Mary Hickman is Professor of Irish Studies and Sociology at London Metropolitan University. She is also the director of the Institute for the Study of European Transformations. She was a member of the Irish Governments Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants (2001-2002). She has been Visiting Professor at: New York University, Columbia University and Victoria University, Melbourne. Her current research interests centre on migrations and diasporas.[1] She has been a key figure in the documentation of The Irish Diaspora.[2]
An important analysis of nineteenth-century attitudes by Mary J. Hickman and Bronwen Walter showed that the 'Irish Catholic' was one viewed as an "other" or a different race in the construction of the British nationalist myth.[3]