Role: PhD Candidate, Kent Law School, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

  Contact: smc52@kent.ac.uk

  Research Interests:
Family Law | Child Protection | Disability Studies | Domestic Violence | Social Policy | Qualitative Socio-Legal Research

Siobhan is currently undertaking her Phd in Socio-Legal Studies at Kent funded by SeNNS (South-East Network for Social Sciences).  Siobhan’s research is designed to explore the treatment of parents with learning disabilities within the legal framework of Child Protection and Adoption Law in the UK, with an emphasis on exploring how vulnerability theory can be applied as a lens through which to analyze state responsibility and resilience. Siobhan is a qualified solicitor (England & Wales) 2001, with a first class (LLB Hons) degree from the University of Kent (1995).  Before pursuing her PhD, she taught Family Law and Equity & Trusts at Kent Law School as an Associate Lecturer for seven years. Siobhan continues to work independently as an advocate for adults with learning disabilities, this work includes supporting parents through court proceedings where their children are or have been the subject of care proceedings. Siobhan’s prior research projects include, “Women with Learning Disabilities and Domestic Violence” - a two year NIHR (National Institute of Health Research) funded project with the Tizard Centre for Intellectual Disabilities at Kent (2012-2014),  co-authoring an article on the project’s findings, “I Know it was Every Week, but I Can't be Sure if it was Every Day: Domestic Violence and Women with Learning Disabilities” published in the Journal for Applied Research Intellectual Disabilities (JARID) (McCarthy, Hunt and Milne-Skillman, 2016).