Melissa Baird is Assistant Editor with the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) series at the Royal Irish Academy. She is an historian of modern Irish and American history. Melissa received her PhD in 2023 from Queen’s University Belfast, which examined the relationship between the Irish diaspora in the United States and the Northern Irish civil rights movement. Melissa has lectured on Irish and American history at Queen's University Belfast, and managed several public history projects at the Linen Hall library.