University of Aberdeen (UK)

Postal address:
School of Social Sciences
University of Aberdeen
Edward Wright Building
Aberdeen AB24 3QY
United Kingdom

The University of Aberdeen was founded in 1495 and is now one of the UK’s most internationally distinguished universities, with a superb reputation going back many centuries. The 2001 Research Assessment Exercise results proved a triumph as the exceptional research achievements of ten departments received a high rating of 5, as internationally distinguished. Hence, 85% of Aberdeen’s staff are working in departments that are recognised as centres of national and international excellence. The Department of Sociology achieved a ranking of 5 in the last Research Assessment Exercise, making it one of the leading Departments of Sociology in the country as well as in Scotland. It was ranked 4th out of all UK Departments in the recent Times Higher Education Review system, which takes into account teaching quality as well as research quality. Since that time it has been expanded with the appointment of several new professors and related staff. It is the home of two international journals: that of Cultural Sociology and European Societies The University of Aberdeen combine academic excellence with a culture of care, and were commended recently by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education for the quality of relationships between students and staff of the University at all levels.

The team includes Prof. Claire Wallace (Team Leader), Dr. Natalka Patsiurko (Research Fellow)

Team Leader Prof. Claire Wallace, Chair at the Sociology Department (University of Aberdeen, UK). Prof. Wallace has taught qualitative research methods in several Universities in the UK as well as in Prague (4 years) and Warsaw (2 years). She was a visiting professor as well as the Head of Sociology Department (2001-2005) at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. She was the Founder and Dean of the Sociology Department at the Central European University in Prague (1991-1995). Prof. Wallace has been responsible for developing the post-graduate training programme in Comparative Social Research. She has undertaken many international research projects for the European Commission, the World Bank, the European Parliament and other organisations. She is consultant to DG Employment and Social Affairs helping to compile the volume „The Social Situation in the European Union”. Claire Wallace has written or edited 13 books and about one hundred articles. She has produced a well-known textbook „Introduction to Sociology: Feminist Perspectives” with Pamela Abbott that is now in its third edition and a manual on doing qualitative research. The book was translated into Russian and is now used as a text for training researchers in the former Soviet countries. Prof. Wallace is the Editor of “European Societies” (published by Routledge for the European Sociological Association) and cooperates with many universities in CIS countries (Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics, Kharkiv National University, Belarusian State University, etc.)

Prof. Claire Wallace
(E-Mail)

Dr. Natalka Patsiurko
(E-Mail)