Dr Alana Farrell joined Birmingham Law School in 2017 as a PhD researcher. Her thesis examined anti-abortion information regulations in Ireland. During her research, Alana was also part of the team at Birmingham that researched the impact of restrictive abortion laws for the WHO. This work underpinned a number of recommendations on abortion regulations in the WHO’s ‘Abortion Care Guideline’ (2022). 

Alana completed the EUI’s ‘Introduction to Teaching in Higher Education’ in 2018. She later completed the Higher Education Futures Institute’s ‘Introduction to Academic Practice for Doctoral Researchers’ with the ‘Horizon Award’ (2019). She is now an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. Alana now teaches on the ‘Law, Justice and Ethics’, ‘Decolonising Legal Concepts’ and ‘Gender and the Law’ modules. Shre previously taught on the ‘Criminal Law’ and ‘International Criminal Law’ modules. 

Alana is currently the coordinator of the internal debating competition for CEPLER.

Dr Alana Farrell’s research focuses on the legacies of censorship in law-making in Ireland. She also examines information-related barriers to abortion access abroad. This builds upon her research in Birmingham Law School, and also her work for Durham University, where she interviewed pro-choice abortion campaigners based along the border of Northern/Ireland.

Alana is also part of the PsychLES research team, which is exploring how legal frameworks impact the research into, and use of, therapeutic psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapy. Her interest in this project is linked to her previous work with the University of York, where she interviewed people about their experiences of mental health treatments and hospitalisation.