Leverhulme Trust Programme Scholars 2015-16

Kristina Kolbe is a Leverhulme Award doctoral student in the department of Sociology, supervised by Mike Savage and Fabien Accominotti. In her PhD project, Kristina looks at newly arising forms of cultural expression, production and consumption in contemporary urban spheres in light of an increasing sociocultural diversity. More specifically, her research focuses on emerging forms of cultural capital, aiming to examine the role of diversified settings for processes of cultural and social representation, exploring in particular the reformation of cosmopolitan urban elites. Holding a Master of Science from the LSE in ‘Culture and Society’ and having completed her undergraduate studies in musicology and social sciences at the Humboldt University Berlin, Kristina is especially interested in interdisciplinary approaches to cultural sociology and questions of social inequality.

Fabian Mushövel is a Leverhulme doctoral student at the European Institute, where he is supervised by Paul de Grauwe and Waltraud Schelkle. In his thesis, Fabian analyses how austerity policies affect inequality in Europe. His other research interests include the political economy of the welfare state and the Economic and Monetary Union. Fabian has previously worked as a research assistant and analyst at the European Institute and the Centre for Economic Performance, and as a consultant for Chatham House. He holds an MSc in Political Economy of Europe from LSE and a 1st State Examination from the University of Giessen, Germany.

Nora Ratzmann is a Leverhulme Research Student at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion and the Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics. She holds an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the LSE, and an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford. She gained first work experience at the public policy research institute RAND Europe, the International Institute for Educational Planning IIEP-UNESCO and AEGIS Trust Rwanda. Her research examines EU migrants' (in)equalities of access to German social security, with a particular focus on their interactions with the street-level bureaucracy.

Nell Beecham is an ESRC doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. Her research spans the areas of culture, technology and emotions. Supervised by Prof Mike Savage, her PhD research explores the roles of technology and space in the formation of contemporary social relationships, and addresses issues of inequality formation and reproduction, valuation and socio-spacial dynamics. Nell holds a MSc in Contemporary Social Thought from the LSE, for which she received a Distinction, and a First Class Honours BA in Sociology from the University of York.
You can follow Nell on twitter at @nellbeecham

Fergus Green is an MRes/PhD candidate in the LSE's Department of Government. His research focuses on transitional justice in economic policy reform - i.e. how governments ought to treat the winners and losers of such reforms - with particular application to climate change policies (such as pricing carbon) and inequality-reducing reforms (such as increased wealth taxation). He holds an MSc in Philosophy & Public Policy (distinction) from the LSE and undergraduate degrees in arts (political science) and law from the University of Melbourne. Before commencing his PhD research, Fergus was a Policy Analyst and Research Advisor to Professor Nicholas Stern in the LSE's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

Billy Holzberg is carrying out an LSE funded doctorate at the Gender Institute in which he examines affects of precarity in austerity London. His interdisciplinary work draws on affect theory to try to understand whether the current politics of austerity in the UK create particular structures of feeling that work both as nexus of governmentality as well as a potential sites for resistance. He holds a Bachelor in liberal arts from the Amsterdam University College and a MSc in Culture and Society from LSE’s sociology department where he was awarded the Hobhouse Memorial Prize for the best overall performance on the MSc as well as the best dissertation in the sociology department in 2014. During his studies he was funded by the German National Merit Foundation.

Tobias Kruse is a PhD candidate in Environmental Economics at the LSE and is associated with the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change. He holds a BSc and MSc in Environmental Economics from the LSE. His research focuses on distributional aspects of sustainable development. Furthermore, he focusses on estimating the distribution of benefits from natural resource extraction.

Winnie M Li is a 1st year PhD Researcher in the Department of Media and Communications, funded by the ESRC. She is exploring the impact of social media on the public discourse about rape, by providing a space for survivors to share their stories. She has a BA from Harvard University in Folklore and Mythology, an MA in Irish Literature from University College Cork (as a George Mitchell Scholar), and an MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths. Prior to LSE, she worked for 13 years in the film industry as a producer and festival programmer, and more recently as an activist and author on the topic of sexual assault. Her debut novel, DARK CHAPTER, is due out in 2017.

Dan McArthur is an ESRC funded PhD student in the Department of Sociology, where he is supervised by Mike Savage and Ursula Henz. His research investigates the relationship between economic inequality and the stigmatisation of people in poverty in public opinion. Dan holds an MSc in Sociology from LSE, and a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford. His broader academic interests include the study of social class, comparative political economy, philosophy of social science, and sociological debates about immigration and multiculturalism.

Øyvind Skorge is a PhD candidate in Political Science in the Department of Government, where he is supervised by David Soskice and Jonathan Hopkin. In his PhD thesis, Øyvind investigates how political and economic institutions, combined with income inequality, affect women’s access to leadership positions in politics and in the workplace. He is also involved in projects on the development of work-family policies; on social cohesion and trust; on crime and punishment; and on democratization in 19th-century Europe.