Ruth Bernatek

I am a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology and School of Law at the University of Warwick, specialising in the arts and humanities, prison studies and policing. My academic expertise centres on critical creative and arts-based approaches to justice and my most recent research explores questions around the role of the arts, creativity, and expression in English prisons. I was previously postdoctoral fellow on the UKRI funded project Captive Arts and I collaborate extensively with penal institutions, organisations, experts and policy groups. At Warwick School of Law, my work addresses racial bias in policing and investigates the potential for arts and creative methods to effect change in police practice. In addition to my research appointed roles, I regularly teach Creative Approaches to Sociology, Criminology, Law and Philosophy in several maximum-security prisons; I am a current Warwick Future Innovation Leader, focusing on SHAPE Innovation pathways and socially engaged research.

I have published widely across peer-reviewed journals in the humanities, criminology and socio-legal fields, and I am co-editor of Carceral Arts: Global Perspectives of Creativity, Justice and Resistance (2027). Together with Prof Ana Chamberlen and Prof Henrique Carvalho, I co-direct the Creative Learning for Justice initiative, which combines creative pedagogic interventions in prisons, prison educator training, and arts-based events, exhibitions and public engagement. I also coordinate the International Justice Arts Network, a network and professional association connecting those working at the intersection of creative industries and justice.

I continue to combine my current work in justice-related topic with my deep and ongoing interest in sensory humanities and relationships between sound, architecture, and the built environment. My most recent work in this area examines socio-legal perspectives of sound in urban areas characterised by high degrees of difference, focusing on notions of acoustic welfare in the context of UK justice systems. Before joining Warwick, I was Postdoctoral Fellow in Music (2021-24) on the ERC-funded project SONCITIES Link opens in a new windowat University of Oxford, where I investigated sound’s role in politics of belonging and exclusion in contemporary cities.

I hold PhD in Architectural and Urban History and Theory (UCL) an MA in Art History and Cultural Theory from Birkbeck, and a Bachelor's degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Books:

• Chamberlen, Anastasia, and Ruth Bernatek. 2027. Carceral Arts: Global Perspectives on Creativity, Justice and Resistance. Bristol University Press.

Peer Review Papers:

• Bernatek, Ruth E. 2025. ‘Embodying Kevin A: Notes on Identity, Creativity & Prison’ Law and Humanities, 19.2, pp. 315–30, doi:10.1080/17521483.2025.2545099
• Aletta, Francesco, and others. 2025. ‘Exploring the Relationships between Soundscape Quality and Public Health Using a Systems Thinking Approach’ NPJ Acoustics, 1.1, p. 3, doi:10.1038/s44384-025-00003-y
• Bernatek, Ruth E. 2018. ‘The sound of spectacle: Xenakis and the Montreal world’s fair’, in Architecture and Culture, 6:3, 485-498, DOI: 10.1080/20507828.2018.1533354Link opens in a new window

Reports & Evaluations:

• Chamberlen, A. & Bernatek. R. 2026. Evaluation of "Creative Lyricism" for Novus/Odd Adds (a Captive Arts project report funded by the AHRC and the ESRC IAA): see hereLink opens in a new window

• Hodgson, J., Lewis, R. & R. Bernatek. 2025. Evaluation of ‘Implementing the Police Race Action Plan (PRAP): Changing Police Perspectives and Practice around Race in West Midlands Police through Project Seshat’. University of Warwick.

Other Media:

• Bernatek, R. 2026. Book Review: Prisons of Creativity: Artistic Innovation During Incarceration by John R. Whitman. Theoretical Criminology, 0 (0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13624806261458828
• Ouzounian, G. and R. Bernatek. 2021. Podcast: The Rest is Just Noise.
• 2021 Bernatek, R. ‘Sound Making Space: the audiovisual architecture of the Polytope de Montréal (1967) and the Polytope de Mycenae (1978) by Iannis Xenakis’. (Doctoral DissertationLink opens in a new window), UCL (University College London).
• Bernatek, Ruth. 2018. ‘Listen’ in Blueprint, no. 358, pp. 19–19
• 2018 R. Bernatek & A.U. Andersen, X Earwitness (2018) HDV 10:00 (English & Greek). This short film can be viewed here: X / EARWITNESS – Anna Ulrikke AndersenLink opens in a new window
• 2018 Bernatek, R. ‘Optophono: the record conceived as a meeting point between sonic imaginations’, in Sound Studies, 4:2, 227-233, DOI: 10.1080/20551940.2019.1579428Link opens in a new window