Professor Dirk Schubotz has been with ARK since January 2003. He is a Professor in Social Policy, based at the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen's University Belfast.

Dirk's main responsibility in ARK is to look after Young Life and Times and ARK in Schools , but he has also been involved in the creation of ARK's qualitative archive on ageism (www.ark.ac.uk/niqa) and in the design and delivery of research methods training activities specifically designed to support voluntary sector organisations.

Dirk's main research interests lie in the development and application of participatory research methods - in particular work with peer researchers; in biographical methods; sexual health; community relations; as well as more generically in young people.

Dirk's PhD thesis focussed on the professional biographies of teachers involved in the small planned integrated school sector in Northern Ireland.