A number of PhD candidates have successfully defended their theses in the academic year 2019-20 at the IICRR. 

• Dr Cornelia Baciu passed her viva in July 2019. Her examiners were Prof. Subrata K Mitra (University of Heidelberg) and DCU’s Dr Jivanta Schottli. Cornelia’s thesis was recommended to be published as a book monograph in a relevant book series on South Asian Politics. Her research was co-supervised by Prof John Doyle and Dr Walt Kilroy.
• Dr Bitopi Dutta defended her thesis entitled “Defining Processes of Gender Restructuring: A Case Study of the Displaced Tribal Agricultural Communities of North East India”. It involved extensive fieldwork with matrilineal indigenous communities in Meghalaya, India. Her examiners were Prof. Sanjay Barbora from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and DCU’s Dr Jivanta Schottli. Her supervisor was Prof. Eileen Connolly.
• Dr Catherine Connolly successfully defended her PhD and graduated in November 2019. The examiners were Professor Fiona de Londras (Birmingham Law School), and Dr Columba Peoples (University of Bristol), and Dr James Fitzgerald (DCU). Her thesis was entitled “Investigating the Relationship between Targeted Killing, American Exceptionalism and Kriegsraison: Repercussions for International Law”, and her supervisor was Dr James Gallen.
• Dr Harikrishnan Sasikumar passed his viva-voce in March 2020. His thesis, titled  “Social Spaces and the Public Sphere: A spatial-history of modernity in Kerala, India” was supervised by Dr Ken McDonagh, and his examiners were Dr Caroline Ossella (University of Sussex) and Prof John Doyle (DCU).