Dr Aidan O'Sullivan
Dr. O鈥橲ullivan got his first degree, a 1:1 joint-honours in Sociology and Philosophy, from the University College of Cork in the Republic of Ireland in 2006. He would go onto to receive the same mark for his Masters in Sociology at the same institution in 2008. He would then graduate from the University of Liverpool in 2017 with a PhD in Sociology analyzing the response of the Metropolitan Police Service to anti-austerity protests.
He joined BCU in 2016 after many years teaching across Sociology and Criminology in Cork and Liverpool.听
Areas of Expertise
- Policing
- Protest
- Politics
- Music
- Social History
Qualifications
- PGCert
- PhD Sociology
- MA Sociology
Memberships
- HEA Fellow
- Irish Sociological Association
Teaching
- CRI4032 Policing, Investigation and Society
- CRI4033 Crime in its Historical and Political Context Transnational Organised and Corporate Crime
- CRI7037 Terrorism and Political Violence;
- CRI7036 International Institutions and Security;
- CRI7029 Researching Crime and Society;
- CRI4036 Security Studies: The Essentials;
- SOC7000 Issues in Contemporary Security;
- CRI7028 Advanced Research Methods
Research
- Cybercrime and Police Brutality
- Heavy Metal and Sociology of Music
Publications
Publications/Media
O鈥橲ullivan, A. & Kerrigan, N. (Forthcoming) Rebels in Society?: 鈥楽treet Politics鈥� and Organic Intellectuals in the UK Oi! punk scene during the Miners鈥� Strike 1984-1985. In: Blackman, S., Raine, S., Hamilton, C. and McPherson, R. (eds.) Popular Music Ethnographies: Practice, Place and Identity. Bristol: Intellect Publishing.
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2023) Teaching Activist Criminology in the Neoliberal University. In: Martin, G., Canning, V. and Tombs, S. (eds.) Emerald International Handbook of Activist Criminology. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.
Omukuti, J. & O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2023) The Green Climate Fund as an elaborate scheme of generating social harms. In: Crawford, N., Mikulewicz, M. (eds.) Climate Justice in the Majority World: Case Studies from Africa, South Asia and Latin America.听 Oxfordshire: Routledge. 听
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2022) Political Policing. In: Atkinson, R. (ed.) Shades of Deviance: A Primer on Crime, Deviance and Social Harm [2nd Edition]. Oxfordshire: Routledge. 听
O鈥橲ullivan, A., Omukuti, J. & Ryder, S.S. (2022) Global surpluses of extraction and slow climate violence: A sociological framework. Sociological Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12518
Hamourtziadou, L. & O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2021) Crimes of a 鈥榖enevolent鈥� hegemony: Configurations of UK power in Northern Ireland and Iraq.听Journal of Global Faultlines. [Online] 8 (2), 153鈥�171. Available from:
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2021a) 鈥楤lack Lives Matters and the Global History of Irish Anti-Imperialism鈥�. In: Michael, L. and Joseph, E. (eds.)The Sociological Observer: Black Lives Matters . Maynooth, Sociological Association of Ireland.
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2021b) Book Review: 32 Counties: The Failure of Partition and the Case for a United Ireland by Kieran Allen. Irish Journal of Sociology. [Online] (print edition forthcoming), 1-3.
[Quoted in]: 探花直播 (2020) 鈥楳ore than 80 per cent of prison leavers said they received no help preparing for release, new research finds鈥�. 探花直播 City university [Online] 25th February 2020. Available from: /social-sciences/news/more-than-80-per-cent-of-people-in-prison-say-they-received-no-help-preparing-for-release-new-research-finds (Accessed 13 February 2021)
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2020a) Beyond COVID-19, Beyond Work?. Discover Society [Online] 7th April 2020.听
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2020b) How lockdown has redefined public order policing. The Conversation [Online] 21st May 2020. Available from:
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2019a) Fact 13: There were 298,949 police stop-and-search incidents in England and Wales in 2016/2017-a rate of 5 per 1,000. In: Treadwell, J. and Lynes, A. (eds). 50 Facts Everyone Should Know About Crime & Punishment in Britain. Bristol, Policy Press, pp. 77-81.
O鈥橲ullivan, A. (2019b) Policing in the Anthropocene. The Ecologist [Online] 4th July 2019. Available from:
[Quoted in]: Burgess, Matt (2018) The 拢10 million ring of steel hiding Trump from London鈥檚 protesters. Wired [Online] 13th July 2018. Available from: (Accessed 15 October 2019).
Conferences and Presentations
2023 -听Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference,听University College of Dublin, Panel: 鈥漈he unfolding socio-material legacy that is climate change鈥�
2023 -听British Sociological Association Annual Conference,听University of Manchester, 鈥淕lobal surpluses of extraction and slow climate violence: A sociological framework鈥�
2023 -听Southern Sociological Society Annual Conference,听Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 鈥淕lobal surpluses of extraction and slow climate violence: A sociological framework鈥�
2022 -听Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference,听Technological University of Shannon,听鈥淏oth Sides of the Irish Sea-Reflections on Northern Ireland and the Irish diaspora post-Brexit鈥�
2022 -听Global Faultline Workshop, Keele University,听鈥淭he Imperial Boomerang and the Troubles鈥�
2021 -听Centre for Security and Extremism, 探花直播,听鈥淭he Imperial Boomerang and the Troubles鈥�
2019听- European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control Conference,听Can Batll贸, Barcelona,听鈥淪watting and Police Brutality鈥�
2019 -听Being Human Festival, Goldsmiths University,听Panel for screening of Lasting Marks and Evidence of the Evidence
2018 -听British Society of Criminology, 探花直播,听鈥淧olicing protest in an age of anti-austerity鈥�
Peer Reviewer
Mortality Journal
Research interests: Critical Criminology; Zemiology and Structural Violence; Green Criminology and Environmental Sociology; Sociology of Time; Post-conflict legacies; Post-colonialism and Southern Criminology.
Links and Social Media
Twitter -