Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Menu Search


Trinity College Dublin By using this website you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with the Trinity cookie policy. For more information on cookies see our cookie policy.

      
Profile Photo

Dr. David Ralph

Assistant Professor (Sociology)
3 COLLEGE GREEN
      
Profile Photo

Dr. David Ralph

Assistant Professor (Sociology)
3 COLLEGE GREEN

 ralphda@tcd.ie

 3531896 2701


I am a sociologist with an interest in gender studies, family sociology, and migration studies.
Project Title
 Euro-commuters
From
2012
To
2014
Summary
This project examines a form of post-crisis migration that I term "Euro-commuting" - that is, where an EU citizen lives in one EU country, but works in another, commuting back and forth between the two routinely. The project examines the impacts of this form of mobility on both the cross-border commuter as well as their "left behind" family members.
Funding Agency
European Commission
Programme
Marie Curie Fellowship
Project Type
Research
Person Months
24
Project Title
 Family Rhythms
From
2011
To
2012
Summary
The "Family Rhythms" project looks at continuity and change in the Irish family over the course of the 20th century. A secondary qualitative data archive project, it examines the domains of parenthood, childhood, grandparenthood, as well as family forms and structures.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
IRC Research Project Grant
Project Type
Research
Person Months
12
Project Title
 Revisiting Return Migration
From
01-01-2015
To
01-09-0215
Summary
This project re-visited two projects carried out originally on return migration to "Celtic Tiger" Ireland. In collaboration with Dr Caitriona Ni Laoire from UCC, this project re-interviewed return migrants we had originally interviewed during the boom years. The aim was to examine the re-integration trajectories of returnee in the context of ongoing austerity and recession. Had our original interviewees re-settled fully now that they were back in their origin country for several years? Or was return just one more sojourn on an ever lengthening migratory career? How would return migrants mobilise their mobility capital in the face of economic contraction?
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
New Foundations
Project Type
Research
Project Title
 Working Class Encounters With Elite Education
From
2022
To
2025
Summary
Funding Agency
Research Ireland

Details Date
Regular journal reviewer for: Journal of Bodies, Sexualities and Masculinities; Masculinities and Social Change; Gender, Place and Culture; Community, Work and Family 2017-ongoing
Trinity representative on the Executive Committee of the Sociological Association of Ireland 1 January 2017-ongoing
Provide peer-reviews for full manuscript submissions to: Bloomsbury Publishing; Springer Nature/Palgrave 2024-ongoing
Details Date From Date To
Sociological Association of Ireland 2014 Ongoing
British Sociological Association 2014 Ongoing
European Sociological Association 2014 Ongoing
David Ralph, 'It's Just Hair, Right?' From Loss of Identity to Building a New Man in Young Men's Accounts of Male Pattern Baldness, Journal of Men's Studies, 34, (2), 2026, p365 - 386, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
David Ralph, ''Sore Winner'', Fish Anthology 2025, Fish Publishing, 2025, -, Fiction and creative prose, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, ''My Two Best Gals'', Dublin Review, 89, 2023, -, Fiction and creative prose, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, ''When Everything Is Urgent'', Banshee, Banshee Press, 2023, 43 - 52, Fiction and creative prose, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, `Between a whisper and a shout': repealing the eighth and pro-choice Irish women's abortion testimonies, Gender, Place and Culture, 29, (2), 2022, p201 - 221, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
David Ralph, Abortion and Ireland: How the 8th Was Overthrown, 2021, Book, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, "The Unsung Heroes of Ireland": Masculinity, Gender, and Breadwinning among Ireland's "Euro-Commuters", Men and Masculinities, 2020, p702-724 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Commuter Marriages in, Macmillian Encyclopedia of Families, Marriages, and Intimate Relationships, 2019, [David Ralph], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, Review of Between Foreign and Family: Return Migration and Identity Construction among Korean Americans and Korean Chinese, by Helene K. Lee , American Journal of Sociology, 125, (2), 2019, p603-605 , Review, PUBLISHED
Jane Gray, Ruth Geraghty, David Ralph, Family Rhythms: The Changing Textures of Family Life in Ireland , Manchester University Press, 2016, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
  

Page 1 of 3

  


Award Date
Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship 2014-2015
Fulbright Award to New School for Social Research September 2005-September 2006
Full PhD Scholarship, University of Edinburgh 2006-2010
Drawing on the fields of migration studies, family sociology and gender studies, my research to date has made key interventions in three interlinked areas: 1.) families in the context of migration; 2.) reproductive politics and pro-choice activism; 3.) and the so-called 'masculinity crisis'. In the first of these areas, my work has examined those involved in commuter relationships and how this impacts intimate life and gender roles within the household. The second strand looks at narrative story-telling around abortion experiences as a mobilizing tactic for pro-choice advocates. And the third investigates concerns to do with men and masculinity, specifically around male vulnerabilities and the body and changes to dating norms and cultures in post-feminist societies. In a series of books and journal articles, my research findings have opened up novel avenues for advancing insights into shifts and realignments of the gender order in contemporary society. I show how changes to the social, cultural and economic foundations of neoliberal Western democracies have led to sometimes surprising adaptations, reinventions and resistance to the gender regimes operational there. Alongside my theoretical contributions, my research also demonstrates methodological flair in that I integrate the standard techniques of qualitative inquiry with newer digital ethnographic approaches to my research designs. This twinning of the 'real world' with the 'virtual world' is significant as it better captures the lived experience of gender and family life in today's increasingly digitally-mediated societies. Taking my earlier and my most recent work together, I have shaped academic debates on how gender and family continue to be structured by normative values around marriage, breadwinning, and mothering and fathering. My future research agenda will further these discussions by focussing on the ways in which altered gendered expectations for boys and men are provoking a kind of reactive, 'neotraditional' masculinity in some.