Meet Our Fellows

Eamonn Bellin

PhD Candidate, History, CAS

Eamonn Bellin 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. 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 Collins is a sophomore in the School of Health studying Healthcare Management and Policy and minoring in Statistics and History. Her research through the Global Irish 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 how a mixed public-private model and each country’s cultural and political values shape health outcomes and approaches to achieving equitable care.

Ciaran Freeman

MA Candidate, CAS

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, his project 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, Freeman explores how O’Sullivan perceived land, labor, and belonging in new and complicated ways. More broadly, Freeman’s work situates Irish studies within transatlantic and global histories of photography, tracing continuities between 19th-century visual culture and contemporary forms of political solidarity, from Irish-Palestinian activism to the work of artists like Kneecap, Sally Rooney, and Eimear Walshe.

At Georgetown, Freeman studies with the Communication, Culture & Technology Program, and he also teaches media arts and visual communication at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C.

Michael Mahoney

Undergraduate, SFS ’28

Michael Mahoney 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

MS Candidate, Global Health, School of Health ‘26

Shedrack Osuji’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, it compares Ireland’s approach with other small donors to understand what makes its partnerships distinctive. By combining policy analysis, data review, and archival research, the 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

MA Candidate, CAS

Nick Ragde’s research as a Global Irish Studies Fellow is a part of my MA thesis in English on depictions of nature in works by Samuel Beckett and J. M. Coetzee. While both authors are not renowned for engaging with ecology, he finds their textual engagements with nature to be far from an ideal of neutral background description. Engaging with their critical writings and their commitments to an anti-mimetic aesthetic, he will explore the influence of these ideas as it pertains to ecology. In turn, he will consider how the differences between Beckett’s and Coetzee’s larger linguistic projects and their differing historical, geographical, and political contexts manifest in their writing of nature. 

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.