Dr Aneta Piekut
Sheffield Methods Institute
Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Social Sciences
+44 114 222 6288
Full contact details
Sheffield Methods Institute
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS)
219 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
- Profile
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Dr Aneta Piekut joined the Sheffield Methods Institute in 2014. Before that she worked as a researcher at the Universities of Warsaw (the Centre of Migration Research, 2005-2009), Leeds and Sheffield (2010-2014). She completed her PhD at the University of Warsaw in 2009. Her doctoral research was partially funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland (2005-2009).
Aneta is also Co-Director of the Migration Research Group and a Deputy Director of PGR training in the Faculty of Social Sciences.
She is sociologist by training, but her research spans disciplinary boundaries. Her research focuses on the relationship between ethnic diversity and social cohesion, attitudes towards immigration and ethnic minorities, as well as integration and socio-spatial segregation. She employs mixed method approach in my research, from advanced statistical methods to creative in-depth interviewing.
She published widely in leading academic journals on issues of migration, ethnicity and segregation (e.g. European Sociological Review, Sociology, Social Science Research, Social & Cultural Geography, Journal of Economic and Social Geography (TESG)), and in 2017 she won the prestigious SAGE Prize for Innovation and Excellence awarded by the British Sociological Association’s (BSA) for a paper published in Sociology journal.
- Publications
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Books
- Making Sense of Data in the Media. Sage.
Journal articles
- Brexit and beyond: Transforming mobility and immobility. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 9(1), 5-12. View this article in WRRO
- Survey nonresponse in attitudes towards immigration in Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. View this article in WRRO
- Segregation in the twenty first century: Processes, complexities and future directions. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. View this article in WRRO
- Frontiers in Residential Segregation: Understanding Neighbourhood Boundaries and Their Impacts. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie. View this article in WRRO
- Spaces of encounter and attitudes towards difference: A comparative study of two European cities. Social Science Research, 62, 175-188. View this article in WRRO
- Attitudes towards the ‘stranger’: negotiating encounters with difference in the UK and Poland. Social & Cultural Geography, 18(1), 16-33. View this article in WRRO
- Perceived Diversity and Acceptance of Minority Ethnic Groups in Two Urban Contexts. European Sociological Review, 32(3), 339-354. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Other’ Posts in ‘Other’ Places: Poland through a Postcolonial Lens?. Sociology, 50(1), 60-76. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Big Brother welcomes you’: exploring innovative methods for research with children and young people outside of the home and school environments. Qualitative Research, 15(5), 583-599. View this article in WRRO
- Mapping the meaning of ‘difference’ in Europe: A social topography of prejudice. Ethnicities, 15(4), 568-585. View this article in WRRO
- Intimate encounters: The negotiation of difference within the family and its implications for social relations in public space. Geographical Journal. View this article in WRRO
- Seeking ‘the New Normal’? Troubled spaces of encountering visible differences in Warsaw. Polish Sociological Review, 2014(4). View this article in WRRO
- Migration and modernisation - An alternative. polemic essay with Marek Okólski's article "modernising impacts of emigration". Studia Socjologiczne(1), 157-169. View this article in WRRO
- You’ve got Starbucks and Coffee Heaven... I Can Do This! Spaces of Social Adaptation of Highly Skilled Migrants in Warsaw. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 2(1). View this article in WRRO
- Multidimensional diversity in two European cities: Thinking beyond ethnicity. Environment and Planning A, 44(12), 2988-3009. View this article in WRRO
- Czy mamy juz w Polsce mala Ukraine i polskie Viettown? Spoleczno-przestrzenne wzory zamieszkiwania imigrantów w metropolii warszawskiej. Studia Lokalne i Regionalne, 4(30). View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- Kosmopolityczna Praga? W poszukiwaniu (nowej) tożsamości
praskiej In Górny A, Toruńczyk-Ruiz S & Winiarska A (Ed.), Po sąsiedzku z różnorodnością. Interakcje w miejskich przestrzeniach lokalnych z perspektywy różnych grup mieszkańców (pp. 155-197). Warsaw: Scholar.
- Integracja migrantów w społeczeństwie przyjmującym In Lesińska M & Okólski M (Ed.), 25 wykładów o migracjach (pp. 178-195). Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar.
- Unpacking Prejudice: Narratives of Homophobia in Cross-National Context In Vieten UM & Valentine G (Ed.), Cartographies of Differences. Interdisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 15-40). Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien: Peter Lang.
- Visible and Invisible Ethnic ‘Others’ in Warsaw: Spaces of Encounter and Places of Exclusion In Grubbauer M & Kusiak J (Ed.), Chasing Warsaw Socio-Material Dynamics of Urban Change since 1990 Campus Verlag
- From (many) datasets to (one) integration monitoring system in Poland? In Bijn R & Verweij A (Ed.), Measuring and Monitoring Immigrant Integration in Europe. Integration Policies and Monitoring Efforts in 17 European Countries
- Wybrane aspekty integracji imigrantów: w poszukiwaniu mechanizmów sprzyjających dalszemu napływowi cudzoziemców do Polski [Selected aspects of immigrant integration: Searching for mechanisms supporting further inflow of foreigners to Poland] In Górny A, Grabowska-Lusińska I, Lisińska M & Okólski M (Ed.), Transformacja nieoczywista. Polska jako kraj imigracji (pp. 188-231).
- Integration: A Supplementary Driver of Immigration? In Górny A, Grabowska-Lusińska I, Lesińska M & Okólski M (Ed.), Immigration to Poland: Policy – Labour Market – Integration (pp. 151-194).
- Społeczny wymiar integracji [The social dimension of integration] In Gorny A, Grabowska-Lusinska I, Lesinska M & Okolski M (Ed.), Transformacja nieoczywista. Polska jako kraj imigracji (pp. 202-216).
- Adaptacja imigrantów na lubelskim rynku pracy [Immigrant adaptation in Lublin city labour market] In Kaczmarczyk P (Ed.), Migracje zagraniczne a procesy rynku pracy – przypadek Lubelszczyzny (pp. 63-88).
- Wielość wymiarów – zatem jaka integracja? Przegląd tematyki i metod badań integracyjnych In Grzymala-Kazłowska A & Łodziński S (Ed.), Problemy integracji imigrantów koncepcje, badania, polityki Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Book reviews
- Book review: "Ethnic Diversity and Social Cohesion. Immigration, Ethnic Fractionalization and Potentials for Civic Action" by Merlin Schaeffer, Ashgate, 2014. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 1(3), 137-140. View this article in WRRO
Website content
- Stopping segregation: it’s not just where you live, it’s the places you go that matter.
- You’re probably wrong, but there’s data to understand why.
- Using Eurovision to explain sampling bias.
- Revealed: the truth about ethnic diversity of neighbourhoods.
Working papers
- The tale of two cities: Diversity in Leeds and Warsaw. Working Paper of the University of Leeds, School of Geography, 11. View this article in WRRO
- Making Sense of Data in the Media. Sage.
- Research group
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Current research projects:
1. Co-Director of Nordforsk/ESRC “Life at the Frontier: The Impact of Social Frontiers on the Social Mobility and Integration of Migrants” (https://www.lifeatthefrontier.org) (2020-2023; 12.5 million NOK, app. £1M)
2. H2020-WIDESPREAD-2018-2020, Coordination and Support Action to establish the “Migration, Integration and Governance Research Centre (MIGREC: http://migrec.fpn.bg.ac.rs)” at the University of Belgrade (2019-2022; Co-I, app. £710,000)
3. Horizon2020 Cross-Migration project, Consultancy work for Work Package 6 on “Migration Flows in Europe” (2019; PI, £5,000)
4. “Modern Poland: Migration and Transformations", Oxford Noble Foundation (2017-2019; Co-I; £30,000)
5. IMISCOE seed funding to establish research cluster “Diversity, Migration & Social Cohesion”, IMISCOE (https://www.imiscoe.org) (2014-2015: PI, €6000)
6. "Highly skilled immigrants from European Union in Warsaw", Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland (2010-11; PI, 15,000 PLN)
7. "Highly skilled workers of transnational corporations in Warsaw ", Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland (2007-2008; PI, 20,000 PLN)
Aneta's current PhD supervision:
- Natalie Bennet, Social cohesion, ethnic diversity, and mental wellbeing (funded by NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR); co-supervision with prof. Sarah Salway)
- Ben Gardner, Modelling of passenger clearance at the UK Border (funded by ESRC CDT Data Analytics & Society; co-supervision with prof. Gwilym Pryce & dr. Mauricio A. Alvarez)
Aneta is interested in supervising motivated research students in the following areas:
- The relationship between ethnic diversity and social cohesion;
- Consequences of international migration for local communities and everyday lives of migrants and non-migrants;
- Spatial distribution and ethnic segregation;
- Attitudes towards immigration, various immigrant groups and ethnic minorities;
- Highly skilled migration and intra-EU mobility;
- survey methodology, specifically item nonresponse, measurement, mixed-mode surveys;
- Advanced quantitative and mixed methods research.
- Teaching interests
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Methods are not neutral tools of data collection and analysis, so in her modules Aneta encourages students to critically reflect on why and how they apply them. As with other lecturers at SMI, Aneta's teaching is research-led, with substantial time devoted to hands-on practice with data.
In 2020/21 Aneta was awarded a TIER (Teaching Integrity in Empirical Research) Project Fellowship in a recognition of embedding principles of transparency and reproducibility in her teaching of quantitative social sciences.
Aneta is a certified Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) since 2017.
- Teaching activities
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Aneta convened the following core modules for BA Quantitative Social Sciences (QSS) degree:
- SMI108 Survey Design and Data Collection - which teaches students how to design and conduct effective social surveys and analyse survey data;
- SMI205 Advanced Research Project in Quantitative Social Sciences - which encourages students to be critical of quantitative methods and teaches them how to replicate an academic paper;
- SMI303 Research Dissemination in Social Sciences (with Dr Will Mason) - which teaches how to communicate dissertation research in an engaging way to non-academic audiences.
- SMI304 Doing Mixed Methods Research - teaches students how to put together research drawing on both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Team-taught modules for social sciences students include:
- SMI110 Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics (with SMI Qstep lecturers team) - an open-credit module for all students from the Faculty of Social Sciences on data literacy;
Aneta also coordinates an annual SMI Student Conference, which brings together students from all cohorts of BA Applies Social Sciences and BA Quantitative Social Sciences.
Together with colleagues from SMI Aneta developed a highly successful MOOC 'Making Sense of Data in the Media' - a massive, open, online course on - making sense of data in the media and beyond. It's available for free here.
- Professional activities
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- Co-Director of the Migration Research Group, University of Sheffield
- Research Fellow of the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw (since 2005)
- Member of editorial board of Central and Eastern European Migration Review
- Member of editorial board of IMISCOE Springer book series
- Member of Polish Sociological Association (PTS), British Sociological Association (BSA) and European Survey Research Association (ESRA)
- Co-Convenor of Social Statistics study group within BSA