Bio

I am a PhD student in Anthropology focusing on youth culture in a West Belfast neighbourhood in the North of Ireland. I am interested in discourses of intergenerational trauma and community spaces and how these are seen as points of relation in a larger communal making-sense of a growing youth mental health crisis in the area.

Previously I received a BA in Global Health and Social Medicine from King’s College London in 2019 where my dissertation focused on historical trauma in the US.

I completed my MA in Anthropology and Sociology at L’Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement (IHEID) in Geneva, where I wrote my thesis on Brexit’s impact on political identity and political precarity among young adults in Belfast.

Education & Certifications

  • Master of Arts, Anthropology and Sociology, Graduate Institute Geneva (IHEID) (2021)
  • Bachelor of Arts (with Honors), King's College London, Global Health and Social Medicine (2019)
  • Visiting Scholar, Johns Hopkins University, Political Science and Anthropology (2017)

Contact

  • Academic
    rlhealy@stanford.edu
    University - Student Department: Anthropology Position: Graduate
    University - Student Department: Anthropology Position: Graduate

Additional Info

Links

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Research interests: youth, working-class life, colonialism, urban landscapes, intergenerational trauma, (contentious) commemoration, collective memory, time and space/place-making, narrative and storytelling, borderlands, post-conflict space, Northern Ireland/Ireland, political identity, precarity, hope(lessness).

Broadly, my PhD research focuses on youth culture and teenage life in post-conflict Belfast. I am interested in discourses of intergenerational trauma and community spaces and how these are seen as points of relation in a larger communal making-sense of a growing youth mental health crisis in a West Belfast neighbourhood. My research contributed to new understandings about how vernaculars of political violence shift according to new and ever-expanding pressures and priorities in community life and cultural cultivation.

Prior to joining Stanford, I received a First Class Honours degree in Global Health and Social Medicine from King’s College London. I also received a Master of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology from the Graduate Institute Geneva. Before attending university, I worked for four years in various public health and youth work roles in Palestine, South Africa and Scotland.

All Publications

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0604-6715