24 Times Higher Education8 February 2018
The first female professor of politics in any part of Ireland
has died.
Elizabeth Meehan was born in Edinburgh in March
1947, educated at Peebles High School and began a course
at the Edinburgh College of Art before deciding that it was
not right for her. She worked in the Foreign Office before
returning to education for a degree in politics at the Univer-
sity of Sussex (1976) followed by a DPhil at the University
of Oxford (1982), where her thesis was on women’s
employment rights. She went on to teach politics at the
University of Bath from 1986, although this included a spell
as a prestigious Hallsworth fellow at the Victoria University
of Manchester (1989), before joining Queen’s University
Belfast in 1991 as the first female professor of politics in
any part of Ireland.
A year later, this became a double professorship when
Professor Meehan was also appointed Jean Monnet profes-
sor of European studies, and she remained at Queen’s until
retirement in 2005, becoming professor emerita in the
School of Law. In her time at the institution, she served as
dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, took
a year’s sabbatical at Trinity College Dublin’s Policy Institute
and then returned to Belfast to found the interdisciplinary
Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research.
Professor Meehan used the institute to bring the academy
together with those working in policymaking and the third
sector, and to develop her deep interests in citizenship, gender
equality and the European Union and its impact on relations
between Britain and Ireland. She set out her views most
forcefully in a chapter on “Political pluralism and European
citizenship” inCitizenship, Democracy and Justice in the
New Europe(edited by Percy Lehning and Albert Weale,
1997), where she developed the now-topical notion of
cosmopolitan citizenship based on shared moral values.
The first woman to chair the Political Studies Associ-
ation (1993-96), Professor Meehan remained active in the
academy well after retirement, working with the Institute
for British-Irish Studies at University College Dublin and
taking on an honorary position in the University of Edin-
burgh’s School of Social and Political Science.
Politics professor Fiona Mackay of Edinburgh’s Centre on
Constitutional Change described Professor Meehan as “a
subtle and incisive thinker, a tenacious debater, a generous
mentor [and] collegial to her core...As a citizen-activist, she
played a role in the Northern Ireland peace process, includ-
ing as a member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition,
which brought women’s voices to the negotiating table.”
Professor Meehan died on 6 January.
[email protected]
Elizabeth Meehan, 1947-2018
Obituary
Hilary Grainger is professor of
architectural history and dean of
academic development and quality
assurance at the London College
of Fashion, University of the Arts
London. She is an authority on
the architect Sir Ernest George
and on the architecture of British
crematoria. She is also president
of the Association of the Study
of Death in Society. She was
appointed OBE for services to
higher education in the Queen’s
New Year Honours for 2018.OWhere and when were you born?
Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear
in 1952.OHow has this shaped you?
My parents were schoolteachers
who believed strongly in the value
of education. They were unfail-
ingly encouraging and supportive.
Being an only child, family and
friends have always been import-
ant. Growing up on the north-east
coast, I was instilled with a strong
sense of place, belonging and love
of the sea. It still exerts a strong
draw. Coincidentally, some of my
early higher education teaching
was in Newcastle. Much of me
has been defined by the north
east. I feel entirely at home there.OYour latest book looks at the
history of cremation in modern
Scotland. What was the most
interesting finding or anecdote you
discovered during your research?
Uncovering Sir Basil Spence’s acri-
monious relationship with Edin-
burgh’s city architect over the
design of Mortonhall Cremator-
ium. Spence threatened his resig-
nation over the lack of funding
and vision, arguing that “this job
is giving me more trouble than
Coventry Cathedral”. The episode
exemplified a familiar story of
compromises over cost, which led
to much of the mediocrity of post-
war crematoria design. Spence’s
tenacity resulted in one of the
finest buildings of its type in the
UK. I take every opportunity to
promote the importance of good
design to the industry through my
work with the Cremation Society.OWhat is the biggest misconcep-
tion about your field of study?
People believe that any consider-ation of death, more specifically
the disposal of the dead, is some-
how distasteful, and yet, paradox-
ically, they are fascinated by the
subject. Given that 76 per cent of
people in the UK now choose cre-
mation, surprisingly crematoria
remain “invisible buildings”. In
an increasingly secular society,
they have become the focus of
ritual and the disposal and
remembrance of the dead. They
form a significant part of our cul-
tural heritage, and their role in
contemporary society needs to be
better understood. We need to
talk more openly about death.OWhat are the best and worst
things about your job?
The best is working with remark-
able colleagues in a creative envi-
ronment. The worst is anything
going awry with the rail network.
I commute from Birmingham to
London and when things go
wrong, they tend to go wrong in
spectacular fashion.OWhat is your favourite building?
High on my list would be 39
Harrington Gardens, Kensington,
built in 1882 for W. S. Gilbert by
Sir Ernest George. This flamboy-
ant and whimsical town house, so
perfectly suited to its owner, holds
a special significance for me. It
prompted my interest in George,
the subject of my PhD and subse-
quent monograph. George also
designed Golders Green Crema-
torium in 1902 – hence my inter-
est in cremation.OIf you were to design a university
from scratch, what would it look
like?
Architecture ought not to be judged
by appearance alone. Buildings are
for people, and a university is an
academic and social project. The
building would need to encompass
functionalism, social purpose and,
above all, collective endeavour.
Flexibility would be paramount,
and the trick might be to avoid the
vagaries and excesses of style to
ensure contemporary relevance.OWhat kind of undergraduate
were you?
Diligent but, I hope, not earnest.
I studied English and the history
of art at the University of Leeds.