What were you doing before applying to the Master in Urban Studies?
Before I did the masters, I did an undergraduate in European Studies at Trinity College Dublin. It was a very broad degree, and I chose it after school because I didn't really know what I wanted to do. When I was first deciding on what to do for my undergraduate, it was between European Studies and Architecture, which are obviously quite different. In the end I went with the broader option and I’m so glad I did because I had an amazing time. As part of the degree, I studied Italian and spent a year in Italy on Erasmus. I lived in Siena, a small town in Tuscany, and living there made me appreciate urban environments in a way I never had before. I've always been interested in design, buildings and architecture, but moving to and living in a new place for the first time made me think about more than just buildings. It made me think about spaces.
Siena is a medieval town that basically hasn't changed since it was first built. It's entirely pedestrian, with narrow streets and lots of public squares where people gather. Compared to Dublin, where I’ve lived my whole life, it couldn't be more different. So, when I came back to Dublin, I kept thinking about what it had been like to live in a place that felt so human-scale and welcoming, and comparing it to Dublin, which often doesn’t feel that way. So, I ended up writing my undergraduate thesis on an urban focused topic. While I was finishing that thesis, a friend sent me a link to the MUS website thinking I might be interested. I applied that week and I got accepted the following week. I spent some time thinking about whether it was the right choice, but in the end, I felt like it was a way of getting into spatial studies without needing a technical background. So, I moved to Brussels and started the master’s immediately after finishing European Studies.
How did you experience the master, once you started it?
I wasn't sure what to expect from it, I thought it was going to be too technical for me. Then in the first semester, I remember thinking that I'd made the right choice. The courses were exactly what I'd always felt but wasn't able to verbalise about places and urban spaces. I was basically given the language to describe what I'd always felt. All the theories and the readings and the research… somewhere inside, I knew about these ideas purely from experiencing living in urban environments, but it was quite amazing to be able to communicate those feelings, write about them and research them. I really enjoyed that first semester. Then, the second semester became a lot more practical, which is what I was really looking for when I signed up to the masters. I did the Design Studio, which is super practical. You're in the studio for hours with your group and you’re doing drawings and you're going out and you're talking to people and you're taking photos and making maps. I really enjoyed that. It was very hands-on. Even in the more theoretical classes, there were practical elements, like real-life examples and fieldtrips. We went to Antwerp for the day, and we did multiple themed walking tours around Brussels. I loved that part of the master’s, and I thought it was quite unique as well, to have that number of excursions, field trips and interactions directly with the city.
How did your second year continue?
In the second year, I went on Erasmus exchange to Turin. I wasn't sure if I wanted to at first, because I was enjoying Brussels so much and I'd made such good friends. I also had a job and a community there, and I'd only been there a year. I wasn't sure if I wanted to give that up so quickly. But I also wanted to keep my Italian alive and I told myself that there probably aren't that many other times in my life that I'm going to get to do something like this for six months with the Erasmus stipend. I went and it was amazing. It was a little bit more technical since I was in the school of engineering. I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to do this, but it was actually fine. In fact, it probably was not as academically stimulating as my time in Brussels, but in terms of my personal growth, it was brilliant. Getting to live somewhere new and making new friends, and following one class in Italian… I’m very glad I did it. Plus, Turin is an incredibly cool city. With a year of urban studies behind me, I definitely noticed things about the city that I probably wouldn't have before. I was being taught how to critically think about where I live and how it's structured and who lives there and who owns what and how it's run. And my time in Turin was like putting theory into practice in a new place on my own.
Then I came back to Dublin for my final semester to do an internship and write my thesis. I worked with the Irish Georgian Society, which is an architectural conservation organisation who work to preserve Dublin’s historic buildings. Similar to Brussels, many of Dublin’s older buildings are located in the inner city. And a lot of them have faced challenges over the years. They are often vacant and derelict. But they are also part of the postcard image of Dublin: the red brick terraces and squares with the colourful doorways and big windows. It's kind of a weird relationship we have with the buildings. They’re such an important part of the city’s identity, but so many have fallen into disrepair and disuse. The organisation's work focused on helping to bring these buildings back into use. So, the internship was in conservation, which was probably influenced by my experience in Italy, where conservation came up in almost everything.
“With a year of urban studies behind me, I definitely noticed things about the city that I probably wouldn't have before. I was being taught how to critically think about where I live and how it's structured and who lives there and who owns what and how it's run. And my time in Turin was like putting theory into practice in a new place on my own. “
How was your connection with Brussels, having lived there for only a year?
I kind of knew Brussels already. I had family who lived there for a couple of years, and I had visited them a few times. So, I was a little bit familiar with the city, which is another reason that I was comfortable enough to sign up to two years living there. I made amazing friends pretty much from day one. One thing I really liked about the course was the size, only 30 to 40 people, and you're together all the time for the first semester. I made really good friends in first year and I made an effort to go back when I could in second year. I also had to go back for the thesis’s poster presentation, to defend my thesis, and other things. So, in the year I was in Italy and Dublin I definitely kept in contact and basically all of my Brussels gang visited me in Dublin, or Turin and I still keep in contact with them now.
I saw you work at strategic design and project management consultancy. What does your job look like?
I'm working mainly on citizen engagement, which involves designing surveys, communicating with different groups, and analysing results. My title is Project Manager, and I work for a private consultancy that is hired by public bodies to work on delivering projects. I work a lot with local authorities around Dublin on public engagement, mostly for active travel projects, but also for things like playgrounds and local development plans. For example, we worked on a project about cycle lanes and pedestrianisation that received 7,000 responses to the public consultation. I was part of the team that read and analysed the survey results and the qualitative feedback, coded all the data and summarised everything together into a report. Then, the other part of my job is strategy work. For example, we worked with the Department of Health in Ireland to manage the public and stakeholder input for the National Obesity Strategy.
So, it's a very broad role, but given my very broad background, it suits me quite well. Having done the master's was really useful because it's so closely related to the kind of work we do, particularly in terms of understanding urban dynamics. A lot of the projects we work on involve engineers, architects, and other technical specialists. Their role is to develop the technical solutions, while our role is to help communicate those ideas to the public in a way that is clear and accessible. We're brought in alongside the technical teams to translate complex information, drawings, and proposals into material that people can easily understand and engage with. Essentially, our job is to act as a bridge between the public and the technical experts and make sure that everyone understands each other.
What do you think is something that the degree has prepared you for in the position that you have now?
Well, the whole degree prepares you for pretty much exactly this job, which is being the translator between technical experts and the public. You don't have to know all the technical details. With many of the projects I work on, people can be uncertain about proposed changes, often because they don’t fully understand what is planned or they feel that the changes are being done to them, as opposed to with them. The masters gave me the ability to understand the technical and design side of things, while also thinking about the wider social context. Like considering where a neighbourhood is located within the city, the socioeconomic background of the people who live there, their previous experiences with the local council, and why they might have particular concerns about a proposal. I think these factors can sometimes be overlooked when the focus is primarily on the design of the physical space. The social and cultural impacts are just as important. Because the masters was so broad and addressed all of these different aspects, it gave me a really strong understanding of the many different forces involved in projects like the ones I work on.
What’s one last lesson from the Master in Urban Studies?
The thing that I really took from the master’s is empathy. It teaches you that issues are rarely one person's fault, and that there are higher powers shaping outcomes that are beyond any individual's control. Once you start to understand that it becomes much easier to have empathy for people whose views or experiences are different from your own. I personally think cycle lanes are a great idea, and I think removing parking is great and I think planting trees in cities is a no-brainer. But when I talk to someone who has a completely different perspective, I realise that the master’s has helped me appreciate that there are often valid reasons behind that viewpoint, shaped by their own experiences, circumstances, and priorities. And it shouldn’t be a fight. It's not them against me. It should be about conversation and understanding. I want to be able to speak with people, hear their opinions, and genuinely listen to them, while also sharing my own perspective. The goal is mutual understanding, not simply convincing someone else that you're right. I think the master was really good for developing this approach to thinking. It definitely gave me the critical thinking skills to understand cities as complex places. And that’s a skill I use daily, not even just in my job, but in my life.
“The thing that I really took from the master’s is empathy. It teaches you that issues are rarely one person’s fault, and that there are higher powers shaping outcomes that are beyond any individual’s control.”
This interview was conducted in June 2026.