People in the ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership

I joined the University of Warwick as Professor of Urban Geography in April 2013, and became Director of the Midlands Graduate School ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership in May 2019. Prior to becoming Director, I have been Deputy Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Urban Science and Progress at Warwick (from September 2014).

I am an interdisciplinary scholar based in the Department of Politics and International Studies, with an interest in the interplay of physical, technical and socio-political aspects of urban security and resilience. This work has been supported by a significant number of UK Research Council grants and FP7 and H2020 EU funding linked to building resilience across socio-technical systems and working closely with a range of private and governmental stakeholders to ensure research has real world impact. This work has been published in multiple disciplinary areas and most notably includes a number of books: Terrorism, Risk and the City (Ashgate 2003), The Everyday Resilience of the City (Palgrave 2008), Terrorism, Risk and the Global City – towards urban resilience, (Ashgate 2009), Sustaining and Securing the Olympic City: reconfiguring London for 2012 and beyond (Ashgate, 2011), Urban Resilience: Planning for Risk, Crisis and Uncertainty (Palgrave 2016), the International Resilience Handbook (Routledge, 2016) and Futureproof (Yale University Press, 2019).

ESRC DTP Joint Deputy Director

Professor Ben Kotzee, University of Birmingham

I am a Reader in Philosophy of Education in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, where I have been teaching since 2012. I studied philosophy and law in Stellenbosch, South Africa and researched for my PhD in philosophy at King’s College London. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cape Town and a lectureship at Birkbeck, University of London, I moved to Birmingham. I joined the Midlands Graduate School as Deputy Director in 2021.

I research topics in applied epistemology and applied ethics as it pertains to education and also have research interests in professional education.

I am the editor of the journal Theory and Research in Education (published by SAGE).

ESRC DTP Joint Deputy Director

Professor Marek Korczynski, University of Nottingham

Since August 2019 I have been Director of the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Nottingham, and Joint Deputy Director of the Midlands Graduate School ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership.

I am a sociologist of work, based in the Business School. My main research focuses are on the social relations of contemporary service work, social theory and work, and the relationship between music and work. My books include Songs of the Factory (Cornell University Press), Rhythms of Labour (Cambridge University Press, co-authored), Social Theory at Work (Oxford University Press, co-edited), and On the Front Line (Cornell University Press, co-authored). I am committed to engaging with people outside of universities. I have been interviewed about my research four times on BBC Radio 4, and have presented my research at numerous arts festivals and other public forums.

I have supervised seven PhD students to completion, and have been awarded a prize for teaching excellence at the University of Nottingham Business School. I also hold the title of Emeritus Professor at Loughborough University.

ESRC DTP Institutional Lead

Dr Tasos Kitsos, Aston University

I am an applied regional economist specialising on local economic resilience, the digital and creative economy; and regional development. Currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship, at Aston University since 2021. Beyond research and teaching I am the departmental lead on doctoral studies and the pathway coordinator for Management and Business Studies at Aston University. I have previously held positions in the private and public sector as well as research positions at the University of Macedonia (Greece), LSE, Plymouth University and the University of Birmingham. I have worked on several research projects on local economic development that have attracted significant funding from the ESRC, the British Academy and the private sector.

ESRC DTP Institutional Lead

Dr Sally Horrocks, University of Leicester

I joined the University of Leicester in 1994 and have been institutional lead for the Midlands Graduate School since 2015. I served as Postgraduate Director in the School of History from 2012-2016.

I am an historian of 20th and 21st century Britain with a focus on science and technology and interests in gender, the media, oral history and moving image sources. Since 2011 I have been senior academic advisor to two National Life Stories oral history projects; An Oral History of British Science and An Oral History of the Electricity Supply Industry in the UK.

I have been involved in successful contributions to public history as part of the team behind the Voices of Science website and as advisor to the BBC’s World War One At Home project.

ESRC DTP Institutional Lead

Professor Darren Smith, Loughborough University

ESRC DTP Institutional Lead

Dr Sally Ruane, De Montfort University

I am a Reader in Social Policy at De Montfort University in Leicester where I have worked for many years following a first degree and PhD in Sociology and Social Policy at Durham University. I specialise in health policy and have a particular interest in health service reform such as the reorganisation of health services and use of public-private partnerships. A second research interest concerns the promotion of the study of taxation within social policy scholarship. I am co-author or co-editor of several books including Paying for the Welfare State in the 21^st Century (Policy Press) and Data in Society: Challenging Statistics in an Age of Globalisation (Policy Press).

I co-lead the Social Policy Association endorsed Tax and Social Policy Group.

ESRC DTP Institutional Lead

Professor Jenny Wustenberg, Nottingham Trent University

I am a Professor of History & Memory Studies at Nottingham Trent University and Co-Chair of AIMS (Advancing Interdisciplinary Memory Studies) initiative there. I am the co-founder and past Co-President of the Memory Studies Association, as well as Chair of the COST Action on “Slow Memory: Transformative Practices in Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change” (2021-25).

I am the author of Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany (Cambridge UP 2017, in German LIT Verlag/Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung 2020) and the forthcoming Slow Memory: Remembering Gradual Change in an Accelerating World (Oxford University Press). I have co-edited, most recently, Agency in Transnational Memory Politics (with Aline Sierp, Berghahn 2020), the Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (with Yifat Gutman, 2023), and De-Commemoration: Making Sense of Contemporary Calls to Remove Statues and Rename Places (with Sarah Gensburger, in English with Berghahn and in French with Fayard in 2023). I co-edit the book series “Worlds of Memory” with Berghahn.

My research interests concern the contentious politics of memory, memory and democracy, slow-moving change such as biodiversity loss, and the memory of family separation policies. More information: https://jennywustenberg.com/