Elizabeth Meade

Dr Elizabeth Meade is an Assistant Professor in Education in the Department of Education in Maynooth University and is also a member of the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy. Elizabeth teaches on a range of programmes in the Department, at undergraduate and postgraduate level, mainly social justice, global citizenship education (GCE) and philosophy of education.

Elizabeth earned her PhD from the Philosophy Department at Maynooth University in 2015, for her research into freedom in the early writings of Emmanuel Levinas, which was funded by the John and Pat Hume Scholarship. Elizabeth believes strongly in the applicability and usefulness of philosophically informed thinking for contemporary society, particularly in relation to understanding and addressing social justice issues. Although her work is situated within the philosophical tradition, it is interdisciplinary in nature with a strong commitment to concrete social change.

Elizabeth’s commitment to engaged scholarship led her to teach and research across a diverse range of informal education settings. Elizabeth has brought her practice in community philosophy to local libraries, a drug free community education centre, prison education and autonomous education spaces. She is particularly interested in public pedagogy and widening opportunities for thinking philosophically together with others among marginalised communities and voices. She has also facilitated community philosophy and philosophy with children across various formal education spaces, working with students in primary, post-primary and third level institutions. Her work explores how relational and dialogical pedagogies can challenge the expectation of hegemonic behaviour within formal education settings, and how this pertains in particular to working class and racialized identities. Her work also explores how schooling and education can shape understandings and practices of subjectivity, citizenship and political identities and help to increase capacity for direct democratic participation and conjoined living in society.

Elizabeth has a broad range of interests related to social justice. Her work engages with democracy, diversity, and education with a particular focus on the democratisation of educational spaces, pedagogies and experiences. Elizabeth’s research and practice is influenced by phenomenology, existentialism, feminist theory, critical pedagogy, ecopedagogy, political philosophy and decolonial theories and perspectives.