by their alma mater with Honorary Master Degrees as part of ‘UL40’ celebrations.
Brigid Laffan
Biography
Laffan is a professor of European politics at University College Dublin and has spent the last six years as vice president of the university.
Following the defeat of the Nice and Lisbon referendums in Ireland, Brigid and a small group of others established campaigning organisations to engage in public debate on the key issues facing Ireland and the EU. Starting from scratch and with no resources, they mobilised formidable campaigning organisations. As the crisis unfolded, European institutions and the member states struggled to respond to the crisis in a manner which convinced the markets that the political capacity and financial muscle existed to address Europe's banking and sovereign debt woes.
She then returned to her alma mater in Limerick as a lecturer from 1978 to 1986. In 2005, she was elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and in 2010 received the Ordre nationale du Mérite from the President of the French Republic. Among her most important books are: Integration and Co-operation in Europe (1992), The Finances of the Union (1997), Europe's Experimental Union - Re-thinking Integration (2000, co-authored), Renovation or Revolution: new territorial politics in Ireland and the United Kingdom (2005, co-edited), Ireland and the European Union (2008, co-authored), Core-periphery Relations in the European Union (2016, co-edited) and Europe’s Union in Crisis: Tested and Contested - West European Politics (Special Issue 2016).
Brigid has contributed to debate in Ireland on European affairs by chairing the Irish Alliance for Europe during the Nice II referendum and Ireland for Europe during the second Lisbon referendum.
During her time at CES, Laffan will begin a study on the Euro Crisis. In November 2018 she was ranked among the women who shape Europe by POLITICO and was also awarded by the University of Limerick Alumni Association with its highest honour.
Since retiring from the European University Institute, Professor Laffan has continued to work on large EU collaborative research projects. She has published ten books and written countless journal articles and book chapters and is the recipient of awards as illustrious as the Ordre national du Mérite – an accolade conferred by the President of France.
Prof Brigid Laffan
Born in Cahirciveen Co.
Kerry in 1955, Brigid Laffan is Professor and Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy, a position she has held since 2013. The research aims to explore the relationship between ideas and interests in the unfolding crisis.
This information is accurate for the time period that the scholar is affiliated with CES.
Affiliations
- Visiting Scholar 2011-2012, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
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Following three years at the Institute of Public of Administration (IPA) in Dublin, Brigid was awarded a Newman Fellowship at University College Dublin (UCD).Professor Laffan was also the founding director of the Dublin European Institute UCD from 1999 and in March 2004 she was elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Her scholarship has been recognised by the award as a Senior Fellow in the Social Sciences by the Government of Ireland (2002), the THESEUS Award for Outstanding Research on European Integration in 2012, and the Lifetime Achievement Award for contribution to the development of European Studies in 2014 by the UK Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES).
Her research focuses on the dynamic of European integration and she has published 10 books, over 35 journal articles and 65 book chapters in leading international academic presses. At UCD, Brigid held the post of Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics and Director of the Dublin European Institute (DEI). The Schuman Centre under her leadership raises approximately 8 million a year in external funding.
Following her graduation from the University of Limerick (then NIHE Limerick) with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1976, Brigid began her academic career at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium where she worked as a Research Co-ordinator on a project on regional integration.
Professor Brigid Laffan - Chancellor
Chancellor of the University and Chairperson of the Governing Authority
Professor Laffan was appointed to the role of Chancellor in November 2023. Brigid Laffan is Emeritus Professor at the European University Institute. Professor Laffan was Director and Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and Director of the Global Governance Programme and the European Governance and Politics Programme at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence until her retirement in August 2021.
Previously, Professor Laffan was Professor of European Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) University College Dublin (UCD), and she was Vice-President of UCD and Principal of the College of Human Sciences from 2004 to 2011.
In July of this year, Brigid led a successful consortium for a 3 million euro research project on Differentiated Integration (to commence in January 2019). She is a member of the Board of the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice, the Fulbright Commission (until September 2013) and was the 2013 Visiting Scientist for the EXACT Marie Curie Network.
She has worked on the dynamic of European integration and has published in the Journal of Common Market Studies, West European Politics, and the Journal of European Public Policy. She was appointed a Vice-President of UCD in 2005 and acted as College Principal of the newly formed College of Human Sciences.
A recipient of numerous awards, Brigid received the Chairman’s Award for Distinguished Graduates, University of Limerick in 1991.