I am an assistant professor in communication and global media, and a Fulbright Ireland scholar. My research investigates the relationship between media, society, and environmental challenges, focussing on how elite actors and strategic political communication influence the potential for public engagement and democratic debate about climate policy and actions. This work also examines media representations of climate (in)justice, just transitions and climate futures. A second line of research explores the implications of emerging media technologies for environmental communication practice.

To date, I have secured over €850,000 in research funding from national and international funding bodies. I am the recipient of a Research Ireland Pathway grant (2025 - 2029), a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Award (2023), and an Irish Fulbright Commission Fulbright Scholarship (2020). I was also the PI on an EPA funded project (2019): Citizens Views of Climate Action in Ireland: Insights on Media Use, Trusted Sources and Perceptions. 

My research has been published in various academic journals and popular media outlets including: WIREs Climate Change, Climatic Change,  Environmental Science and Policy, Ecology and Society, Visual Studies and RTE Brainstorm among others. I am currently a co-editor of a Thematic Collection on 'Just Transitions: People, Place and Pathways' in the Journal of the British Academy (expected 2026), and a review editor for a special issue, entitled 'Backlash, Borders, and Bunkers: Antidemocratic Politics and Climate Change Communication' in the Journal of Environmental Communication (expected 2025).

I have a PhD in Media and Communication (2017), and an MSc in Science Communication from Dublin City University (DCU). My doctoral research examined Irish press representations of decarbonisation to show how print media act as a space for public engagement with climate policy. Before joining the University of Galway, I held postdoctoral fellowships at the Centre for Climate and Society, DCU, the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, UCD, and the Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin. Earlier in my career I spent time as a visiting researcher at the Centre for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University, USA (2020), and held a temporary professorship at the School of Communications, DCU (2016 - 2018).

I have worked in higher education since receiving a Daniel O'Hare Scholarship to carry out doctoral research in 2012. Prior to that I was a communications professional in academic publishing, PR, and journalism, both in Ireland and internationally.

Climate and Environmental Communication; Misinformation and Informational Politics; Strategic Political Communication; Media Power and Representation; Visual Communication

I am currently investigating the communication of climate justice in news media, representational strategies in cli-fi films, and the use of AI tools in climate communication research and practice.

Media studies; environmental communication; visual communication; gender media studies