In November, Dr. Ian Marder (Assistant Professor in Criminology, Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology) undertook a two-week study visit to the Universities of York, Leeds and Edinburgh Napier. During this trip, he met numerous leaders and staff from research centres and partnerships to explore how they operate and to bring that learning back to Ireland. The visits were funded by the National Open Research Forum which funds an ongoing project to embed a culture of interdisciplinary open research in Ireland. For that project, Dr. Marder established and chairs the Criminal justice Open Research Dialogue (CORD) Partnership, which the learning from this study visit will help develop.
In York and Leeds, Ian visited the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre (VPRC), with whom he is a research associate, based across the two universities. In addition to meetings, Ian presented the work CORD has done so far, including a scoping review of criminal justice research partnerships, to the VPRC leadership and staff team. He gave a public lecture at the University of Leeds Centre for Criminal Justice Studies and (with Katharina Kurz) a workshop for the VPRC’s International PhD Network on their research in police-community dialogue.
The following week, Ian travelled to Scotland. He was hosted as a Visiting Fellow at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (SCCJS) and as a Visiting Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University’s School of Applied Sciences. There, he met leaders at the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) and the SCCJS to learn more about their work and collaboration. He also disseminated CORD’s work to-date through a presentation. While in Edinburgh, Ian gave a guest lecture to criminology students at Edinbugh Napier University. At the University of Edinburgh, he delivered training on restorative circles for academics with the Department of Social Work, and presented his research on the training of senior prison leaders in restorative practices as part of the University of Edinburgh Law School Crime, Justice and Society Seminar Series.