Meet Our Student Fellows

The 2025-2026 Global Irish Studies Initiative Fellowship cohort consists of 4 Undergraduates, 3 Master’s candidate, and 1 PhD candidate. Learn about their independent research projects below.

GIS supports undergraduate and graduate student Fellows (all Georgetown students) in developing independent research projects (both critical and creative) that explore Irish Studies in a comparative or global context, focusing on Irish history, politics, literature, public health, business, and more. Our aim is to support student academic work on Ireland in whatever form it takes and in whatever discipline or school it takes place.

Learn more about previous cohorts of GIS Student Fellows and their research projects here.

The application for 2025-26 Student Fellows is now closed, but students interested in becoming a Global Irish Studies Fellow for the 2026-27 year should check the application page in Fall of 2026.

If you are a friend of Global Irish Studies and you wish to support our Fellows program, contact Prof. Cóilín Parsons for more information, or go to our Make a Gift page.

2025-26 Student Fellows

Eamonn Bellin

GSAS, PhD in History

Eamonn is a PhD candidate in history at Georgetown University. He researches the evolution of unfree labor and its relation to plantation economies and imperial ideologies across the long nineteenth century, focusing on post-emancipation plantation labor in the United States and the British Empire. His research for GIS explores Anglo-Irish and English officers’ service in the British Army during the American Revolution. He earned his MA in history from Georgetown and his BA in Philosophy and International Affairs from George Washington University. 

Olivia Collins

Undergraduate, SOH ’28

Olivia is a sophomore in the School of Health studying Healthcare Management and Policy and minoring in Statistics and History. Her research for the Global Irish Studies Fellowship examines Ireland’s healthcare system in comparison to the United States, focusing on questions of access, equity, and reform. Drawing on Ireland’s Sláintecare initiative, her project examines the mixed public-private model and asks how each country’s cultural and political values shape health outcomes and approaches to achieving equitable care.

Ciaran Freeman

GSAS, MA in CCT

Ciaran Freeman is an educator, artist, and writer whose work explores the intersections of visual culture, diaspora, and memory. As a Global Irish Studies Fellow, he reconsiders the 19th-century photographer Timothy H. O’Sullivan through the lens of Irish immigrant identity, colonial memory, and class consciousness, positioning O’Sullivan’s photography within a diasporic Irish American imagination. By reading these photographs against the backdrop of An Gorta Mór and British colonial rule, Ciaran explores how O’Sullivan perceived land, labor, and belonging in new and complicated ways. He teaches media arts and visual communication at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C.

Michael Mahoney

Undergraduate, SFS ’28

Michael is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service, majoring in International Politics with a concentration in International Security Studies and a minor in French. His research focuses on the transnational influences on the IRA during the Troubles, with a particular emphasis on their interactions with diaspora and other insurgent groups, as well as how accrued weapons systems changed both the tactical nature of the conflict and British counterterrorism strategy.

Shedrack Osuji

SOH ’26, MS in Global Health

Shedrack’s project explores how Ireland partners with African countries to strengthen health systems and support locally led development. Focusing on Irish Aid’s work in Malawi, Ethiopia, and Zambia, he compares Ireland’s approach with other small donors to understand what makes its partnerships distinctive. By combining policy analysis, data review, and archival research, his study highlights how Ireland’s history, values, and global outlook shape its role as a trusted development partner and offers lessons for building fairer, more effective international cooperation.

Nick Ragde

GSAS, MA in English

Nick’s research as a Global Irish Studies Fellow is a part of his MA thesis in English on depictions of nature in works by Samuel Beckett and J. M. Coetzee. While neither author is renowned for engaging with ecology,  their textual engagements with nature are far from an ideal of neutral background description. Engaging with their critical writings and their commitments to an anti-mimetic aesthetic, Nick explores the influence of these ideas as they pertains to ecology. Nick holds an AB from Georgetown College of Arts and Sciences.

Alexandra Smithie

Undergraduate, CAS ’26

Alexandra Smithie is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in History. Her research focuses on oral history and memory in Northern Ireland in the aftermath of the Troubles. She is using the controversial Boston College tapes as a case study to examine oral history methodology, contested histories, memory, archival privilege, and depictions of oral history in popular culture. 

Kara Venditti

Undergraduate, SFS ’26

Kara Venditti is a senior in the School of Foreign Service studying International Politics with a minor in Korean. Her research is focused on assessing transatlantic Irish soft power through institutionalised cultural diplomacy and through Irish involvement in intergovernmental organisations such as the UN. She will further examine the mechanisms and efficacy in gaining international influence and protecting national interests.