Katy Hayward is a Northern Irish academic and writer based at Queens University, Belfast.^[1]

Hayward is a professor of Political Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queens in Belfast, with a specialism in the politics of Brexit, conflict resolution and borders.^[2] She completed her undergraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at Magee College in 1999.^[1] She was awarded a PhD in 2002 by University College, Dublin on the impact of European integration on cross-border relations in Ireland.^[1]

She has fellowships including at ‘’UK in a Changing Europe’’, an ESRC-funded initiative, as well as at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queens. In 2019, she became an Eisenhower Fellow.^[1]

In 2023 she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy.^[3]

In addition to her academic writing, Hayward writes regularly for The Guardian,^[4] Belfast Telegraph,^[5] and the Irish Times.^[6]

Hayward is a trustee of Conciliation Resources,^[7] an independent organisation working with people in conflict to prevent violence and build peace.