Intervarsity Women in Law Partnership
QUB and Trinity College Dublin Women in Law Collaborate on Landmark Research into Gendered Harms in Rare Earth Mineral Extraction.
From October 2025 to March 2026, QUB's Women in Law Network has had the privilege of working with Trinity College Dublin's Women in Law Society on a research project, entitled ‘Extractive Economies and Feminist Legal Accountability: Gendered Harms in the Rare Earth Mineral Supply Chain'.
The project was run by Isobel McSorley and Ella Chepak, Publication Officers with TWIL, with Eva Kelly and Rachel McClure acting as project Editors-in-Chief alongside the Publication Officers. The groups consisted of 9 people from QUB and 9 from TCD, for a total of 6 groups. Each group had a researcher, writer, and editor, with an emphasis placed on forming Intervarsity relations between the groups from each university.
The project focused on the gendered harms of rare earth mineral extraction, and how certain harms as a result of rare mineral mining could disproportionally affect women over men, especially in jurisdictions where fewer protections may have been afforded to them.
Finally, the team from QUB were invited down to the Trinity Women in Law Publication Launch on Friday, 20th March in the TCD Graduate Memorial Building, where the two TWIL Publication Officers, as well as QUBWIL Co-Chair Eva Kelly, introduced the research project to attendees. A group of four from the QUB group attended, and they all received a warm welcome down at Trinity.
"We are so incredibly grateful that TWIL reached out to us back in October! We never could have imagined the impact that this has had on the relationship between our networks. It has allowed not only Rachel [QUBWIL Co-Chair] and I to expand our networks and make new friends down in Dublin, but has also allowed those involved to meet new people, and sharpen their skills in an academic field. It was an all-round amazing experience that I hope we can share again in the future!” - Eva Kelly, QUB Women In Law Co-Chair