Elisa Pieri

My research interests and publications are in the areas of:

* Security, biopolitics, power and surveillance - including biometrics;
* Urban sociology, design and the built environment
* Science and Technology Studies (STS), sociology of knowledge, futures and sociology of expectation
* Governance, science and innovation (incl. public and multi-stakeholder engagement);
* Ethical, legal and social aspects of new technologies (incl. genomics - GM crops and foods, personalised medicine, psychiatric and behavioural genetics - the neurosciences, biometrics and security technologies);
* Language and power, media and discourse analysis.

My current research investigates how Western cities securitise against the risk of global pandemics (see details below).

My most recent research explored the process of  securitisation and its impacts on urban space and on various stakeholders. It investigated design and the built environment, security trends and assemblages, and debates on cosmopolitanism and sociability.

Since 2001, I have conducted a number of externally funded interdisciplinary projects (listed below) investigating controversial issues in policy, science  and technology, and in discourse, media and public debates.

Current Research

Securing Cities Against Global Pandemics (2016-2019): My current research investigates how cities in the West securitise against global pandemics, and the related social and ethical implications. It explores how the risk of pandemic contagion is constructed in the West, and how Western cities prepare to avert, contain and respond to the threat of infection. This research is funded through a Simon Fellowship in Sociology.

This research pursues a range of interconnected themes, with important implications for a number of sociological, practitioner and policy debates:

* Framing of pandemic risk in media and policy discourse

* Protocols and best practices circulated by international organisations

* Smarting up cities: lessons from other cities (e.g. Singapore and Hong Kong) and their implications for implementation in the West

* Technoscience: the role of technology in securitising Western cities against pandemics today

* Vaccines and the securitisation of Western cities

Current teaching

2024/25       SOCY70061      Urban Sociology (MSc & MA degree course)     Convenor & Lecturer

2024/25     SOCY30061      Cities and Urban Life   Convenor & Lecturer

2024/25       SOCY30352      Security, Radical Uncertainty and Global Pandemics   Convenor & Lecturer

2024/25        SOCY10462      Global Social Challenges       Lecturer

2024/25       SOCY30930 and SOCY30920      3^rd year Dissertation Dissertation Supervisor

2024/25      SOCY70000 PG supervision of MSc and MA dissertations (MSc in Social Research and MA in Sociology) and Study Skills Lecturer 

2024/25 URBN70022  Researching the City (Master in Urban Studies) Lecturer

2024/25 PhD Supervision 

Previous Teaching

Year                    Code                          Title                                                         Role

2023/24      SOCY70061      Urban Sociology (MSc & MA degree course)     Convenor & Lecturer

2023/24     SOCY30061      Cities and Urban Life   Convenor and Lecturer

2023/24 URBN70022  Researching the City (Master in Urban Studies) Lecturer

2023/24      SOCY10462      Global Social Challenges       Lecturer

2023/24 PhD supervision

2022/23       SOCY70061      Urban Sociology (MSc & MA degree course)     Convenor & Lecturer

2022/23       SOCY10432      Contemporary Social Thought     Convenor & Lecturer

2022/23       SOCY30352      Security, Radical Uncertainty and Global Pandemics   Convenor & Lecturer

2022/23        SOCY10462      Global Social Challenges       Lecturer

2022/23       SOCY30930 and SOCY30920      3^rd year Dissertation Module   Lecturer/Dissertation Supervisor

2022/23      PG supervision of MSc and MA dissertations (MSc in Social Research and MA in Sociology)

2021/22        SOCY30061      Urban Sociology                 Convenor & Lecturer

2021/22        SOCY70061      Urban Sociology (MSc & MA degree course) Convenor & Lecturer

2021/22       SOCY10432      Contemporary Social Thought     Convenor & Lecturer

2021/22       SOCY30930 and SOCY30920      3^rd year Dissertation Module   Lecturer/Dissertation Supervisor

2021/22       PG supervision of MSc and MA dissertations (MSc in Social Research and MA in Sociology)

2021/22        SOCY60531     PG Independent Studies Sem 1 Supervisor

2021/22        SOCY10462      Global Social Challenges       Lecturer 

2020/21          SOCY10432      Contemporary Social Thought     Convenor & Lecturer

2020/21          SOCY30171      Identity Power and Modernity     Lecturer

2020/21          SOCY10421      Contested Foundations of Social Thought  Lecturer

2020/21          SOCY30930      3^rd year Dissertation Module   Lecturer/Dissertation Supervisor

2020/21          SOCY60531     PG Independent Studies Sem 1 Supervisor

2019/20          SOCY30061      Urban Sociology                       Convenor & Lecturer

2019/20          SOCY70061      Urban Sociology MSc & MA course    Convenor & Lecturer

2019/20                                     Researching Culture & Society Pre-sessional      Convenor & Lecturer

2019/20          SOCY10462      Global Social Challenges            Convenor and Lecturer

2019/20          SOCY10471      Sociology of Personal Life           Lecturer

2019/20                                PG supervision of MSc and MA dissertations (MSc in Social Research and MA in Sociology)

2018/19          SOCY10432      Contemporary Social Thought     Convenor & Lecturer

2018/19                                     Researching Culture & Society Pre-sessional        Convenor & Lecturer

2018/19          SOCY10471      Sociology of Personal Life           Lecturer

2017/18          SOCY30061      Urban Sociology                        Lecturer

2017/18          SOCY10471      Sociology of Personal Life           Lecturer

2017/18                                     Researching Culture & Society Pre-sessional        Convenor & Lecturer

2016/17          SOCY30061      Urban Sociology                        Lecturer

2016/17          SOCY10471      Sociology of Personal Life           Lecturer

2016/17                                    Researching Culture & Society Pre-sessional        Convenor & Lecturer

2015/16          SOCY30061      Urban Sociology                        Convenor & Lecturer

2015/16          SOCY10471      Sociology of Personal Life           Lecturer

2015/16                                    Researching Culture & Society Pre-sessional        Convenor & Lecturer

2015/16          SOCY30920     Dissertation Supervisor (3rd year Sociology Dissertation Module)

2014/15          SOCY30061      Urban Sociology                      Lecturer

2014/15                                     Media and Society                   Lecturer

2014/15       Second Lecturer for the following courses: 

                                    Gender, Time and Change (3rdy UG and PG course)

                                    Multicultural Britain (3rdy UG and PG course

                                    Sociology of Fashion (2ndy UG course)

Also, since 2012:      

SOCY30061      Urban Sociology           Lecturer (every year 2012-2014, and to 2018, see above)

 And  Geography course on Borders (3rd year SEED/geography course)      Guest Lecturer

Previously, I carried out research on:

• The Introduction of Biometric ID Cards in the UK and the Debate in the Press (ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science, The University of Manchester, 2008-2009). This work was part of JISC- funded research on 'Text Mining for Frame Analysis of Media Content'.

• The Policy and Practice Implications of Behavioural Genetics Research into Aggressiveness and Violence (ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics, Lancaster University, 2006-2008). This research was funded by the ESRC.

• The Ethical, Legal and Social Dimensions of Pharmacogenetics (ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Aspects of Genomics, Lancaster University, and North West Genetics Knowledge Park, 2004-2006). This project was funded by the UK Department of Health.

• The Discourse of the GM Food Debate (University of Reading, 2003-2004). This project was funded by the ESRC (I was a co-applicant of this project grant, as well as the Research Associate on it).

• The Communication of GM Crop Research from Expert to Non-Experts (University of Reading, 2001-2002). This project was funded by the ESRC.

Over the years, I have also been actively involved in various research areas and networks (including on Biometrics, Forensic uses of DNA, the Neurosciences), as well as in the development of grant applications.

My doctoral research investigated 'Urban futures: How security and aspirations to cosmopolitanism reconfigure the city centre' (University of Manchester, Sociology and Manchester Architecture Research Centre). I continue to be affiliated with the Manchester Architecture Reaserach Centre (MARC).
 
Before starting my PhD I worked as Senior Researcher at PublicSpace Ltd, on dissemination and knowledge transfer (for EU FP7 ORCHESTRA project).

Pathways to Cosmopolitanism, a research collaboration between the University of Manchester and National University of Singapore, funded my PhD research. Between 2011 to 2013 I provided academic assistance to the Pathways to Cosmopolitanism research programme andwent on a research visit to National University of Singapore (Geography, Jan-Feb 2013).

Whist conducting my doctoral research,  I also held a part-time Research Fellow post at Salford University Business School, working on the EPSRC-funded TOTeM project on RFID technology and 'The Internet of Things' (in my first year). 

Dr Elisa Pieri

Laurea (Univ. of Bologna), MSc (Univ. of Edinburgh), PhD (Univ. of Manchester)  

I am a senior lecturer and a social scientist with a background of interdisciplinary research.

My current research explores pandemic preparedness and its social implications (see research section).

I have conducted a number of externally funded projects (listed in the research section) investigating controversial issues in policy, science  and technology, and in discourse, media and public debates.

My doctoral research explored the process of securitisation and its impacts on urban space and on various stakeholders. 

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

My research interests and publications are in the areas of:

* Security, biopolitics, power and surveillance - including biometrics;
* Urban sociology, design and the built environment
* Science and Technology Studies (STS), sociology of knowledge, futures and sociology of expectation
* Governance, science and innovation (incl. public and multi-stakeholder engagement);
* Ethical, legal and social aspects of new technologies (incl. genomics - GM crops and foods, personalised medicine, psychiatric and behavioural genetics - the neurosciences, biometrics and security technologies);
* Language and power, media and discourse analysis.

As an expert commentator, I have frequently contributed to the media and policy debate on the COVID-19 pandemic. 

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic I was interviewed BBC TV news programme NorthWest Tonight on 12 Feb 2020. A clip is available here: https://www.facebook.com/uomsocialsciences/videos/dr-elisa-pieri-bbc-northwest-2702-coronavirus-interview/203918124187532/

Since January I have given various live radio interviews for the BBC (some are listed below) and for newspapers (see Guardian below) and magazines, including the following: