Our people

Joshua Copeland is the executive director of Notre Dame London, overseeing the overall operation of the University’s presence in the UK. As the senior leader at Notre Dame London, Josh is responsible for implementing the University’s vision in the UK, assuring alignment of operational and academic strategies with Notre Dame’s mission.

Josh’s leadership focuses on strengthening Notre Dame’s visibility and impact in the UK. He also leads a dedicated team that serves undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, alumni, and collaborators, as well as the wider Notre Dame family.

Previously, Josh was the director of student affairs at ND London, and before that, at the Minerva Schools at KGI in London. He has worked in other administrative and development roles at Oxford University, and served for four years as rector at Conway Hall, Notre Dame’s student residence in London.

Originally from the United States, Josh spent a decade as a professional opera singer and teacher before embarking on a career in university administration after moving to the UK in 2011. He continues his singing and teaching whenever the opportunity arises, and enjoys exploring the English countryside around the southeast with his wife and twin boys.

Dr Fiona Costello is a Bye-Fellow at St Edmund's College.

She is interested in the global movement of persons, Brexit and the legacy of EU free movement to the UK, wider UK Immigration law and policy and access to justice pathways available to vulnerable and minoritised communities living in the UK and EU.

Dr Costello works on various research matters at the Faculty of Law, Cambridge examining immigration issues in the UK post Brexit (particularly for EU citizens in the UK) and access to justice pathways for marginalised communities. Her work is part of a programme called ‘The UK in a Changing Europe’ (http://ukandeu.ac.uk), which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Alongside her academic work, Fiona also works with a charity in Norfolk called GYROS (www.gyros.org.uk) supporting refugee, asylum seekers and other migrant communities. Fiona has written extensively on the topic of migration to the UK. Her work has been featured in The Independent, The Times, The Conversation and BBC News among others. She has given evidence to both the House of Lords, EU Affairs Committee, and the Equality and Social Justice Committee in the Senedd, as well as to Parliamentary Staff in the House of Commons and to the APPG on citizen’s rights. Her work has been cited in reports by both the UK House of Lords and the Welsh Parliament.  She also blogs on Brexit matters, mainly for the http://ukandeu.ac.uk/. Her 2024 co-authored monograph ‘Low-Paid EU Migrant workers, The House, The Street, The Town’ was shortlisted for the SLSA Hart Book Prize 2025.

Fiona’s full list of academic publications can be found here: https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/f-costello/78811

Dr Phung Dao is Associate Professor in Second Language Education. His research focuses on the intersection of second language acquisition (SLA), educational technology, and language education.

Phung Dao is Associate Professor in Second Language Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, where he teaches MPhil/MEd courses in Research in Second Language Education (RSLE) and supervises PhD students. Before joining the University of Cambridge, Phung was a senior Lecturer in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University (2018-2022), teaching undergraduate/postgraduate courses and supervising PhD students in TESOL/Applied Linguistics. He also taught undergraduate/postgraduate courses in Applied Linguistics at University of Queensland (Australia), Concordia University (Canada) and An Giang University (Vietnam). His research interests focus on instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), technology for language teaching and learning, peer interaction, learner engagement, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), L2 pedagogy, and L2 teacher education. His publications appear in international peer-reviewed Applied Linguistic journals such as Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Teaching, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Applied Linguistics Review, TESOL Journal, System, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, Language Learning Journal, IRAL and among others.

His current research projects, funded by British Council and IELTS IDP Australia, investigate online English language teaching in Vietnamese public schools, IELTS impacts on stakeholders, and young learners’ engagement in L2 learning tasks in face-to-face and online classes.

Academic Profile 

Publications

• Dao, P. (2024). Learner Engagement in Online Second Language Classrooms. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Iwashita, N., Dao, P., & Nguyen, M. (2025). Understanding Interaction in the Second Language Classroom Context. Multilingual Matters.
• Dao, P., M. Nguyen, PT. Duong, V. Tran-Thanh. (2021) Learners’ Engagement in L2 Computer-Mediated Interaction: Chat Mode, Interlocutor Familiarity, and Text Quality. Modern Language Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12737
• Dao, P., Bui, T. & Nguyen, XNCM (2024). Public primary school teachers’ perceptions and assessment of young learners’ engagement. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688241253546

Professor Ken Dark is an archaeologist and historian specialising in the 1st millennium AD in Europe and the Middle East, archaeological method and theory, and the application of long-term perspectives to the contemporary world. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute, and an elected member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and the Royal Institute of International Affairs, he has written 15 books and numerous papers, and directed archaeological projects in Istanbul, beside the Sea of Galilee, and in Nazareth – where he identified a 1st century house believed by many to have been the childhood home of Jesus. In addition to desk-based research, and fieldwork at Tintagel in Cornwall, he is currently directing research on the mission centre at Canterbury established in 597 by Gregory the Great to convert England.

Emanuela is Director of Studies for Modern and Medieval Languages

Lucy is Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine (Clinical)

I research how the moral values of love and justice can reshape institutions to foster mutual care. I’m currently working with hospitals in Chile on a scorecard that fosters spaces of encounter and enables caregivers—like mothers and health professionals—in giving and receiving loving care.

Thana C. de Campos-Rudinski is an Associate Professor at the School of Government and the Institute of Applied Ethics at the Pontifical Catholic University in Chile. She has a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford.

Her research and teaching examine how laws and public policies impact the way we think and live the most fundamental aspects of life: love, family, friendship, the interdependence among people and countries. Her work has analysed the problems of global poverty, medical suffering, communicable diseases and pandemics, the loneliness epidemic, and grief. Her discussions draw on relational theories of justice (Aquinas and Finnis in particular), virtue ethics, and feminist ethics of care.

In The Global Health Crisis: Ethical Responsibilities (CUP, 2017) she discusses the duties of justice that we have (or do not have), as both individuals and nations, to aid those vulnerable people in remote areas afflicted by certain grave illnesses for which there is no adequate or accessible medical treatment. Her forthcoming book The Rule of Love: The Power of Presence for Reforming Health Institutions and Global Health Governance (OUP) investigates how love – together with justice – helps us revisit how we should structure our healthcare institutions at the local, national, and global levels, to foster an organizational culture of encounter, presence, and accompaniment with those suffer – without being inefficient or financially reckless. Current research projects include 'Lonely Mothers, Loving Institutions and Institutional Homemaking', which examines how the application of the philosophical concepts of love and homemaking could help us reimagine contemporary institutions, laws, and public policies such as those contemplating universal day-care and personalized perinatology (maternal-foetal medicine), in how they may impact mothers and as a consequence father, children, families, communities, and the common good more broadly.

Thana was a fellow at Princeton’s Institute for International and Regional Studies (2021) and is the co-director of the research program Dignity and Equity in Women’s Health of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights.

Academic Profile

Professor Mahinda Deegalle is a Bye-Fellow at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge.

He is a Professor Emeritus at Bath Spa University and a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London. He was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge in 2022–23. He is trained in the History of Religions at Harvard University and The University of Chicago. He held the first Numata Professorship at McGill University and NEH Professorship at Colgate University. He conducted post-doctoral research at Kyoto University and Aichi Gakuin University with funding from JSPS and Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai. He acquired grants from the British Academy / Leverhulme Trust, the British Council and Fulbright. He is the author of Popularizing Buddhism and the editor of several volumes, including Buddhism, Conflict and Violence in Modern Sri Lanka (2006), Philosophy, Ethics and Buddhist Practice (2023) and the co-editor of Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law (2024).

Louisa is Director of Studies for Music.

Kieron Devey has enjoyed a wide-reaching career spanning different sectors and countries. After university, he joined the government advising industry specialists on the development and accreditation of vocational qualifications. Staying within government, he then led the launch of a new and innovative legal information and advice service aimed at helping members of the public.

Returning to Cambridge, Kieron joined Cambridge University Press and Assessment where he managed several international education reform projects with ministries of education in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It was during this time that he was approached by KAUST University in Saudi Arabia to work for them. At KAUST, he was responsible for several student-facing initiatives including establishing the University’s inaugural Student Ombudsman Service, where he assisted students with a range of complex issues.

Shortly after returning to the UK, Kieron joined St Edmund’s as its first Director of Education where he continues to support students.

Maria Devlin McNair is a writer, researcher, and podcast producer whose credits include “Article 13,” “Ministry of Ideas," "Illuminations," "Genealogies of Modernity," and "Shakespeare For All." Her work draws on literature, philosophy, theology, and social science to explore what, together, these fields can teach us about how we lead flourishing lives.

A mother of 3, McNair holds a PhD in English Literature from Harvard University and lives in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

My research focuses on relationship between religion and democracy in the Mediterranean region; interreligious dialogue; global Catholicism and Islam; and religious conceptions of humanism.

Michael Driessen is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and the inaugural Director of the MA program in International Affairs at John Cabot University.

Michael received his doctorate from the University of Notre Dame and has been a post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar as well as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He has taught at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna and holds a research affiliation with Cambridge University’s Von Hügel Institute. He also serves as an advisor for the Adyan Foundation in Lebanon.

Professor Driessen also directs the Rome Summer Seminars on Religion and Global Politics, an annual writing workshop and policy dialogue supported by a consortium of institutions and scholars working at the crossroads of religion and international relations and held under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also a longtime member of the communities of L’Arche and am working on the Disability and Knowledge research project co-sponsored by the Von Hügel Institute.

Driessen’s books include The Global Politics of Interreligious Dialogue (Oxford University Press, 2023), Human Fraternity and Inclusive Citizenship: Interreligious Engagement in the Mediterranean (ISPI, 2021; co-edited with Fabio Petito and Fadi Daou), and Religion and Democratization (Oxford University Press, 2014). He has published scholarly articles in Comparative Politics, Sociology of Religion, Politics and Religion, Constellations and Democratization and essays in America Magazine and Commonweal.

Academic Profile

My research focuses on all aspects of Intellectual Property.

Qualifying in Pharmacology at Kings College London, called to the Bar in 1989, St. Edmunds College Camb, Research Associate, Intellectual Prop. 2015 - 2025, Notre Dame University – Prof. of IP, 2018 – 2020-advocacy and IP for New York State JDs, Hon. Soc. of Gray’s Inn Advocacy Trainer – 2010-current, Visiting Professor – Trade Mark for Practitioners Course - Brunel University & Oxford University. Appointed Bencher (Master) of Hon Soc. of Gray’s Inn – 1999- current ; Chair-elect – Bar Association for Commerce Finance and Industry; Elected Member of the Bar Council (twice); Member of the IP Commission Panel of the Federation Barreaux D’Europe (The European Bar).

Directorships: Autumnpaper Ltd – Alexander McQueen’s company – 2005-2006; The Globe Theatre – Development Council – twice-present.

Published Engelman's IP Updates - Bloomsbury; published over 40 IP papers; notable cases: Intel Corp v CPM (UK) Ltd cited daily in courts & tribunals ojn Trade Mark Dilution across the UK & all Member States of the EU.

Personal Website

Stuart is Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine (pre-clinical)

I am a UTO Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education. 

William initially worked as a primary school teacher after a degree from Sussex and UC Berkeley. Additionally, William works on the Primary PGCE and teaches on the UG Education Tripos, and has Masters and PhD students. In research, he collaborates across the University, Education and Healthcare sectors in various Chief Investigator or Co-applicant roles, mainly on the topic of assessment and diagnostic pathways for children with possible autism, or other neurodivergent conditions.

Professor Eilís Ferran is a Fellow at St Edmund's College and a Professor of Company and Securities Law at the University of Cambridge.

She is also the Provost of the Gates-Cambridge Trust, which provides scholarships for postgraduate study at Cambridge funded by a major donation from the Gates Foundation. She has written extensively on UK, EU and international financial regulation, company law and corporate finance law.  Her publications include Principles of Corporate Finance Law (OUP, 3rd edn, 2023, co-authored), Brexit and Financial Services (Hart Publishing, 2017 co-authored), The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (OUP, 2015, co-edited) and The Regulatory Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (CUP 2012, co-authored).  She is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple.  She is an independent director of a number of profit and not-for-profit companies, and of a charitable foundation.