Dr Peggy Watson

Dr Peggy Watson graduated in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Warwick. During the Cold War she spent a number of years at the Department of Sociology, University of Warsaw, and later at the Technical University of Wrocław. Peggy has been an invited Member at the School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton USA, as well as an invited Professor at the Gender and Culture Project at the Central European University in Budapest. In 2012 she was Visiting Professor in Sociology at the University of Warsaw, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. She also recently held an academic writing residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. During her recent sabbatical (2013-2015) Peggy worked at the Collegium for Advanced Study, University of Helsinki.

Research Interests

Peggy's research interests lie in the field of post cold war studies. She is interested in researching and theorising the political, cultural, social, and economic contexts that inform competing understandings of concepts such as citizenship, class and gender that have become key in the narration of the transition to capitalism after state socialism. Currently she is writing a book on feminism in Poland. Peggy also works on the effects of neoliberal transformations on post-communist health and health care, and since 1991 she has been carrying out a long-term study of transition in Nowa Huta/Kraków in Poland. PhD applications in related areas are welcome

Teaching

Undergraduate course supervision:

SOC1: Introduction to Sociology: Modern Societies I

Graduate supervision availability and interests:

Peggy is available to supervise PhD candidates interested in Post-cold war transformations; feminism and the politics of difference; health and biopolitics; Poland.

Current Doctoral students:

Lingyu Hsiao

Key Publications - Books

Watson, P. The Ontology of Socialism: Jadwiga Staniszkis, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 .

Watson, P. Social Control and the Law in Poland, Oxford: Berg, 1991.

Watson, P. Crisis and Transition: Polish Society in the 1980s, Oxford: Berg, 1987.

Key Publications - Book Chapters

Watson, P. Catastrophic Citizenship and Discourses of Disguise: Aspects of Health Care Change in Poland, in P. Watson (ed) Health Care Reform and Globalisation: The US, China and Europe in Comparative Perspective, New York and London: Routledge, 2013.

Watson, P. Rethinking Transition: Globalism, Gender and Class, in J.W. Scott and D. Keates (eds) Going Public: Feminism and the Shifting Boundaries of the Private Sphere, Champaign and Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004 (reprint of 2000 IFJP paper).

Key Publications - Journal Articles

Watson, P. Unequalising Citizenship: The Politics of Poland’s Health Care Change, Sociology, 40, 6, pp.1079-1096, 2006.

Watson, P. Stress and Social Change in Poland, Health and Place, 12, pp. 372-382, 2006.

Watson, P. Explaining Rising Mortality Among Men in Eastern Europe, Social Science and Medicine, 41, 7, pp. 923-934, 1995.

Watson, P. The Rise of Masculinism in Eastern Europe, New Left Review, 198, pp. 71-82, 1993.

Watson, P. Eastern Europe's Silent Revolution: Gender, Sociology, 27, 3, pp. 471-487, 1993.

Grants and Projects

Watson P. ISAAC NEWTON TRUST Co-funding for project entitled: Health Care Change in Transitional Europe: Polish Localities and Meta-Transformation, 2007.

Watson, P. THE BRITISH ACADEMY, research project entitled: Critical Condition? Mental Health and Civil Society in Transitional Europe. 2009-2011

Watson, P. BRITISH COUNCIL AWARD for collaborative research project between the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick and the Institute for Social Prevention and Rehabilitation, University of Warsaw. Project Title: Drug Use in Poland and Britain: the Treatment Response, 1989.

Watson, P. WELLCOME TRUST project entitled: Risks, Rights, Responsibility: A Comparative Study of Occupational Health and Metal Manufacture in Poland 1949-1989. 2002-2006.

Watson, P. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL research project entitled: Lay Theories of Health Risk During Political and Economic Change in Poland, 1998.

Watson, P. THE BRITISH ACADEMY, for research project entitled: Understanding Health in Eastern Europe: Mortality Differences in Nowa Huta 1974-1997. 1998-99.

Watson, P. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, Seminar Competition. Two Year International Seminar Series entitled: Health in Economies in Transition, 1997.

Watson, P. NUFFIELD FOUNDATION, for research project entitled: Understanding the East-West Health Divide: Why Has Rising Mortality in Eastern Europe been Concentrated Among the Non-Married?, 1994.

Watson, P. BRITISH KNOW-HOW FUND, Awarded jointly to Dr Peggy Watson, University of Cambridge, and Jan Killeen, Scottish Action on Dementia, for three-day seminar on Dementia in Poland, 1992.

Watson, P. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON USA Project Title: Gender and Globalisation. 1994-1995.

Watson, P. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL for research project entitled Health and Economic Change in Poland. 1991-1994.

Watson, P. BRITISH KNOW-HOW FUND Consultancy project entitled Identifying and Responding to Local Needs, 1991.

Watson, P. NUFFIELD FOUNDATION for research project entitled: Regulating the Supply of Illicit Drugs: How an Analysis of the Polish Drug Market can Contribute to the British Policy Debate, 1991.

Watson, P. ISAAC NEWTON TRUST, for research project entitled: Understanding the East-West Mortality Divide in Europe. 1997.

Awards

THE JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION (Chicago, USA), 1996. Award under the Research and Writing Grant Program for Individuals. Project Title: Civil Society and the Mobilisation of Difference in Eastern Europe. 1996.