Joanne Hughes is director of the Centre for Shared Education at Queen's University, Belfast. Her main research interests are the role of education in divided societies, inter-group relations, and inequalities in education. She adopts a critical advocacy approach to research and has been commissioned by governments locally and internationally to support the development of policies and interventions to promote peace building through schools. Joanne has led numerous applied research projects employing qualitative and quantitative methods, and has been awarded research funding from local and national government, the EU, ESRC, British Council, Nuffield, UNICEF, and other charities. Her work is published in national and international peer review journals and she has organized and facilitated conferences and other events to promote engagement between academics and the policy and practitioner communities. In 2016 Joanne was appointed to a UNESCO Chair in Globalising a Shared Education Model for Improving Relations in Divided Societies.