James O'Higgins Norman

In 2013 he became Director of the National Anti-Bullying Research Centre, formerly of Trinity College Dublin, which moved to Dublin City University following the retirement of its founder and first director Professor Mona O'Moore. In 2018 he was appointed as the UNESCO Chair on Tackling Bullying in Schools and Cyberbspace.</ref>https://www.dcu.ie/news/news/2018/Aug/DCU’s-newly-appointed-UNESCO-Chair-welcomes-funding-success-for-research-bullying</REF>

In 2010 he co-edited the International Handbook on Education for Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing (Netherlands: Springer). In addition to his publications he has also been consulted and deposed on issues related to equality and education. In 2012 he was awarded a research scholarship funded by the US State Department which allowed him to participate in research on alternatives to political violence in Boston College’s Irish Institute.

In 2003, he was awarded a research grant to examine homophobic bullying in Irish second-level schools. Between 2004 and 2008 he published several reports and two books revealing the extent of the issue in Ireland. In 2005 he became an associate professor at the School of Education Studies in Dublin City University where his research led to the launch in October 2006 of the "Making Our Schools Safe" campaign by the Department of Education and Science. His work on bullying also informed debate in Dáil Éireann and was quoted in a session of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education. In May 2012 he was invited to participate in the National Anti-Bullying Forum sponsored by the Government of Ireland at the Department of Education and Skills.

In 2000, he took up a position as a lecturer in the Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin, Ireland, where he led research on pastoral care in second level schools. While there he authored the book entitled Ethos and Education in Ireland (2003) (New York: Peter Lang) in which he argued that the Catholic Church had a majority share in the control and management of schools in Ireland and that the church and state would need to reconsider this position in the light of the emerging diversity in Irish society. These views were upheld in 2006 when Archbishop Martin of Dublin called on the state to consider alternative patrons for schools and in 2011 when Ruairí Quinn, Minister for Education and Skills, established a special commission to examine how some schools could be transferred from the patronage of the Catholic Church to other bodies.

His undergraduate studies included philosophy, psychology and sociology and he has a honours degree in Divinity from Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Rome, 1994), as well as a Higher Diploma in Education from University College Dublin (1996) and a Master's degree in Education from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (1999). He also studied Family Law at the Law Society of Ireland (2008) and was awarded a Doctorate from UCL Institute of Education, London (2006).

O'Higgins Norman has served with a number of school boards and voluntary organisations in the Dublin area. In 1986 he was awarded the Father Phelim McCabe Perpetual Endeavour Award for volunteering with local community services. In 1997, he was nominated by Archbishop Desmond Connell to the board of management of Jobstown Community College where he served as Chairperson until 2004. He was later nominated by the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) to the board of management of St. Vincent's CBS, Glasnevin, (2009-2012). He was also Chairperson of Schools Across Borders (2010-2012), an Irish Aid funded NGO promoting better relations between young people in areas of conflict. From 2008 to 2014 he was a member of the board of Clans of Ireland and in 2009 became its Vice Chairperson. In 2010 he was appointed to the Most Venerable Order of St. John and in 2012 he was appointed Honorary President of St. John Ambulance Castleknock Combined Division in Dublin. In 2014, he was appointed as Peace Commissioner for the County of Dublin.

He was born in 1968 in Dublin, Ireland, and grew up in Glasnevin where he attended Sacred Heart Boys National School and St Kevins College, Ballygall. Through his mother he is a descendant of the O'Higgins family of Ballynary, County Sligo.