Dr Phil Mullen, Assistant Professor Black Studies, Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin. Phil Mullen was born in Dublin and grew up in the Irish industrial school system. Returning to education in her 20s, she graduated in English and Philosophy from Trinity. Her M.Phil. in Women’s Studies analysed the role of women as perpetrators of violence during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. She completed her PhD as a Government of Ireland PhD scholar and examined the racist and racialised aspects of how Black mixed African-Irish women who grew up in the Irish institutional care system without families construct their identity.