Biography

Barry Colfer holds an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Cambridge where he completed his thesis on the subject of Trade Union responses to Austerity in Belgium, Greece and Ireland in the wake of the post-2008 crisis. Prior to this Barry studied at University College Dublin and spent two years in student politics.

Barry’s research interests include the politics of European integration, the future of work and the trade union movement, and the consequences of Brexit for Ireland. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at the European Studies Centre and the University of Oxford, at the Minda de Gunzburg Centre for European Studies at Harvard University, and at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy, where he has worked on an Italian government-funded project looking at the digitalisation of public employment services in Europe.

Outside of academia, Barry is a fellow of the UK Royal Society of the Arts (RSA), the director of research at the Westminster-based Policy Network think tank, is an Irish country expert for the Bertelsmann Stiftung (Germany), and has worked at both the Irish and European Parliaments.

Expertise for Teaching and Mentoring of Ph.D. Researchers
Barry is the founder and co-convener of the acclaimed Cambridge seminar on the future of the island of Ireland and is an experienced teacher, having designed and delivered courses in comparative politics, the politics of European integration, employment relations and more.