Dr. Christina O'Keeffe

Dr. Christina O’Keeffe is an Assistant Professor in the School of Inclusive and Special Education at the Dublin City University (DCU) Institute of Education. She specialises in developing inclusive environments from early childhood to higher education and across the wider professional world with a particular focus on co-produced research. Christina’s research consistently adopts a rights-based approach, and she is particularly interested in designing and developing innovating methodologies to support the inclusion of all voices and forms of voice across research, policy and practice.

In 2026, Christina was awarded the Dean's Research Fellowship at the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre and is currently leading a project on co-designing neuroaffirmative bullying prevention and intervention supports (CoNARS) in conjunction with core stakeholders. Christina is also a member of DCU’s Centre for Inclusive Pedagogy where she is currently collaborating with her colleague, Dr. Sinéad McNally on an international study of assessment accommodations for autistic students in higher education alongside researchers at Université Paris Cité, funded by a Research Ireland Ulysses award.

Christina’s research has been published across a range of international peer-reviewed journals including Autism, Child Indicators Research, the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. She has also presented at national and international conferences including: OMEP Ireland Early Childhood Annual Conference; UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre Biennial International Conference and; EECERA. 

Christina is Programme Chair of the Professional Diploma in Inclusive and Special Education and lectures in the areas of inclusive assessment and pedagogy, participatory research methods as well as supporting the communication, language and wellbeing of autistic students and students with complex access profiles across schools.

Before joining DCU, Christina worked as a primary school teacher for many years having completed the Bachelor of Education and Psychology programme and Graduate Diploma in Special Education Needs at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. In 2019, she received funding from the DCU Educational Trust to complete her PhD on play for inclusion under the supervision of Dr. Sinéad McNally and Dr. Anna Logan.