Dr Katy Hayward is one of the leading political sociologists on the island of Ireland, and is a Reader in Sociology, and Senior Research Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast. Dr Hayward’s research focuses on conflict/post-conflict transitions and is actively interdisciplinary, traversing fields of border studies, conflict studies, European studies, and Irish studies. This means that she is particularly well-placed to speak about the implications of Brexit for the island of Ireland, and Northern Ireland in particular, European integration, political violence, and the application of discourse analysis.