Research staff

Dr Mariya Stoilova

Research interests

• Mariya's research so far has focused on gender, sexuality, intimacy, and social change. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Department of Psychosocial Studies working on a ESRC-funded project, Living Apart Together: a multi-method analysis, with Prof. Sasha Roseneil (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck) and in collaboration with Prof. Simon Duncan (University of Bradford) and Alison Park (National Centre for Social Research). The project employs a multi–scale quantitative and qualitative analysis to research the increasingly socially significant phenomenon of relationships in which the couple is “living apart together” (LAT). Mariya is also currently involved in teaching biographical narrative interpretive method (BNIM).
• Mariya joined Birkbeck Institute for Social Research in June 2007 as part of a research team working on a EU integrated project ‘Intimate Citizenship in Multi-Cultural Europe: the impact of contemporary women’s movements’ (FEMCIT, www.femcit.org). As part of FEMCIT Mariya was researching transformations in intimate citizenship in Bulgaria.
• Prior to this, Mariya completed a PhD on ‘Gender and Generation: Women’s Experiences of the Transition from Socialism in Bulgaria’ at the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds (2004-2008). She was awarded two scholarships for this research - the Overseas Research Students Award Scheme Award (ORSAS) from Universities UK (in 2006/2007 and 2005/2006), as well as the Global Supplementary Grant Program Award (Network Scholarship Programs of Open Society Institute, New York in 2006/007 and 2005/2006). Mariya also holds a Master’s degree in Public Relations from Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’ (2002).

Book Chapters and Refereed Articles

• Stoilova, M (forthcoming) “Intimate Citizenship and the Procreative Norm”, Citizenship Studies, Special Issue “Citizenship and Reproduction/ Reproducing Citizens” (with S. Roseneil, I. Crowhurst, T. Hellesund and A.C.Santos)
• Stoilova, M (forthcoming) “Remaking Intimate Citizenship in Multicultural Europe”. In Remaking Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: women’s movements, gender and diversity”, London: Palgrave Macmillan (with S. Roseneil, I. Crowhurst, T. Hellesund and A.C.Santos)
• Stoilova, M (2010) “Post-Socialist Gender Transformations and Women’s Experiences of Employment– Movements between Continuity and Change in Bulgaria”. Journal of Organizational Change Management.Special Issue “Movements of Transition; Imaginary Institutions, Alternatives, Resistances”
• Stoilova, M (2010) “Heteronormativity, Intimate Citizenship and the Regulation of Same-Sex Sexualities in Bulgaria”. In Kulpa and Mizielinska (eds.) De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives. London: Ashgate (with Sasha Roseneil)
• Stoilova, M (2010) “Intimate Citizenship and Gendered Well-Being: the claims and interventions of women’s movements in Europe” in A. Woodward et al (eds) Social Movements: Gendering Well-Being. Ashgate Press (with S. Roseneil, I. Crowhurst, T. Hellesund and A. C. Santos) (in press)
• Stoilova, M (2007) Gender, Generations and Post-Socialism: Bulgarian Women’s Individual Experiences as Historical Experiences in Kolarova, K. and Sokolova, V. (eds.) Gender and Generation. Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Intersections, Prague: Litteraria Pragensia

Working Papers and Electronic Publications

• Stoilova, M. (2009) Changing Cultural Discourses about Intimate Life: the Demands and Actions of Women’s Movements and Other Movements for Gender and Sexual Equality and Change in Bulgaria. In Roseneil, S. (ed.) Changing Cultural Discourses about Intimate Life: the demands and actions of women’s movements and other movements for gender and sexual equality and change, pp.398. 2009. FEMCIT WP6 Working Paper 2, http://www.femcit.org
• Stoilova, M. (2008) Policy Contexts and Responses to Changes in Intimate Life in Bulgaria in Roseneil, S. (ed.) Policy Contexts and Responses to Changes in Intimate Life, pp.396, 2008. FEMCIT WP 6 Working Paper 1, http://www.femcit.org
• Stoilova, M (2007) Gender Regimes During and After Socialism: Bulgarian women's experiences of employment, Thinking Gender – the NEXT Generation (E-papers), Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, University of Leeds (Leeds, UK) [online], http://www.gender-studies.leeds.ac.uk
• Stoilova, M (2007) “Gender Negotiation and New Family Practices in Bulgaria”. Women’s Studies and Policy Research Centre (“Център за изследвания и политики за жените“), [online], www.cwsp.bg

Contact details

• email: m.stoilova@bbk.ac.uk
• tel: 020 7631 6537
• Website: www.femcit.org

Dr Mastoureh Fathi

Research interests

• Mastoureh joined the Psychosocial Studies Department in September 2012 as part of the research team working on a joint Birkbeck-LSE project entitled ‘Mediated Humanitarian Knowledge: Audience’ Responses and Moral Actions’. The project is funded by Leverhulme Trust and is directed by Dr Bruna Seu (BBK) and Dr Shani Orgad (LSE).
• Mastoureh has finished her PhD on Iranian women’s experiences of social class in Britain in 2011 at the University of East London (thesis title: Classed Pathways: Narratives of Iranian Women Migrants). The thesis is an intersectional analysis of life narratives of skilled migrant women who have migrated from Iran. Mastoureh has received different awards for this project from the University of East London, Funds for Women Graduates and the British Academy. Prior to her PhD, Mastoureh has completed an MA in Gender, Sexualities and Ethnic Studies at the University of East London and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Research Methods.
• Her research interests include: migration of skilled migrants, narrative analysis, belonging and social class, belonging and pro-social behaviour.

Conference Papers

• (April 2012) Memorial Lecture for Siyanda Ndlovou, ‘Translation or transition: cultural boundaries and the making of the self through language’, To Think is To Experiment, One-day symposium, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London.
• (March 2012) ‘Translation of Iranian women’s diasporic narratives’, paper to be presented at Displaced Women: Multilingual Narratives of Migration in Europe, International conference, Glasgow.
• (February 2012) ‘Narratives of class performativity: Iranian women doctors and the question of belonging’, paper to be presented at Centre for Narrative Research Seminar series in NOVELLA, Institute of Education.
• (September 2011) ‘The doctor or the ‘other’: narratives of profession and translocational belonging’ paper presented at Labour Migrant: Contested Integration, Prospects for Citizenship, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• (May 2011) ‘Translation dilemmas in narrative research’, paper presented To Think is To Experiment, One-day symposium at the Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London.
• (April 2011) ‘Pathways of becoming women doctors in Iran’, paper presented in International Conference on Gender and Education, Exeter University, UK.
• (June 2008) ‘Narratives of Iranian women teachers: culture and class mobility’, Reproductions: Social Class and Theory and Practice, University of Warwick.
• (April 2008) ‘Narratives of Iranian women teachers, culture and class mobility’ in Frontiers of Feminism at Home and Abroad: A Multidisciplinary Conference, University of North Carolina, USA.
• (July 2007) ‘Iranian women teachers, social and individual accounts of class and womanhood’ in Gender 2007 East Meets West, University of York, UK. 
• (November 2006) ‘Narratives of emancipation: family and culture’, in Centre for Narrative Research, London School of Economics, UK.

Publications

• Esin, C. Squire, C. and Fathi, M. (2013) ‘Constructivist approach to narrative analysis’, in the SAGE Handbook of Analysing Qualitative Data, London: Sage.
• Fathi, M. (2011) ‘Becoming Iranian women doctors: pathways of class, respectability and womanhood’, University of East London PhD Yearbook, Conceptual Boundaries, lll. London: University of East London.
• Fathi, M. (2010) Becoming visible in Iran: women in contemporary Iranian society (Book Review) Journal of Middle East Women's Studies - Volume 6, Number 1, Winter 2010, pp. 129-131.
• Fathi, M. (in preparation) ‘Pedagogical pathways of Iranian women doctors in Britain’, for the Journal of Gender and Education.
• Fathi, M. (in preparation) ‘Translation dilemmas in narrative research’ to be published in the special issue to the journal Narrative Works (summer 2013).
• Fathi, M. (under review) ‘Political Narratives of Iranian women migrants’, for the Journal of Political Psychology.

Contact details

•  Email: m.fathi@bbk.ac.uk   Fathi.mastoureh@gmail.com
•  Tel: 020 7631 6678