A new Centre for Global Development has been established at Maynooth University, based in the Department of Anthropology. The Centre will be formally launched on Thursday, 13 November 2025 with a seminar in Renehan Hall, What’s Next for Global Development?, featuring speakers from the UN and civil society.
The Centre brings together decades of teaching, research, partnership and solidarity on issues of global justice, equality, sustainability and peace. It builds on the experience of the former Department of International Development and the Kimmage Development Studies Centre, whose staff and students joined MU in 2018, alongside Anthropology’s long-standing strength in understanding culture, people and systems.
“Global development isn’t just something that happens elsewhere”, says Dr Eilish Dillion, Director of the new Centre. “It’s about understanding the systems that shape all our lives — social, political, economic and ecological — and how we can respond to them through research, learning and collaboration. It’s less about charity or aid, and more about how we can build fairer, more sustainable ways of living — locally and globally”.
For Eilish, the timing is critical. “Around the world, aid, democracy and human rights are all under pressure,” she says. “By establishing the Centre for Global Development at MU, we’re saying something important — that these issues matter to us, that we value justice, peace, equality and sustainability, and that we have a role to play in keeping them at the heart of education and research.”
Prof Mark Maguire, Head of the Department of Anthropology, welcomed the establishment of the new centre, saying, “We have tremendous expertise, built over many decades, in delivering impactful social justice, inclusion, and sustainability research and interventions. These themes are prioritised in the University’s Strategic Plan 2023–28, and I look forward to seeing our new centre play a central role in the years to come.”
Collaboration is central to that — and, as Eilish points out, it’s already happening across MU in areas like Geography, Sociology, Adult and Community Education, Business, and Environmental Science.
This collaborative approach also shapes the Centre itself. Its work will be organised around five overlapping themes, each led by an academic with expertise in that area:
Together, these themes reflect Maynooth’s long-standing engagement with global issues and the team’s experience working with others such as Comhlámh, Dóchas, the Irish Development Education Association (IDEA), Irish Aid, and the Department of Foreign Affairs on various aspects of global development and global citizenship education.
While the Centre’s early focus is on connecting its work within the Department of Anthropology, staff across the MU are encouraged to engage — by attending public events, exploring opportunities for collaboration, or visiting the website and blog, Stories of Change: From Knowledge to Action.
There’s quiet optimism in the air — a belief that change begins with action.
“We can’t afford to give in to pessimism,” Eilish says. “Hope grows through action — by researching, teaching, partnering, and showing up.”
Learn More & Explore Courses here
