Biography
I am an established academic, with years of research & pedagogic practice, and active academic citizenship.
My research and pedagogic expertise are in the interdisciplinary gender and sexuality studies, combined with social and epistemic geopolitics, particularly focused on regional dynamics between Western and Central-Eastern Europe (CEE).
Over the years, I have built a coherent research profile around the following 4 pillars. On macro- and meso-level perspectives:
1.Interconnections of gender, sexuality, and nationalism in Poland.
2.Global sexual politics, particularly between the West and CEE.
3.Geopolitics of knowledge production & decolonial epistemologies in critical studies.
In the last 3 years, I have started developing also micro-level focus on interpersonal relations, especially:
4.Friendship & resilience of LGBTQ communities in Poland and the UK.
My career has considerably benefitted from an engagement with non-academic stakeholders nationally and internationally, such as The Arts Institute Plymouth and Equality Network Edinburgh (UK), Association Lambda Warszawa (Poland), The Feminist Autonomous Centre Athens (Greece). International networks of stakeholders, as well as research collaborations have been formative for several of my successful grant applications. Most recently, for the prestigious EU Horizon Europe multi-million consortium funding for the project (2022-2026): 鈥淩ESIST 鈥 Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics鈥 (grant no. 101060749).
Over the years I have also served as an Expert Evaluator or Grant Panel Member for EU Horizon 2020 calls, and for many national Research Councils, incl. ESRC & AHRC in UK, NCN in Poland, SEDA in Latvia, or NWO in Netherlands. I have been regularly peer reviving for major academic journals in queer studies.
I am always keen on integrating research into my pedagogical work with students, as well as developing research skills among them. I have taught and lead teams of teaching staff on core and elective UG and PG modules, across interdisciplinary social sciences and humanities, incl.: research methodologies, social theory, gender and sexuality, media studies, politics, among others. I supervise PhD students, and as an External Examiner and Exam Chair, I have an established doctoral-level mentoring experience, and I welcome expressions of interest from the prospective candidates.
My teaching experience lead me and Dr Mandy Winterton, to design and successfully validate in 2022 new MSc Social Research and Policy. This is an innovative programme cultivating an applied 鈥榟ands-on鈥 approach to learning key transferable research skills, while maintaining critical awareness of the economic, socio-cultural and political contexts that influence the practice of social research. Please check details at: /courses/msc-applied-social-research-postgraduate-full-time
My pedagogical practice has been recognised with the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
1. I am co-Investigator on "RESIST. Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics" (2022-2026) (EU Horizon Europe grant no. 101060749). My roles are to lead on Communication and Dissemination work package and to coordinate the Polish case study. You can read more about the project on: https://theresistproject.eu/
2. I am a member of the EU COST Action "Democratization at stake? Comparing Anti-Gender Politics in CEE and NME countries" (CA23149), where I contribute to WP2 (Deciphering the triangle of state, civil society and anti-gender actors) and WP3 (Rethinking activism and forms of oppositions with a focus on unexpected allies). You can find out more on https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA23149/
3. I was the Principal Investigator on "Collaborating Across: Developing Transnational Synergies To Strengthen Research Cultures" (2023) (ENU Strategic Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund). This project increased collaborations between researchers and non-academic partners to establish a common research consortium platform.
4. I was Principal Investigator on 鈥淔riendship for LGBTIQ+ (Post-)Pandemic Social Resilience鈥 (2022) (ENU Strategic Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund) together with Dr Katherine Ludwin (Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust). Please get in touch if you have any questions.