Postdoctoral Fellow (2024-2026)
Public Law Centre
Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
University of Ottawa
Dr. Seána Glennon works with the Public Law Centre under the supervision of Professor Vanessa MacDonnell. Her postdoctoral fellowship is funded by Professor MacDonnell’s project “Unwritten Constitutional Principles and Norms: A Comparative Study”, which takes a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to examining unwritten constitutional principles and norms spanning three countries (Canada, the UK and Germany). The project is funded by the Open Research Area (ORA) 7 agreement for social sciences research.
Dr. Glennon’s doctoral research focuses on the role of citizen deliberation in constitutional and legislative reform processes. She is exploring the novel institutional innovations, such as citizens’ assemblies, that can facilitate this kind of reform. Her doctoral thesis is entitled “Deliberative Minipublics as an Instrument of Legal Reform? The Impact of the Citizens’ Assembly on the Reform of Ireland’s Abortion Law.”
This postdoctoral project expands on Dr. Glennon’s doctoral research, examining the potential for innovative, deliberative bodies like citizens’ assemblies to enhance democracy in Canada. While many countries grappling with declining levels of civic participation are increasingly experimenting with incorporating citizen-centred institutions into the democratic process, Canada’s experience with citizens’ assemblies has, to date, been underwhelming. Dr. Glennon makes the case for the wider use of citizens’ assemblies to address a range of policy challenges in the constitutional realm and beyond. Her postdoctoral research project is examining how these bodies can be institutionalized within the broader system of representative government in Canada.
Dr. Glennon holds law degrees from Trinity College Dublin (LL.B) and the University of Toronto (LL.M). She completed her PhD at University College Dublin (UCD) where she was a recipient of the 2019 Sutherland School of Law doctoral scholarship. She also served as the Chief Outreach Officer at the UCD Centre for Constitutional Studies. She has also held an international visiting research fellowship at Osgoode Hall Law School. Dr. Glennon has presented her research at international conferences including the 2023 Law and Society Conference; the 2022 and 2024 Public Law Conferences; and the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) Annual Conference 2024. She was also a member of the 2024 Public Law Conference organizing committee.
Dr. Glennon is a regular media commentator on legal and political issues in Ireland and Canada, and her opinion pieces have appeared in publications including The Conversation, The Irish Times, The Business Post and The Journal. In addition to her research, she has co-lectured the UCD Law School’s Introduction to Law in Ireland module and tutored constitutional law. She has guest lectured at Queen’s University Ontario’s Feminist Legal Studies speaker series, and Osgoode Hall Law School’s graduate seminar.
Prior to embarking on her academic career, Dr. Glennon practised as a lawyer for eight years in a large international law firm in Dublin, specialising in public and administrative law. She is qualified as a solicitor in Ireland, England and Wales and is a member of the Law Society of Ireland. She is also a committee member of the Ireland Funds Canada, a non-political, philanthropic organisation dedicated to connecting people of Irish heritage and supporting community-level projects throughout the island of Ireland and in Canada.
Email: [email protected]
