Kathleen White has accepted a PhD position at Rutgers University’s School of Criminal Justice, with a Ralph Bunche Fellowship, starting in September 2025. She is currently a researcher at the Department of Sociology and Criminology at University College Cork, where she is working on a participatory action research project focused on prison education in Cork and Belfast. The project aims to develop an emancipatory educational toolkit for prison-university partnerships across Ireland. Kathleen is a founding member of the Irish Penal Abolition Network (IPAN), which aims to promote abolition as a pragmatic alternative to the failing carceral state and nurture community along the way - learn more here.

Previously, Kathleen served as Community Development Manager in South Inner City Dublin, where she oversaw community services, advocacy, and adult education programs. As a 2018 Mitchell Scholar, she completed an MA in Sociology with a focus on Criminal Justice at University College Cork, with a thesis critically analyzing rehabilitation and reintegration policies for those impacted by the justice system in Ireland and New Jersey.

Before moving to Ireland, Kathleen coordinated community services in New York and New Jersey, delivered educational programs at Rikers Island Jail, and advocated with those impacted by the U.S. justice system. She holds an undergraduate degree in History and Peace Studies from Manhattan College and has a strong interest in social justice, prison abolition, community development, and critical social policy and criminology.