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Principal Investigator

Anna Plyushteva

Anna is Titular Associate Professor in Human Geography at the Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (UK). Anna was previously Departmental Research Lecturer at the TSU and SoGE (2019-2025), and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Free University Brussels (2017-2019). She holds a PhD (2016) in Human Geography from University College London and a Master’s degree (2009) in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam.

Anna is a human geographer who studies urban inequalities through a focus on mobilities, infrastructures, economies, and emotions. She has conducted research in cities globally, including Brussels, Lima, Manila, and Sofia. Her current work focuses on South-East Europe and the UK. 

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Co-Investigator

Tim Devos

Tim is Assistant Professor in Spatial Planning at the Department of Mobility and Spatial Planning (AMRP), Ghent University (Belgium). He is an engineer-architect, Master of Human Settlements, and holds a PhD in Social Geography (2016) from KULeuven, Belgium, which focused on participation and coproduction in urban planning processes. Tim’s expertise and interests lie in applications of the actor-relational approach, the double connections between public governance and self-organizing initiatives,  participatory planning, and the role of the urban planner and designer in a changing field. He co-founded and manages Endeavour, a team of architects, urban planners, and social scientists that aims to make the way cities are designed and planned more inclusive and sustainable through research and innovation. 

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Co-Investigator

Ina Dimitrova

Ina is Associate Professor of Social Philosophy and Bioethics at University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”, Plovdiv (Bulgaria). Her research lies at the intersection of disability studies, science and technology studies, and history of medicine, with a particular focus on disability activism, disability history, and the history of psychiatry in socialist Bulgaria. She has participated in research projects examining patterns of care for people with disabilities in Bulgaria, as well as in participatory initiatives exploring barriers to independent living in the postsocialist region.

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Co-Investigator

Raluca Popescu

Raluca is Professor at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Bucharest, Bucharest (Romania), where she has been working since 2002. She holds a PhD in Sociology (2009), with a thesis on family diversity and intergenerational relations in Romanian society. She is PhD supervisor (2017) having extensive experience in supporting and mentoring early-career researchers and PhD students. Raluca has specific expertise in conducting research on family relations in vulnerable groups and in assessing the needs of children and young people in disadvantaged communities. She has rich experience in urban sociology research and teaching, including in the field of sustainable and inclusive urban mobility. She has contributed to the development of several urban plans of cities (including a sector in Bucharest), as well as to several national government strategies on poverty, people with disabilities, Roma, health or education.

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Postdoctoral Researcher

Freke Caset

Freke holds a PhD in Geography (2019) from Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Since 2024 she is a Postdoctoral Assistant at the Department of Mobility and Spatial Planning AMRP), Ghent University. Her interest lies in socially just transitions towards sustainable mobility systems, with disciplinary grounding in Transport Geography, Urban Geography, and Urban and Regional Planning. Freke uses both quantitative and qualitative methods in researching issues of sustainability, accessibility, and inclusion in transport. Her current work focuses on analysing the uneven socio-spatial effects of transport policies, understanding the multifaceted causes of transport-related social exclusion, and leveraging methods for communicating lived mobility expertise of minoritised groups in transport planning. 

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Senior Researcher

Galina Goncharova

Galina is an Associate Professor in Social and Cultural History (Bulgarian Modernity and Contemporaneity) at the Department of History and Theory of Culture, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She holds a PhD in Theory and History of Culture and an MA in Cultural Studies from Sofia University. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Institute for the Study of the Recent Past "Prof. Ivaylo Znepolski".
Her research interests include Bulgarian cultural history, oral history, the culture of care, and the anthropology of religion. She has published on topics such as care for life with disability, death and dying in (post)socialism, generational discourses, and contemporary religious identities. Recently, she has been researching cross-cultural experiences of ageing and care under the SEEAGE Project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

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Postdoctoral Researcher

Rosa Maria Radogna

Rosa Maria (Marisa) holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bucharest, with a thesis on the transnational lives of Romanian women working in Italy in the private care sector. Her primary research interests include transnational migration, care work, transnational families, and social exclusion. Currently, she is a researcher at the ICUB - Research Institute of the University of Bucharest and an Adjunct Teaching Assistant for Sociology of the Family and Classical Sociological Theory at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest.

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Senior Researcher

Rudi Roose

Rudi is Associate Professor of Social Work, and Head of the Department of Social Work & Social Pedagogy. He holds Masters degrees in Pedagogy (1991) and Criminology (1997). After working for several years with youngsters in vulnerable situations, he obtained a PhD in Educational Sciences (2006) at Ghent University. His research focuses on the development of support practices for people in vulnerable situations, with a special focus on children and young people. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Social Work and Chair of the International Social Work & Society Academy (TISSA). 

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Doctoral Researcher

Lena van Bergen

Lena is a PhD candidate in Social Work, board member of ZoJong! (Cooperation partner No1), and an expert by experience (as a former young carer). She holds Master’s degrees in Social Work and Gender and Diversity. Her PhD research focuses on ZoJong!,, an organization for and by young carers. Specifically, it uses qualitative and participatory methods to explore how the organisation’s awareness-raising and support activities influence the situation of young carers.

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Senior Researcher

Meglena Zlatkova

Meglena is a social anthropologist and an Associate Professor at the Department of Ethnology, University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”, Bulgaria, and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History.

Her research focuses on urban anthropology and visual anthropology, as well as on intangible cultural heritage and the relationships between communities, environment, and sustainable development. She is the author of the monographs Ethnosociology of the City and Urban Heritage across Borders: Edirne, Turkey and Tsarevo, Bulgaria, and has published over 80 articles, book chapters, and studies in the fields of social anthropology, cultural heritage, and urban studies.

She has extensive experience in interdisciplinary and international research projects, including EU-funded initiatives on cultural heritage, migration, and social inclusion. She has also participated in research projects exploring urban environments and cultural heritage for people with visual impairments, from the perspective of sensory anthropology. She is a member of the UNESCO Global Facilitators’ Network under the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Her recent work explores biocultural heritage, ecological practices, and community-based approaches in urban and rural contexts, with a particular focus on South-Eastern Europe.

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Postdoctoral Researcher

Seama Mowri

Seama Mowri is a Postdoctoral research associate at the Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.  She holds a PhD in Human Geography from Utrecht University (Netherlands), a Bachelors in Economics from University of Toronto (Canada), an MBA and is a Certified Professional in Project Management (PMP).

 

Before joining Oxford, Mowri spent over a decade working as both a researcher and development practitioner, engaging with questions of gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights, social urban transitions, and inequality. Trained in ethnographic and qualitative methodologies, her research sits at the intersection of feminist geography, mobility studies, and development studies. Her doctoral work examined how gendered mobility is experienced, negotiated, and governed through embodied, affective, and intersectional processes in the context of Bangladesh.

 

Beyond academia, Seama is also committed to exploring creative and participatory forms of knowledge production, including photo-narratives, mapping techniques and visual storytelling.

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Research Assistant

Stefana Anechitei

Ștefana holds a BA in Sociology and a MA in Sociology of Consumption and Marketing from the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest. Her BA thesis, “Divergence and Convergence in Perceptions of Mental Health and Associated Stigma: An Intergenerational Analysis within the Contemporary Family”, explored intergenerational differences and similarities in attitudes towards mental health and stigma within the family. Her MA thesis, “Gender-Neutral Alcohol: An Analysis of Gender Norms in Relation to Spatiality, Acceptability and Normality of Alcohol Consumption”, examined how gender norms shape alcohol consumption practices in different social contexts. Her research interests include the sociology of mental health, the sociology of the family and gender studies, with a particular focus on the intersection of social norms, inequalities and everyday life.

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Research Assistant

Daria Ciubotariu

Daria graduated as valedictorian from the Faculty of Sociology and holds a Master’s degree in Sociology of Consumption and Marketing from the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest. Her BA thesis explored different perceptions of romantic couple life in two distinct religious denominations, highlighting the motivations behind young Christian attitudes towards love. During the MA program, she researched the rise of vinyl consumption among young people, profiling analog music listeners and investigating the emotional, socio-cultural and financial drivers of this phenomenon. Currently, Daria is a qualitative marketing researcher with experience in conducting in-depth interviews and contributing to studies on organizational culture, usage and attitudes, and user experience. Her main interests include social equity, civic responsibility and inclusion, as well as consumer behavior, focusing on motivations, values ​​and daily decision-making.

Our collaborating partners

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With funding from

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