Contact
Biography
I joined the School of Sociology and Social Policy initially as a Teaching Associate in Sociology in September 2017 before becoming an Assistant Professor in 2020. Previously, I worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Leicester on an international collaborative project on forced migrant women (asylum seekers and refugees) and their experiences of housing and healthcare support in Leicester. I have worked with a number of civil society organisations such as Nottingham Citizens, Belong Nottingham and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum (where I was a volunteer adviser supporting asylum seekers and refugees with housing, education and benefits).
I hold a PhD in Sociology (University of Nottingham), MA in Global Citizenship, Identities and Human Rights (with Distinction, University of Nottingham), BA in Political Science (St Kliment Ohridski Sofia University, Bulgaria) and a PGCHE in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (University of Nottingham).
I am currently the Migration and Displacement research cluster lead at the Identities, Citizenship, Equalities and Migration Centre (ICEMiC) and the Undergraduate Programme Convenor for Sociology. I am also a member f the Editorial Board of the BSA Journal Sociological Research Online.
Awards:
- June 2023- Lord Dearing Award for Teaching and Learning for outstanding contribution to the development of teaching and student learning
- February 2016- Best Postgraduate Research Paper for 2015, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham
- May 2015- Best paper award at the the Myth(s) in the Social Sciences and Humanities Postgraduate Conference, University of York
- 2010- Full EU Masters Scholarship awarded by the University of Nottingham
Expertise Summary
I am a migration scholar whose expertise lies in qualitative methods and methodologies, intra-EU mobility, forced migration, transnationalism, citizenship, identities and belonging, racialisation and othering. My research interests also include digital sociology, creative and mixed methods.
Funding:
March 2025: Awarded £9,900.41 (PI) by University of Nottingham's Return to Research scheme for the project Shades of Whiteness: 'Race', Migration and the Balkan experience in the UK (Co-I: Dr Will Shankley, University of Liverpool).
March 2023: Awarded £4,810.45 (PI) by the School of Sociology and Social Policy seed corn fund for the project Not on Holiday: A Pilot Study of the Migratory Experiences of Brits Choosing to Relocate to Bulgaria
March 2021: Awarded £5,995.12 (Co-I) by Research England for the project Community Networks in (Post) Pandemic Urban Spaces ( PI: Dr Alessio D'Angelo; Co-Is: Professor Louise Ryan, Dr Beatrice de Carli, Dr Will Paterson)
Teaching Summary
My teaching closely reflects and is informed by my research interests and expertise. These include: theories on late/liquid/post modernity, identities, belonging, intra-EU mobility,EU citizenship,… read more
Research Summary
I am currently working with Dr Will Shankley (University of Liverpool) on a project called Shades of Whiteness: 'Race', Migration and the Balkan experience in the UK [opens in new window], which aims… read more
Selected Publications
My teaching closely reflects and is informed by my research interests and expertise. These include: theories on late/liquid/post modernity, identities, belonging, intra-EU mobility,EU citizenship, highly skilled migration, settlement, transnationalism, policies and provision in relation to asylum seekers and refugees, , digital sociology, qualitative and quantitative methods.
I have taught for several years at the School of Sociology and Social Policy on a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate core and elective modules as a seminar tutor before joining as a full-time member of staff. I have supervised many students who successfully completed their undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations.
Current teaching (2025/6):
Module convenor:
SOCI2039 Research Design and Practice (Qualitative Methods) (Level 2, core)
SOCI3007 Migration and Transnationalism (Level 3, elective)
PhD supervision
Franka Zlatic, "Liminal identities: youth migration and narratives of belonging" (co-supervised with Dr Elisabetta Zontini), PhD awarded in 2024
Current Research
I am currently working with Dr Will Shankley (University of Liverpool) on a project called Shades of Whiteness: 'Race', Migration and the Balkan experience in the UK [opens in new window], which aims to the ways in which Balkan migrants in the UK construct, negotiate and resist their racial identities in a post-Covid, post-Brexit and post-EU enlargement context, which is increasingly becoming more hostile migrants. In doing so, we aim to challenge monolithic understandings and representations of whiteness and contribute to the better understanding of processes of racialisation.
I am also part of a research team working on a project called Mapping Community Networks in Post-Pandemic Urban Spaces [opens in new window], which is a collaboration between UoN (Dr Alessio D'Angelo is PI, Dr Will Paterson, Saaliha Lone) and London Met (Prof Louise Ryan, Dr Beatrice de Carli, Hosn Houssami), alongside local community partners.
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1366-268X
Past Research
- I worked with Dr Elisabetta Zontini on a project exploring the settlement experiences of EU migrants (Italians and Bulgarians) in Brexit Britain, focusing particularly on the ways we can use emotion as epistemic tools for knowledge production.
- My PhD thesis Migration and the 'Children of the Transition': Unravelling the Experiences of Young Highly Skilled Bulgarians in the UK focused on both university students and young professionals. More specifically, the research centred upon three key focal points: what happens before (the participants' migratory projects), during (adjustment and reactions to othering discourses) and after (implications upon identities and sense of belonging) migration.
- I have also also researched the asylum-seeking process, paying particular attention to the gender dimension. I was looking at the experiences of asylum-seeking and refugee women of housing and healthcare support on a national, regional and local (Leicester) level.
- I have also completed a mixed-method study on the barriers to employment that African migrants face in Nottingham, commissioned by Belong Nottingham. .