Laura Smith

Laura is a feminist sociologist of inequalities, identity, intimate relationships, and everyday life, with expertise in creative qualitative methods.

Laura’s current doctoral research focuses on intimate relationships across the ethnopolitical divide in Northern Ireland, following the signing of the peace accord, known as the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement (GFA) in 1998. While Northern Ireland is in a formal state of ‘peace’, challenges remain for couples who may not fit into identity categories which shape many aspects of social life. Laura’s research uses creative qualitative methods to explore the ways in which women in intimate relationships across the divide (and the love they practice) contribute to peaceful relations in a post-conflict society. Existing studies examining mixed relationships in contexts such as Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and Israel/Palestine often refer to the ways that couples traverse traditional boundaries through romantic relationships, and issues they are confronted with, such as family disapproval and hostility . Laura's research extends this literature through a feminist analysis, by paying particular attention to the ways in which women's love and emotional labour are mobilised in ways that contribute to sustaining peaceful social relations. In doing so, the research engages with broader debates on emotional labour within intimate relationships and examines how cultural and gendered expectations position women as more responsible for emotional care, relationship maintenance, and conflict mediation within heterosexual partnerships.

Laura has presented her research at multiple conferences, both in GB, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.