Ioana Cerasella Chis (she/they) - pronunciation note

I joined the School of Social and Political Sciences (Sociological and Cultural Studies division) in 2026 as an Early Career Leverhulme & LKAS (Lord Kelvin & Adam Smith) Leaderhip Fellow. Over the coming years, I will focus on developing my project: 

Bread & Roses: The Politics of Rest & Free Time - In, Against, and Beyond Disabling Capitalism [link to page]

Alongside this project, across 2026-2027 I will be collaborating with other colleagues across other institutions to co-edit Special Issues: workers' inquiries on work and disability - Notes from Below, the Frankfurt School / critical theory - Sociological Forum, and neoliberalism vs disability-related rights - International Journal of Disability and Social Justice. I am currently also focusing on the development of a book manuscript for publication by Bristol University Press.

More generally, I am a social researcher interested in anti-capitalist, anti-work/productivist, and anti-disablement politics. While I consider my academic work to be 'indisciplinary', the areas of social inquiry that have been most insightful for my research (and that I wish to address in my work) are sociology/social theory, critical political economy, heterodox Marxism(s), and the social approach to disability.

My 1+3 ESRC-funded doctoral research was completed in 2024 at the University of Birmingham, in the School of Government, Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) department. In this project, I collaborated with UK-based precariously employed workers on various types of contracts/work arrangements and in various industries - all of whom self-identified as being disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, having impairments, and/or experiencing distress. Through interviews and diary entries, we examined matters related to waged and unwaged work, social security, and resistance - alongside alternatives to current disabling capitalist social relations. The thesis is titled 'The Politics of Work and Disablement: Prefiguring a Non-Productivist Future’. Its abstract can be accessed here and the website for the project can be accessed here.

Currently, I am a member of the committees/boards of

• the Theory Study Group of the British Sociological Association (BSA),
• the Marxism and Disability Network - supported by the Historical Materialism Journal (HM),
• the Society for Disability Studies (SDS), and
• the Leisure Studies Association (LSA).

In 2015, I co-founded the Birmingham-based Contemporary Philosophy of Technology Research Group (CPTRG) and coordinated its activities as part of its committee until 2019.

My recent academic work has been published as research articles in the Global Political Economy Journal (2023), The International Journal of Care and Caring (2024), and the International Journal of Disability and Social Justice (2024); a Book Review Symposium in the Postdigital Science and Education Journal (2026); and other publications on the Political Studies Association (PSA) blog and in the European Sociological Association (ESA) European Sociologist e-magazine.

Beyond academic research, I have served as a reviewer of journal articles, book proposals, and grant applications, advisor on a cross-university research project, researcher on a full-time, self-organised placement with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (funded by the ESRC during my PhD), mentor via the British Sociological Association (BSA), organiser of scholarly events/conferences/symposia, contributor to and supporter of various collectives and campaigns, and member of scholarly awards committees (via the Marxist Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Society for Disability Studies (SDS), and the Leisure Studies Association (LSA)).

Alongside my teacher and researcher roles across different university departments, my previous professional services (support staff and academic-related roles) in higher education have shaped my practice in equal measure. In previous years, I also undertook a variety of funded internships and voluntary researcher roles in seven organisations across the third and public sectors (social enterprises, charities, a 'think-do-tank', and a city council) in Birmingham - giving me insight into the social impact of the activities that take place through the non-private sectors. 

Website:ioanachis.com

My research interests have changed over time, but their main underlying commonality has been producing indisciplinary, socially useful, and emancipatory knowledge for the advancement of collective struggle and social change. That said, I am most exciter by initiatives in the areas of:

• Structural disablement / the politics of disablement
• The total institution of work / the politics of (waged and unwaged) work and rest
• Heterodox Marxism(s)
• Anti-capitalist politics from below and collective struggle
• Philosophy of technology
• Transformative education, knowledge production (within-against-and-outside the university), and critical pedagogy
• Trade unionism
• Emancipatory research
• Critical social theory and critical political economy

I have reviewed papers for journals such as:

• Review of International Political Economy,
• Socialist Studies (of the Society for Socialist Studies),
• The Journal of Sociology (of the Australian Sociological Association),
• Review of Radical Political Economics (of the Union for Radical Political Economics),
• Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography,
• Political Behaviour.

Research groups

• Sociology
• Politics

List by: Type | Date

Prior publications

• Early Career Leverhulme Trust Fellowship
• Lord Kelvin & Adam Smith Fellowship
• ESRC 1+3 Studentship (MA + PhD) on the Political Science Pathway, as part of the Midlands Graduate School DTP
• Other grants/awards for conferences, symposia, events, tuition fees, maintenance, internships, a placement, best paper award, and more. 

I have taught modules in Politics, Sociology, and Social Policy, across two schools/departments at a previous institution. The modules include Introduction to Political Theory, Social Problems & Social Policy: Social Science in Action I & II, Understanding Politics, Comparative Politics, Pathways to Research I & II (Academic Skills & Research Methods).
I have also been an Academic Skills Advisor in a University Academic Skills Centre, mentor of final year 6th Form students, and tutor on a Widening Participation scheme. 

In 2022, I became an Associate Fellow of the HEA.

Research fellowships

• 2026: Early Career Leverhulme Fellowship
• 2026: Lord Kelvin and Adam Smith Leadership Fellowship

Professional & learned societies

• 2024: member of the Board of Directors, Society for Disability Studies
• 2023: member of the Steering Committee, Marxism & Disability Network
• 2025: ordinary member of the Executive Committee, Leisure Studies Association
• 2022: member of the Convening Committee, British Sociological Association's Theory Study Group
• 2015 - 2019: co-founder and member of the committee, Contemporary Philosophy of Technology Research Group

Previous studies

PhD in Political Science, University of Birmingham

Thesis: The Politics of Disablement and Precarious Work: Prefiguring an Anti-Productivist Future

MA Social Research, University of Birmingham

Dissertation: We are worth so much more than our productivity: The politics of work and disability

MA Social and Political Theory, University of Birmingham

Dissertation: The role of the university within a feminist organology of hyper-industrial societies: Thinking through the pharmacology of care, otium and desire [engagement especially with the work of Bernard Stiegler and bell hooks]

BA Political Science and Sociology, University of Birmingham

Dissertation: The Aporia of Human Rights: A radical reconceptualisation of the right to asylum, based on a politics of equality and ethics of hospitality [engagement especially with the work of Jacques Derrida and Jacques Rancière, alongside Hannah Arendt, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Giorgio Agamben]

Recent Membership of Scholarly Organisations:

• British Sociological Association
• Political Studies Association
• American Sociological Association
• European Sociological Association
• Society for Disability Studies
• Marxism and Disability Network
• Leisure Studies Association
• Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics
• European Group for Organisational Studies
• others

Events, workshops, conferences and symposia I organised:

via the Theory Study Group of the BSA (2022-present), the Marxism and Disability Network (2023-present), the British Sociological Association (two one-day symposia in 2023 and 2025 with financial support from the BSA), the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) and MDN (a two-day conference in 2025 with financial support from the SLSA), the Contemporary Philosophy of Technology Research Group (CPTRG) at the University of Birmingham (2015-2019), the Society for Disability Studies (2025), the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham, and others.

Events, Symposia, conferences, seminar series where I presented my research:

They include the BSA, ESA, PSA, ASA, APSA, MPSA, ECPR, AHE, CSA, SLSA, TASA, EGOS, MDN, LSA, and others.