I completed an MSc. and PhD. in political psychology at Queen's University Belfast. After completing my PhD., which explored the relationship between the Irish foreign policy position of neutrality, and national identity, I joined Kingston University as a postdoctoral researcher in 2013. Since joining Kingston I have continued to research the ways in which people understand, relate to and take positions on foreign policy, most recently in relation to their understandings of drone warfare. I am also interested in political participation and citizenship, and in particular the ways in which the attitudes and behaviours of other people influence these processes.
I am a member of the British Psychological Society, the International Society of Political Psychology, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.
Broadly my research is concerned with the ways in which citizens respond to international conflict and war, how they negotiate their support or opposition to military intervention, and make sense of foreign policy issues more generally. Specifically, I have explored or am currently exploring these issues in relation to (1) Irish foreign policy and its link with national identity; (2) lay understandings of drone technology and warfare; and (3) social representations of war, peace and social change among UK peace activists.
I am currently (co-) supervising two PhD students:
Hanson, Kristin and O'Dwyer, Emma (2018) Patriotism and nationalism, left and right : a Q-methodology study of American national identity. Political Psychology, ISSN (print) 0162-895X (Epub Ahead of Print)
O'Dwyer, Emma, Lyons, Evanthia and Cohrs, J. Christopher (2016) How Irish citizens negotiate foreign policy: a social representations approach to neutrality. Political Psychology, 37(2), pp. 165-181. ISSN (print) 0162-895X
O'Dwyer, Emma [Reviewer] (2016) Book Review of : 'Social psychology and politics' by J. P. Forgas, K. Fiedler & W. D. Crano (Eds.). Social Psychological Review, 18(2), ISSN (print) 1369-7862
O'Dwyer, Emma (2018) Foreign policy and identity. In: Hewer, Christopher and Lyons, Evanthia, (eds.) Political psychology: a social psychological approach. Chichester, U.K. : Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 189-206. ISBN 9781118982389
Cohrs, J. Christopher and O'Dwyer, Emma (2018) “In the minds of men…”: social representations of war and military intervention. In: Hammack, Phillip L., (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Social Psychology and Social Justice. Oxford, U.K. : Oxford University Press. pp. 331-350. (Oxford library of psychology) ISBN 9780199938735
O'Dwyer, Emma and Beascoechea Segui, Neus (2016) 'Stretching the elastic' : Anti-war and pacifist activist representations of war, peace and social change. In: The 39th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology : The Good Society : Prospects for Reason, Communication, and Well-Being; 13-16 Jul 2016, Warsaw, Poland. (Unpublished)
O'Dwyer, Emma, Wilson, Oliver, Cohrs, J.Christopher and Lyons, Evanthia (2014) Identity and support for military intervention: data from two qualitative studies in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. In: 37th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology: Ideologies and Ideological Conflict - The Political Psychology of Belief Systems; 4-7 Jul 2014, Rome, Italy. (Unpublished)
O'Dwyer, Emma, Lyons, Evanthia and Cohrs, J. Christopher (2013) How Irish citizens negotiate foreign policy: dilemmatic and identity-related aspects of social representations of neutrality. In: Department of Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University Seminar; 5 Nov 2013, Cambridge, U.K.. (Unpublished)
O'Dwyer, Emma, Lyons, Evanthia and Cohrs, J. Christopher (2012) 'Constraint' and lay foreign policy decision making: the dilemmatic and functional nature of Irish neutrality. In: Annual Conference of the Social Psychology Section, British Psychological Society; 21-23 Aug 2012, St Andrews, U.K.. (Unpublished)
O'Dwyer, Emma, Lyons, Evanthia and Cohrs, J. Christopher (2011) A historical perspective on the social representation of Irish neutrality and its relationship with national identity. In: Annual Conference of the Social Psychology Section, British Psychological Society; 6-8 Sep 2011, Cambridge, U.K.. (Unpublished)
O'Dwyer, Emma, Lyons, Evanthia and Cohrs, J. Christopher (2011) Social representations and Irish neutrality: The role of values in anchoring. In: 34th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology; 9-12 July 2011, Istanbul, Turkey. (Unpublished)
O'Dwyer, Emma, Lyons, Evanthia and Cohrs, J. Christopher (2010) The function of changing social representations of neutrality for Irish national identity. In: BPS Social Psychology Section Annual Conference: "Social Psychology in Action: Theoretical Debate and Social Impact"; 7-9 Sep 2010, Winchester, U.K.. (Unpublished)
O'Dwyer, Emma (2013) Social representations of Irish neutrality. (PhD thesis), Queen's University, Belfast, uk.bl.ethos.602720.