School of Education

I graduated in June 2018, having completed my thesis ‘From nowhere to now-here: online and offline belonging identity negotiations of Millennial Poles in Glasgow, Scotland’. My supervisors were Professor Michele Schweisfurth, Dr Oscar Odena and Professor Andy Furlong.

For the first two years after my graduation I was a Research and Teaching Assistant in the School of Education, University of Glasgow and at the University of Strathclyde, enhancing my teaching and research skills, as well as developing my publications’ portfolio. Voluntarily, I run post-graduate student support and academic activities, including assisting and representing students in the University of Glasgow Senate hearings on plagiarism, preparing mock PhD viva runs, as well as helping with fieldwork design and data analysis.

As of October 2020, I hold a joined position of a Lecturer in Political Science and the Coordinator for Internationalisation and Global Learning at the Vistula University in Warsaw, Poland. Based on my extensive work with post-graduate students at the University of Glasgow I am also the Chair of the Vistula University Student Conduct Committee, while my post-doctoral experience resulted in an appointment as the Secretary on the Task Force on Professional Competences and Education in Cybersecurity and Reliability in Industry, a new international body comprising of governments, academia and industry across Europe, Asia and North America.

My PhD experience at the University of Glasgow has a profound impact on my work, as it provided a wonderful opportunity to develop, blossom and flourish that exceeded my wildest dreams. I was lucky to meet and work during my PhD with academics, such as Prof. N. Hedge, who revolutionised my understanding of methodology and research methods; Prof. M. Schweisfurth, Dr O. Odena and Prof. A. Furlong, who went beyond the call of duty as my supervisors to provide academic support; Dr S. Parker and Prof. M. Osborne, both patiently explaining meanders of publishing; and Prof. C. Dimmock, who selflessly provided opportunities to shadow his supervisions to learn the art of mentoring. Also, teaching and co-creating knowledge with staff and students constitutes an important aspect of my academic development, as well as the happiest memory of my time at Glasgow: I am particularly indebted to Prof. C. Lido, Prof. C. Dimmock, Prof. B. Slade, Dr S. Maitra and Prof. M. Osborne for their care and constant inspiration. Additionally, the University’s research staff provided many opportunities to join their international research projects, including large, multinational EU grants and inter-continental co-operations, such as the one envisioned and developed by Dr M. Perry (Sustainable Futures in Africa), by Prof. A. Phipps (UNESCO RILA), by Prof. M. Osborne, and by Dr S. Maitra (Marginalisation across Smart Cities in India). The academic skills, knowledge and international research awareness gained through working on these projects, as well as through my own research, have been invaluable. 

Nevertheless, the PhD does not occur in a vacuum and it takes a proverbial village to support the process. The University of Glasgow community is one of the kind, comprising of various collaboration networks, such as the one among the junior researchers that help with daily PhD challenges and last long after graduation. It also includes the loving and kind support of super-helpful administrative, Library, and IT teams and services; the most welcoming super-intendants assuring security on the Campus; the catering staff caring for us daily with a sweet smile; and the most hardworking cleaning team, taking care of our health and of the beautiful surroundings, all together providing the experience of home and of belonging to the University, to Glasgow, and to Scotland, while their commitment in doing so can be only described by our local phrase: pure-dead-brilliant.