Dr Piotr Godzisz

Piotr Godzisz is Co-Director of the Centre for Hate Studies and an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy. Piotr specialises in researching hate crime victimisation and developing policy responses, focusing particularly on comparative and international contexts. Prior to his role at the Centre, he spent two years as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He also taught at the Birmingham City University and led policy, research, advocacy at Lambda Warsaw, an LGBTI rights organisation. Piotr holds a PhD from University College London and an MA from the University of Warsaw. His work encompasses research, training, and advocacy in human rights throughout Europe, contributing to organisations such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the European Union.

Piotr's research focuses on the intersection of hate crime and human rights, particularly in the context of providing access to justice for victims of bias-motivated violence and hate speech. Currently, he is engaged in research concerning the internationalisation of the hate crime concept and the global dissemination of hate crime policies.

His notable past projects include:

• Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship for a post-doctoral project on the Europeanisation of hate crime policies in South-East and Eastern Europe (Universite libre de Bruxelles, funded by Horizon 2020).

• Principal Investigator (PI) of the collaborative, transnational project "Call It Hate" on attitudes towards victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes in Europe (Lambda Warsaw, funded by the European Union Rights, Equality, and Citizenship programme, 2018-2019).

• Co-Investigator (Co-I) on the project "LGBTI rights in Poland - monitoring of the implementation of the Council of Europe 2010 CM Recommendation on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity" (Lambda Warsaw, 2018, funded by ILGA-Europe).

• PI of the collaborative, transnational project "Come Forward" on access to justice for victims of anti-LGBT hate crime in Europe (Lambda Warsaw, funded by the European Union Rights, Equality, and Citizenship programme, 2017-2018).

• Completion of a PhD study on state responses to anti-LGBT hate crime in Poland (University College London, School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, fully funded by the Bonnart-Braunthal Trust UCL Endowment, 2013-2017).

Piotr is currently supervising PhD students working on:

• hate crime targeting homeless people (Emily Wertans)

• targeted hostility in rural Italy (Samuele D'Auria)

• hate crimes against Turkish-language communities in Leicester (Didem Karaer).

Piotr welcomes PhD project enquiries in areas related to hate crime, hate speech, human rights, discrimination, equality, access to justice, LGBTI issues, racism, anti-gender mobilisation, gendered disinformation, Europeanisation, and nationalism, particularly in Central, Eastern, and South-East Europe.

He is keen to support students in pursuit of research funding.

Piotr has taught on various Criminology, Sociology, Law, and Political Sciences modules. Additionally, he has designed and conducted continued professional training for police, prosecutors, judges, and civil society activists focused on equality, access to justice, and victim rights.

Currently, he is engaged in teaching the undergraduate Criminology module "Hate Crime" and the postgraduate Criminology module "Victimology".

PG Cert Specialist Role in Education (Birmingham City University)

PhD Criminology (University College London)

MA Political Science (University of Warsaw)