About

I explore how vulnerability is produced and how people respond. My dissertation examines the intersections of labor, immigration, and technology, focusing on how systems of governance shape workers’ lives and conditions. While a Graduate Assistant at the Center for Urban Research and Education at Rutgers University–Camden, I studied urban development and community-institutional relationships, collaborating with community-based organizations, governments, and universities to support more equitable and accountable development and engagement. Across my projects, I participate in and support organizing and movement-building efforts.

In 2018-2019, I was a Fulbright and Boren fellow in Taiwan, where I worked with the Yilan Migrant Fishermen's Union in their fight for fair treatment at work. We achieved substantial policy wins that helped make conditions safer for workers. I received a Youth Human Rights Award from the United Nations for a report on the fishermen's union's living and working conditions, and I presented my work at a UN General Assembly side event. 

I enjoy spending time outside. I'm a founding member and co-leader of the Feminist Bird Club of Philadelphia. We host local birdwatching events and share our mission of promoting social and environmental justice in Philly. Learn more about us here.

I provide consulting services to organizations that are exploring issues around justice and governance. My previous partners include the U.S. Department of Labor, the City of Philadelphia, and community-based organizations engaged in policy advocacy. 

I specialize in a broad range of topics: 

• Immigration policy and experiences of immigrants

• Technology and how advances in tech impact everyday life

• Labor and the fight for fair wages and treatment at work

• Urban Studies and issues around housing, neighborhood development, and municipal government 

• Human Rights and issues around violations of access to rights 

• Coalition Building and collective action 

I support organizations through: 

• Research & Analysis – using quantitative and qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis

• Writing & Communications – reports, policy briefs, grant writing, public-facing materials

• Project Coordination & Collaboration – cross-team coordination, partner relationships, project tracking, meeting facilitation

• Strategy Development – clarifying goals, mapping stakeholders, and developing actionable plans

• Capacity Building – strengthening internal processes, workflows, and knowledge systems

Be in touch if you are interested in working together! You can contact me at do272[at]scarletmail.rutgers.edu

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• O’Donoghue, D. & Danley, S. (2026). 'Real Estate Compan[ies] with an Academic Division:' Framing Anchor Institutions as Real Estate Institutions. Administrative Theory and Praxis. 

• Danley, S., Mareschal, P. and O’Donoghue, D. (2025). “How Higher Education Spending in the Community Misses the Mark and What We Tried to Do About it at PATNET’s Annual Conference.” Administrative Theory and Praxis. 

• Cannon, T. and O’Donoghue, D. (2024). “'There Is No Excused Absence in Prison.' An interview with Dr. Tanisha Cannon on the nexus of prison labor and human trafficking and imagining a better future,” Metropolitics. URL: https://metropolitics.org/There-Is-No-Excused-Absence-in-Prison.html

Professional Reports

• Cannon, T. & O’Donoghue, D. (2024). Slavery in state and private prisons in California, United States, and its impacts on currently and formerly incarcerated people. Report to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.

• Yilan Migrant Fishermen’s Union (written by O’Donoghue, D.). (2019). Violations to the Access of Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation for Migrant Fishermen in Public Spaces. Report to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Water and Sanitation.

• O’Donoghue, D. (2016). The Urgent Needs of Homeless Youth. Report to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. 

Critical Migration and Deportation Studies Conference, New York, New York. August 2026.

• Presenter, “Legal Violence and the Labor Conditions of (Im)migrant Information Technology Workers.”

Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting San Francisco, CA, March 2026

• Presenter, “Legal Violence and the Labor Conditions of (Im)migrant Information Technology Workers.”

Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting Detroit, MI, March 2025

• Presenter, “Navigating Employment Issues and Police encounters: Frictions Across the Tech Sector’s Migrant Subcontractor Workforce.” Recipient of the Digital Geographies Specialty Group Student Paper Award.

American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2024

• Poster Presenter, “Precarity by Design: A Study of Tech Sector Lobbying on Issues Related to Migrant Labor.” Recipient of the graduate student poster award (3rd place). 

Urban Affairs Association Conference, Nashville, TN, April 2023

• Presenter, 'Real Estate Compan[ies] with an Academic Division:' Framing Anchor Institutions as Real Estate Developers” with Stephen Danley and Jovanna Rosen.

• 2025 Rutgers University - Camden Chancellor’s Grant for Independent Student Research 

• 2025 Student Paper Award for the Digital Geographies Specialty Group at the American Association of Geography Conference 

• 2024 Graduate Student Poster Competition at the American Society for Criminology Conference (3rd Place) 

• 2024 Community First Fellow, Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE) 

• 2020 Winner of the United Nations Youth Human Rights Award hosted by the UN Special Rapporteur for Water and Sanitation 

• 2018-2019 Fulbright Student Research Grant to Taiwan

• 2018-2019 Boren National Security Education Program Grant for Mandarin study in Taiwan 

• 2018 Awardee of the Drexel University Graduate School Teck-Kah Lim Award for overall service, academic excellence, and outstanding promise 

PhD in Public Affairs / Community Development from Rutgers University - Camden

Masters in Legal Studies from Drexel University

Bachelors in English Literature and Chinese Studies from Grinnell College