My main research interests are in migration, race, religion and discourse. I am particularly interested in the ways members of minorities apply racial and religious categories in everyday talk to negotiate and claim their belonging to society. 

Title of my PhD dissertation: "How Polish Catholics become ‘integrated’ white Christians. Race, religion and discursive integration of Polish migrants in Britain." (Supervisors: Professor Jon Fox and Professor Tariq Modood)

In my research, I examined the role of discourse with a special focus on the application of racial and religious categories in the process of integration of Polish migrants in the UK. Many theorists argue that integration is a ‘two-way’ process in which not only minorities but also majority members are responsible for the successful accommodation of the former. However, their critics point out that in practice, integration, like the earlier assimilationist model, still functions rather as a ‘one-way’ process in which only minorities are expected to integrate, i.e. to ‘become similar’ to a majority. Furthermore, other theorists add that top-down discourses on integration often construct minorities as outsiders who do not belong to society; therefore, instead of promised inclusion, discourses on integration contribute to the further exclusion of minorities. Contributing to and expanding this critique, I demonstrate that minorities can also produce their own discourses on integration through which they negotiate their standing in society. The case of Polish migrants in Britain in my study shows that such migrants can construct themselves as similar to a (white Christian) majority, and present themselves as indeed ‘integrated’. If they do not claim it explicitly, they often resort to another 'integration' strategy in which they distinguish themselves from other (non-white and non-Christian) minorities that are often portrayed in public discourses as ‘not-integrated’. In this way, using either strategy in their talk, Poles become similar to the British majority, i.e. they integrate discursively. I define this process as a 'discursive integration'.

As a Teaching Associate, I teach the following undergraduate courses:

SOCI10007 - Social Identities and Divisions

SOCI10006 - Key Social Thinkers

SOCI20079 - Investigating Society (Research Methods in Sociology)