Dr Killian O'Leary

Lecturer in Marketing

Research Overview

My research is situated in the domain of Consumer Culture Theory, which looks at the intersection of consumption, markets and culture. To date I have studied diverse contexts such as online poker, Irish road bowlers, anonymous social media apps, fantasy football players, consumers with disabilities and carers. In my research I tend to apply qualitative methods such as ethnography, netnography and in depth interviews as a means to build inductive reasoning to interpret consumers marketplace actions. My work has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals including Marketing Theory, European Journal of Marketing, Consumption, Markets & Culture and the Journal of Gambling Studies.

Current Teaching

Current teaching includes:

Postgraduate Teaching

MKTG503 Consumers

MKTG506 Digital Marketing

Undergraduate Teaching

MKTG233 Digital Marketing

MKTG310 Marketing Research and Consultancy Project

External Roles

Early Career Researcher Representative for the Academy of Marketing

Member of the Academy of Marketing Executive Committee

Member of the Academy of Marketing Research Committee

PhD Supervision Interests

Killian is available to supervise PhD projects. His own research interests centre on understanding how consumption, markets and culture intersect through qualitative research methods. Previously he has worked on understanding how both digital and analog subcultures operate, studying how adolescents use anonymous social media apps and how Irish road bowlers re-appropriate public spaces for gambling consumption. More recently he has studied consumer experiences of disability and marketplace accessibility. Central to this research has been his involvement on a project entitled the Marketplace and I - a disability arts led exhibition. Killian is willing to supervise PhD projects on digital consumption, consumer disabilities, subcultures, gambling, sustainability and more generally 'wild and wacky consumer oddballs' (Bode and Ostergaard, 2013). His current wishlist for projects includes 1. Embodied understandings of marketplace accessibility and disability, 2. Gambling and consumer culture, 3. Alternative methods approaches to research i.e. arts based methods, introspection, poetry, exhibitions etc. 4. Alternative or lesser known subcultures or brand communities, 5. The consumption of Guinness among Gen Z'ers, and Oh something on Lego, who doesn't like Lego!