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Dr. Anne Holohan

Associate Professor (Sociology)
1 COLLEGE GREEN
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Anne Holohan

Associate Professor (Sociology)
1 COLLEGE GREEN


Dr Anne Holohan is Associate Professor in Sociology. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the London School of Economics and the University of California, Los Angeles, and from 2004-2006 was Marie Curie International Fellow at the University of Trento, Italy. Her research and teaching interests converge around public sociology - making available in an accessible way academic knowledge, sociological but also drawing on international relations, economics, and computer science, to respond imaginatively to contemporary challenges. Her research is on organizations, digital sociology, gamification, conflict resolution and disaster management, globalization and comparative social change. Her most recent book (2026 with K Trochowska) is Human Interaction and Soft Skills in Peacekeeping: Inside the Mandate (Routledge). Her other books include Networks of Democracy: Lessons from Kosovo for Afghanistan, Iraq and Beyond published by Stanford University Press in 2005; and Community, Competition and Citizen Science: Voluntary Distributed Computing in a Globalized World, UK, Ashgate Publishing, 2013. To make this research accessible and applicable, she has gotten funding to develop a methodology to embed sociological curricula in digital role-playing games. From 2016-2019, she was PI and Coordinator of Gaming for Peace (GAP), a 2 million euro project funded under H2020 CSA and running from 2016-2019. This project created a curriculum of 'soft skills' (gender awareness, cultural awareness, communication) for peacekeeping personnel and embedded it in a role-playing digital game with assessment. In 2020-2022, Dr Holohan was PI of a grant from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs which supported the use of the game and module produced by GAP for end user organizations and the collection of research data. During this time it was used by personnel from 18 countries. Building on the methodology she developed for GAP, she was funded by Enterprise Ireland to be PI of Transformation in Learning and Training (TiLT), which developed curricula and digital role-playing games to mitigate individual and systemic biases around gender, race and ethnicity, in organizations, delivered through an online platform. In 2024, she co-founded TiLT, a Trinity College Campus Company, to make these research based role-playing games available outside the university. Her latest book is: Holohan, Anne & Kamila Trochowska Human Interaction and Soft Skills in Peacekeeping: Inside the Mandate. DOI:10.4324/9781003751045, UK, Routledge, 2026, 264pp.
  Conflict resolution   digital sociology   Globalisation   INSTITUTIONS   Management, information technology, information systems   Organisation design, development, theory, behaviour   peacekeeping   Sociology of development, population society, development   sociology of gender
Project Title
 Gaming for Peace (GAP 31.5) Year 1
From
May 2020
To
April 2021
Summary
Gaming for Peace (GAP) has developed a curriculum in soft skills (gender awareness, cultural awareness, communication, empathy) for peacekeeping personnel (military, police, civilian). GAP has embedded this curriculum in a role-playing game with assessment in the game and before and after. There are supporting learning materials and a trainers manual so the aim was for it to be delivered locally by peacekeeping organizations, providing universal, standardized training. However, the feedback from initial outreach was that the organizations (military, police and civilian) wanted the game delivered in an online module run by a trainer from GAP. The Stability Fund assisted the Consortium in the delivery of this training material through running trial online modules which any personnel in any organization involved in peacekeeping missions could volunteer to participate in.
Funding Agency
Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Irish Aid)
Programme
2019 Stability Fund
Project Type
Research
Project Title
 Gaming for Peace (GAP)
From
2016
To
2019
Summary
Dr Anne Holohan is Principal Investigator and Coordinator of 'Gaming for Peace', building a digital role-playing game to train personnel in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding missions. Gaming for Peace is a digital role-playing game to train peacekeeping personnel in the soft skills of gender awareness, cultural awareness, communication, and empathy. 180 experienced peacekeeping personnel from 180 countries were interviewed, and these were drawn on and combined with state of the art research in soft skills to produce a curriculum. This curriculum was embedded in a storyline in a 2D digital role-playing game. Assessment to measure progress in the soft skills was developed for before, during, and after the game. A Skills Passport benchmarking the results of the assessment to international standards was developed. The 'Gaming for Peace' project was funded by a €2 million euros grant from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme. Led by Trinity, it brought together 15 collaborative partners from academia, military, police, civil actors and business, including the Irish Defence Forces, the PSNI, the Finnish military, the Polish military and Polish police, the Bulgarian military, the Portuguese State Police, Laurea University in Finland, the Ted Kennedy Institute at NUI Maynooth, HPS in Dublin, Upskill in Belfast, and Enquirya in the Netherlands.
Funding Agency
European Commission
Programme
H2020 Research and Innovation Programme
Project Type
CSA
Person Months
30
Project Title
 Gaming for Peace (GAP 31.5) Year Two
From
2021
To
2022
Summary
This funding renewed the trial GAP module from the previous year.
Funding Agency
Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Irish Aid)
Programme
2021-2022 Stability Fund
Project Type
Research
Project Title
 (TiLT) - Digital Roleplay Based Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
From
01/09/2022
To
31/10/2023
Summary
TILT is a research-based online platform that embeds curricula in computer games and is currently being developed in Trinity College Dublin to address individual and systemic biases within organisations. The problem of organizational bias is not just individual behaviours and attitudes. It is organizational and systemic biases. TILT recognizes that individuals have several aspects to their identities, and that we all live in systems and organizations that have assumptions and biases built in. TILT aims to help individuals and organisations develop this understanding through role play. The research-based curricula and learning objectives are delivered via an online platform through digital gaming storylines and dialogue, in which the player must make decisions in realistic situations designed to draw out and demonstrate identity-based biases. Thus, experiential knowledge is made available to, and usable by, organizations. The content of the training curriculum is drawn from two sources. Firstly, we use the extensive research and theories in social science on how biases are produced through the interaction of individual, organizational and systemic factors. Secondly, we draw on experiential data (in depth qualitative interviews) from a wide range of identities and organizational settings, using ethnographic methodology gathers nuanced experiences to build authentic scenarios for short role-playing digital game storylines/scenarios.
Funding Agency
Enterprise Ireland
Programme
Commercialization Fund
Project Type
Research
Project Title
 Preparing Frontline Workers to Address Intimate Partner Violence in Global Contexts through Serious Games Learning"
From
April 1, 2026
To
March 31, 2028
Summary
Funding Agency
Rutgers Global Health
Programme
Seed Grant

Page 1 of 2
Details Date
Member, Big Data Forum, Department of An Taoiseach. A Consultative Forum on the societal issues arising from the continuing growth in generation and use of personal data. 2015
Details Date From Date To
International Sociological Association 2015 present
American Sociological Association 2000 present
SVRI Sexual Violence Research Initiative 2025 present
Holohan, Anne and Trochowska, Kamila, Human Interaction and Soft Skills in Peacekeeping: Inside the Mandate., UK, Routledge, 2026, 264pppp, Book, IN_PRESS  URL
Anne Holohan, GAP Consortium, 'Serious Game: Gaming for Peace Roleplay for Peacekeepers', Gaming for Peace (GAP). GAP is an EU H2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation project (no.700670) and the length of the project was 30 months., Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, 2019, -, Notes: [Anne Holohan was Principal Investigator and Project Coordinator], Digital research resource production, PUBLISHED  URL  URL
Holohan, Anne, Community, Competition and Citizen Science: Voluntary Distributed Computing in a Globalized World, UK, Ashgate Publishing (Routledge), 2013, 146pppp, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
Holohan, Anne, Networks of Democracy: Lessons from Kosovo for Afghanistan, Iraq and Beyond, hardback and paperback, Stanford, USA, Stanford University Press, 2005, 1 - 220pp, Notes: [Networks of Democracy explores international peacebuilding and reconstruction through an ethnography of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. I looked at what I was experiencing and seeing in technology studying and working in California in the late 1990s and early 2000s and saw teams working across organizational boundaries on a project, then disbanding and other groups emerging, required new ways of organizing and thinking, new skills " a move from hierarchies to networks. I had started doing research on the changes required to make militaries effective at peacebuilding, and then I realized the changes in peacebuilding missions were similar to Silicon Valley " hierarchies coming together temporarily to form the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (police, military, civilians), then disbanding once their goals have been achieved or the mandate ended. The key themes of the book are Cooperation: Analyzes how people from diverse nationalities and organizational cultures"such as the military, police, and civilian agencies"work together on the ground. Network Leadership: Examines leadership styles, social embeddedness, and accountability within local municipal networks. Technology: Explores the use and misuse of information and communication technologies in multi-organizational missions. Global Application: Draws lessons from Kosovo to understand peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts in other international contexts.], Book, PUBLISHED  URL
Anne Holohan and Conor McNally, TiLT Roleplay Ltd, 2024, Notes: [TiLT provides training to the Irish Defence Forces, Dublin City University, Swansea University, and Public Sector Jobs.], Campus Company, PUBLISHED  URL
Trochowska-Sviderok, K., Masakowski, Y. R., McFate, M., Holohan, A., Gender diversity management in NATO for sustainable security and peace., Security and Defence Quarterly, 45(1). https://doi.org/10.35467/sdq/183658, 45, (1), 2024, Notes: [DOI: https://doi.org/10.35467/sdq/172983], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Anne Holohan, Hasmik Grigoryan, Gaming for Peace: Impact of a Digital Role-playing Game on Peacekeepers" Soft Skills, 10.5281/zenodo.22046434, 2026, Notes: [This study provides an opportunity to see the relevance and impact of gamified training in soft skills for peacekeeping personnel. A digital roleplay game embedded in a blended learning module with a curriculum in gender awareness, cultural awareness and communication competence was taken by peacekeeping personnel from military, police and civilian organizations from 18 countries in 4 continents. Before and after quizzes indicated modest progress for participants from what was already quite a high baseline in peacekeeping relevant soft skills. One month later, a survey assessed the impact of the intervention in the participants" workplaces. The content and delivery proved to be relevant and accessible across all genders, organizational types and nationalities. Overall, the respondents felt the impact of the intervention through greater awareness and more agency to act on those increased awarenesses. There was more self-aware communication within their own organization and with other organizations; more self-aware communication with the local community, and efforts to ensure greater opportunities for women in their organization and any future peacekeeping mission. The participants found the gamified and blended learning approach to be highly engaging and useful for pre deployment training.], Preprint, SUBMITTED  URL
Holohan, Anne, 'Serious Game: TiLT University Game with Assessment, Enterprise Ireland CF', Dublin, Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, TiLT, 2023, -, Digital research resource production, PUBLISHED  URL
Anne Holohan, Gaming for Peace Assessment: Pre and Post Play Quizzes, Trinity College Dublin, 2019, Dataset, PUBLISHED  URL  URL
Anne Holohan, Webs Not Walls [Networks of Democracy], PhD v, Los Angeles, California, USA, University of California, Los Angeles, 2002, Notes: [Webs not walls: International organizations as networks and hierarchies in Kosovo is my PhD which was accepted as is for publication by Stanford University Press. My dissertation was a study of how international organizations in Kosovo are managing to cooperate together in unprecedented ways. I explored how hierarchical, bureaucratic organizations with very different cultures"the United Nations, the militaries, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, nongovernmental organizations, the European Union"were managing to work together as one temporary network organization, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), with the goal of reestablishing security and rebuilding the institutions of a destroyed society. I compared the sources of, and obstacles to, cooperation between international organizations in two municipalities in Kosovo. One of the municipalities was making considerable progress towards the goals of the mission, one was not, and these different outcomes for the population and institutions of the respective municipality was dependent "], Book, PUBLISHED
  

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Anne Holohan, TiLT Team, 'Serious Game: TiLT Neurodiversity Roleplaying Chapter', 2025, -, Digital research resource production, PUBLISHED
Anne Holohan, Carla de Tona, Andrew Whelan, Negotiating Access to Irish State and Society: The Role of Internet Cafes in Dublin, 'After the Celtic Tiger' Irish Social Science Platform Conference , Dublin City University, 11-12 Sept. 2008 , 2008, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED
Anne Holohan, Anurag Garg and Enrique Leon, Emotions in Face to Face and E-Deliberation: A New Paradigm in Decision-Making and Problem Solving, 58th Annual Political Studies Association Meeting, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, April 1-3 2008, 2008, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED
Holohan, Anne, Working Lives: The Irish in Britain, paperback, London, The Irish Post/Eastman Press, 1995, Book, PUBLISHED
Anne Holohan, RTE Online Brainstorm article: How social media inflames violence like Dublin riots, 2023, -, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Trinity Innovation Awards 2023 Nominee for the Inventor Award (innovative research has led to the creation of intellectual property and has subsequently licensed to industry or campus company) 2023
Irish Champion of EU Research: Hosted by Enterprise Ireland and national support networks to honor academics and organizations securing major EU framework funding (such as Horizon Europe/Horizon 2020) 2017