Research team

Ireneusz Sadowski (principal investigator) is a sociologist, assistant profesor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His research interests prominently includes social structure, institutions, and contingencies between those two spheres. He has taken part in several research projects, including the “Socio-economical trajectories and political biographies of 18‑year-olds born in 1989” (principal investigator: Bogdan W. Mach). In the recently published book “Individuals and Their Social Contexts” (2018), co-edited with B. W. Mach, he authored several chapters involving, among other topics, problem of homophily and a role played by social networks in job finding. In one of the recent articles he analyzed the electoral competition and party switching in the context of electoral laws (Game of Seats: Electoral Rules, Revolutions, and Affiliation Switching in Ukraine, 1990–2014, in: East European Politics and Societies, 2018) and Polish women’s chances of entering math-related careers (Filtered Out, but Not by Skill: The Gender Gap in Pursuing Mathematics at a High-Stakes Exam, in: Sex Roles, 2019) . Full list of publications is available at: http://www.spoleczenstwo.pl/?page_id=14.

Mikołaj Pawlak  is assistant professor of sociology at the Institute of Social Prevention and Resocialisation, University of Warsaw, where he heads the Chair of Sociology of Norms, Deviance and Social Control. His research interests cover new institutional theory, migration studies, and sociology of knowledge. In his recent book ‘Tying Micro and Macro’ he critically discusses the thesis on the sociological vacuum and presents it in the context of the debate on the micro- and macro-levels in sociological theory. His previous book ‘Organizacyjna reakcja na nowe zjawisko’ [Organizational Response to a New Problem] applies the new institutional perspective in organization studies to the problem of emerging policies of refugees integration in Poland.  

Ilona Wysmułek  is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the Research Group on Comparative Analysis of Social Inequalities, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Ilona has published articles and presented papers on corruption in public sector of Europe, meritocratic attitudes, and social inequality, as well as on methodological issues of survey measures, survey quality, and survey data harmonization. She has worked in a number of projects, among them the Polish Panel Survey POLPAN (polpan.org) and the Survey Data Harmonization project (dataharmonization.org). She has also been a principal investigator in, among others, the projects “Harmonization and Analyses of Data on Corruptive Behaviors in the Public Sector in Europe: Multilevel Modelling” ( “Mobility +” Grant of Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in collaboration with the Ohio State University and the University of Chicago). 

Jakub Wysmułek  is a historian and sociologist, working as an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Political Systems at the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw). His research interests cover mainly the premodern social history,  interethnic relations in a historical and contemporary context, as well as culture and politics of memory. He wrote three monographs and several scientific articles published in Polish and international publishing houses. He was awarded by academic grants, distinctions and scholarships, among others, by the Foundation for the Polish Science (Poland), the Kosciuszko Foundation (USA), and the Lanckoronski Foundation (Poland). He has been a principal investigator in the projects of „Miniatura” (the National Science Center), „Uniwersalia 2.1″ (Ministry of Science and Higher Education), and the grant of Polish-German Foundation for Science.  

Marek Muszyński is a sociologist and psychologist, both degrees earned at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He also completed a doctoral component in educational measurement, jointly conducted by Jagiellonian University and the Institute of Educational Research. His PhD dissertation focused on examining the accuracy of the overclaiming techniques. In the past he has worked as a consultant and educational researcher for various entities including the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Evidence Institute, the Educational Research Institute, and the OECD.

Michał Kotnarowski is a political scientist and sociologist employed in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of PAS and Institute of Political Studies of PAS. His research interests include electoral behaviour,  comparative politics, political culture and methodology of social research.  Michał authored and co-authored several books and articles. He has published, among others, in Party Politics, Acta Politica, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, as well as in Studia Socjologiczne (Sociological Studies) and Studia Polityczne (Political Studies). As a teacher of advanced statistical techniques, he regularly cooperates with ECPR Methods School, Université Catholique de Louvain and the SWPS University. Participant of many research projects, including the Polish National Election Study, Polish Panel Survey POLPAN, COST Action: True European Voter. He was a scholarship holder of the National Science Centre and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. He is a member of the editorial board of Kultura i Społeczeństwo (Culture and Society) journal.

Marta Kołczyńska  is a sociologist working at Instittute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. Her research interests include political trust and participation in comparative perspective, as well as cross-national survey methodology and quantitative methods in the social sciences. The full list of publications and projects is available at martakolczynska.com.

Invited experts:

Bogdan W. Mach (prof @ IPS PAS)

Nataliia Telsyk (dr @ Uni. of Sumy)

Alicja Zawistowska (dr @ Uni. of Bialystok)