International Research Fellow, PhD., PGDHE, Attorney at Law (Avvocato – Italian Bar)
delia.ferri@nuim.ieDelia Ferri is a Professor of Law at Maynooth University and co-Director of the ALL Institute. She is also an affiliated researcher at the DIRPOLIS Institute (Institute of Law, Politics and Development) of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Italy) within the research cluster on social rights, social inclusion and disability, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) Standing Committee in International Affairs (SCIA). Recently, she was Visiting Professor at the Academia Interamericana de Derechos Humanos of the Autnomous University of Coahuila.
Delia has published extensively in the fields of International and Comparative Disability Law and European Union Law. She has recently co-authored the first academic textbook on International and European disability law (together with Dr. Andrea Broderick, Maastricht University), published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. Moreover, since 2004, Delia has taken part into different academic research projects and policy-oriented studies on the rights of persons with disabilities, participatory processes and cultural diversity.
In December 2019, Delia has been awarded a prominent European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant of €2 million to undertake a research project entitled Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths. She is also co-investigator in the project SHAPES, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and led by the ALL Institute. Her research in this project focuses on regulatory frameworks to support independence and enhanced quality of life for older people, in particular older people with disabilities. She also holds a position of co-investigator in the project Rethinking Digital Copyright Law for a Culturally Diverse, Accessible, Creative Europe (ReCreating Europe), led by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pisa, by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. Within this project, Delia investigates access to digital cultural goods for people with disabilities, from an intersectional perspective.
Delia holds a J.D. in Law awarded 110/110 magna cum laude from the University of Verona School of Law (Italy), a LL.M. in International and European Business Law awarded First Class Honours with Distinction from Trinity College Dublin, a Doctorate in European and Italian Constitutional Law from the University of Verona (Italy), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PGDHE) from Maynooth University. Delia is also a qualified attorney at law (Avvocato), enrolled at the Verona Bar since 2008.