E-Bulletin: University of Leicester

Professor Barbara A Misztal has been appointed to a Chair of Sociology in the Department of Sociology from August 1, 2002.

Barbara received her BA from Warsaw University and her PhD from the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). She then held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California (Riverside) before returning to work at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of PAN. In 1988 she moved to Australia where she taught social science, politics and European Studies at Griffith University in Brisbane.

Her broad research interests and her enthusiasm for interdisciplinary perspectives are reflected in her major publications, which explore concepts and conceptions of trust (Trust in Modern Societies, Polity Press, 1996), informality (Informality: Social Theory and Contemporary Practice, Routledge 2000) and memory (Social Theories of Remembering, Open University Press, forthcoming). She is also interested in processes of democratisation and political change, especially in newly democratic countries.

Professor Barbara Misztal

Her experience in exploring new ideas and innovative ways of applying social theory, added to the wide scope of her teaching and research, has given her a valuable basis for teaching a sociology for the 21st century.

She believes that as societies become increasingly 'global' and 'mobile', only a thoroughgoing international and comparative perspective offers an opportunity to grasp the contemporary nature of key social problems and trends.

Barbara looks forward very much to contributing to the full range of activities in the Department and to participating in teaching and research collaborations with her new colleagues.

She is married to a social anthropologist and has a daughter who will complete high school this year and a son who has just finished his undergraduate studies in the USA.

Appointment