Personal statement
Laura Piacentini PhD, FRSE, Fellow Academianet
BA Sociology (2:1 Honours), MA Criminology (First Class, University of Keele), PgDip Russian Language (University of Strathclyde) and PhD Criminology & Sociology (University of Wales, Bangor).
My primary research, teaching and knowledge exchange is in the subject of Criminology. I designed the first Criminology degrees and the first Masters in Criminology at the University of Stirling (2000-2006). I joined the University of Strathclyde in 2006 and was based in the Law School. In January 2016 I moved to the School of Social Work and Social Policy (established in 2014) to develop the Criminology subject. I have held and currently hold senior school and Faculty roles that include: Director of Research the Law School (2010-2014) and Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange in the School, of Social Work and Social Policy (2016-present).
I am Associate Director of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and University of Strathclyde Lead with Dr Beth Weaver. www.sccjr.ac.uk
I am the Co-Ed-in-Chief of the leading Criminology journal, Criminology & Criminal Justice with Dr Sarah Armstrong and Professor Michele Burman of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.
In 2014 I was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of Academianet, which is the EU Research Fellowship established by the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel to recognise and support the research leadership of European Women Scholars.
Teaching
I have taught Criminology for over twenty years and have developed interest and expertise across a wide range of criminological subject areas at under-graduate and Masters levels. I have supervised dozens of post-graduate students in the Criminology subject.
I will be leading on the introduction of Criminology to the new Social Policy Under-Graduate degree at the School of Social Work & Social Policy. At the school, Criminology is currently being integrated part of the first and second year social policy modules to give students an opportunity to see if this is a subject of interest.
Launching in the academic year 2017/2018 is the first ever Criminology module in Social Work & Social Policy titled: Emotions, Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Launching in 2018/2019 is the first MSc Criminology (Research Methods) at the School of Social Work and Social Policy:
https://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/schoolofsocialworksocialpolicy/newsevents/newmsccriminology/
I can supervise Criminology PhDs and applications for a PhD are welcomed in the following areas: criminology, sociology, prison sociology, international criminal justice systems, Russian criminal justice policy and gender and criminal justice.
Research interests
Research: I am trained as Sociologist and Criminologist and a highly proficient Russian speaker. I have been researching and publishing in the area of contemporary Russian imprisonment for nearly twenty-five years, having lived and conducted research in numerous prisons. All of my work is multi-disciplinary and includes the subjects of human geography, Russian Area Studies, history, human rights and political science). I am the first Westerner to conduct empirical and theoretical research in post-Soviet Russian jails. I am committed to radical, creative and theoretically informed research methods. My research is recognised as world leading in Criminology.
I have been PI or Co-I on many grants and have completed 2 major ESRC studies on Russian prisons: Prison Labour in Post-Soviet Prisons (1997-2001) and the first major study into women’s imprisonment in Russia in 2011, funded by the ESRC (with Professor Judith Pallot (Oxford) and Dr Dominique Moran (Birmingham). I was Co-I on the ESRC study ‘Regulating Justice: The dynamics of compliance and breach in criminal justice social work in Scotland’ with Dr Monica Barry (Law, PI) and Dr Beth Weaver (Social Work and Social Policy Co-I). Currently, I am Principal Investigator on a new Leverhulme study on rights consciousness amongst Russian prisoners with Dr Elena Katz at the University of Oxford. See http://prisonersrightsrussia.org.uk
Knowledge Exchange: I have advised the United Nations and NGOs on subjects that include forced labour in prisons and Russian political prisoners and asylum seekers. I have advised the Scottish Parliament on rehabilitation in prisons. I have given papers at diverse Universities including the Universities of Harvard, The Higher Education Institute of Smolensk and Moscow State University. In 2012, I taught at the Central European University, Budapest.
Book Awards: My first book, Surviving Russian Prisons: Punishment, Politics and Economy in Transition won the British Society of Criminology Book of the Year award in 2005. My second book (co-authored with Professor Judith Pallot (Oxford) titled Gender, Geography and Punishment: the Experience of Women in Carceral Russia, won the Heldt Prize for book of the year at the American Association of Slavonic Studies and was nominated for the Book of the Year 2013 by Pushkin House London and the Davis Centre at Harvard University
In preparation is Prison Netnography and Human Rights in Russian Prisons. Routledge (co-authored with Dr Elena Katz).
Professional activities
- Assocation for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies, USA
- Participant
- 12/11/2017
- "Who is saying what to whom and for what purpose?": Prisoners as web users in Russian prisons
- Speaker
- 6/10/2017
- Sociological and Criminological Understandings of Human Rights in Russian Prisons
- Participant
- 5/9/2017
- The Virtual Reality of Russian Prisons:The Impact of Social Media on Prisoner Agency and Prison Structure in Russian prisons
- Speaker
- 11/5/2017
- External Examiner, Masters in Criminology, Edinburgh Law School
- External Examiner
- 1/11/2016
- Social Sciences Now and Then: Celebrating 50 Years of Social Sciences at Bangor University
- Participant
- 15/9/2016
more professional activities
Projects
- AHRC - Doctoral Training Partnership Scotland | Gavin, Mhairi
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator) McDiarmid, Claire (Co-investigator) Gavin, Mhairi (Research Co-investigator)
- Period 01-Oct-2014 - 01-Jul-2018
- An Evaluation of the Hamilton Youth Court Pilot
- Piacentini, Laura (Academic)
- Funded by The Scottish Executive (£220,000)
- Period 01-Jan-2003 - 02-Oct-2006
- An Evaluation of the Youth Court in Airdrie, Scotland, February 2004 – September 2005.
- Piacentini, Laura (Academic)
- Funded by the Scottish Executive (£49,000).
- Period 01-Sep-2004 - 02-May-2005
- Rehabilitation in Scottish Prisons
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator)
- Research Evaluation into Rehabilitation in Scottish Prisons
- Period 03-May-2004 - 01-Jun-2005
- Conditions of confinement in the Ligovo Penal Colony for Young Women (University of Oxford, £20,000)
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator)
- A pilot study conducted by Piacentini and Pallot (The University of Oxford)
- Period 17-May-2006 - 23-May-2006
- A Sociology of Rights Consciousness amongst Prisoners in Russia
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator)
- Period 01-Mar-2015 - 28-Feb-2017
more projects
Address
Social Policy
Lord Hope Building
Lord Hope Building
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