Dr Aideen O'Shaughnessy

I am a sociologist interested in the study of embodiment, emotions, reproduction and feminist protest movements. My core research focuses on the study of embodiment and abortion politics. Combining theoretical approaches from feminist phenomenology, affect theory and new social movement studies, I attempt to articulate new ways of understanding the embodied experience of living under and mobilising against systems of reproductive coercion. I am particularly interested in examining the materiality and temporality of laws and policies which criminalise abortion access. My work relies predominantly on qualitative methodologies, specifically feminist narrative interviewing.

I completed my PhD in the ReproSoc Reproductive Sociology research group in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Cambridge, in 2022 under the supervisor of Professor Sarah Franklin and Dr. Lucy Van De Wiel. I have an M.A. (Res) in Gender Studies from Utrecht University (2017) and a B.A. in Sociology and French (Hons.) from Trinity College Dublin (2015).

I have published on abortion, emotions, feminist social movements, and reproductive health in journals including the European Journal of Women's Studies, the British Medical Journal Sexual and Reproductive Health and Community Development Journal. 

My forthcoming book Embodying Irish Abortion Reform: Bodies, Emotions, and Feminist Activism will be published by Bristol University Press in 2024.

Research interests: Reproductive rights and reproductive justice, feminist politics and protest, abortion, gender and sexuality, emotions and affect, embodiment, sexual and reproductive health.