Professor Laura Piacentini
Social Policy
Personal statement
Laura Piacentini is an award-winning Professor of Criminology in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at the 吃瓜tv, Glasgow.
She has had a long career in Criminology, first teaching the subject at various colleges in Glasgow in the early 1990s, before moving into university teaching in 1997 at the University of Wales, Bangor. Her longstanding engagement with the field also extends to research: she began studying penal cultures in 1994, work that has continued to shape her academic career.
A Russian speaker, Laura was the first Westerner to conduct empirical and theoretical research in post-USSR prisons. Her doctorate, funded by the UK research council ESRC, was the first PhD to examine incarceration in contemporary Russia, and she has been researching and publishing in this area for nearly thirty years. Trained as a sociologist, she works across disciplines including human geography, political science, law, and criminology, and has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on numerous studies of post-Soviet penal culture. Alongside Professor Gavin Slade, she led the ESRC-funded project In the Gulag鈥檚 Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Perceiving Prisons in the Former USSR, which explored Russian penal culture through both empirical and theoretical approaches.
She managed this project through the Covid-19 pandemic and the period following Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine.
In 2014, Laura鈥攁longside Professor Susan McVie of the University of Edinburgh鈥攂ecame the first woman criminologist in Scotland to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was also selected as a Fellow of AcademiaNet, a network for leading European women scholars established during Angela Merkel鈥檚 chancellorship.
In 2016, she co-founded the Criminal and Social Justice research cluster at 吃瓜tv with Professor Beth Weaver and led the University鈥檚 partnership with the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, where she continues to serve as Associate Director.
From 2015 to 2020, Laura was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Criminology & Criminal Justice.
Her most recent book, published by Routledge in April 2022, is The Virtual Reality of Imprisonment in Russia: Preparing Myself for Prison in a Contested Human Rights Landscape, co-authored with Dr Elena Katz (Oxford and Helsinki). It is the first book to focus on how online prison-adjacent communities practise rights consciousness.
Storytelling, Film and Public Criminology
- 贵辞谤迟丑肠辞尘颈苍驳听
听 听 Prisoners of History:听 An Intimate Look at Russian Prisons and the Russian People Connected to Them.
- 2021听
听 听 听 听Winner, Best Documentary Film, The Christian Film Festival, USA, for "The Long Way Home".
- 2021
听 听 听 听Winner, Best Educational Film, The Christian Film Festival, USA for "The Long Way Home".
-2005听
Impressions Gallery, York England
Carl De Keyzer Zona: An Exhibition documenting daily life, expressions of expectation and anxiety, and emotional loneliness of prisoners in thirty-five prison camps in Karasnoyarsk Siberian - with an audio accompaniment for the exhibition from Laura Piacentini.
Prize And Awards
- Recipient
- 2024
- Recipient
- 1/11/2021
- Recipient
- 1/11/2021
- Recipient
- 15/2/2016
- Recipient
- 12/11/2013
- Recipient
- 7/7/2005
Publications
- , ,
- Work, Employment and Society, pp. 1-11 (2026)
- , Slade Gavin, Trochev Alexei, Toshimov Umidjon
- The Routledge Handbook of European Penology (2026) (2026)
- Law & Social Inquiry Vol 50, pp. 1033-1052 (2025)
- , Slade Gavin
- The British Journal of Criminology Vol 64, pp. 521-537 (2024)
- Slade Gavin, Turlubekova Zhaniya,
- Current Sociology Vol 73, pp. 734-753 (2024)
- Slade Gavin, , Kravtsova Alena
- The British Journal of Criminology Vol 64, pp. 17-33 (2024)
Teaching
Laura has taught Criminology for nearly thirty years, developing expertise across a wide range of subjects at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and supervising numerous postgraduate students.
Together with Professor Beth Weaver, she established Criminology as a stand alone subject within the School of Social Work and Social Policy and continues to play a key role in its development, including designing much of the curriculum integrated across social policy modules.
Laura set up the PhD in Criminology in 2016, which sits in the Department of Social Work and Social Policy and is also shared with the Law School at 吃瓜tv.
In January 2022, the MSc in Criminology and Social Policy was launched, delivered by a team with expertise in Criminology, Social Work, and Social Policy.
Laura also supervises PhD students in Criminology, and applications for doctoral research in these areas are welcomed.
Research Interests
Research
Laura鈥檚 work is recognised, through her publications, impact, major grant income, and academic awards, as world leading. She is an award-winning, internationally active criminologist whose research on contemporary Russian imprisonment has been ongoing since 1995. She has lived and conducted research in numerous prisons across Russia and is a trained Russian speaker.
Her work is strongly multidisciplinary, involving collaboration and leadership across international teams in sociology, Russian area studies, history, human rights, and political science. She is committed to radical, feminist, creative, and theoretically informed research methods.
Research Grants
Laura has served as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Investigator (Co-I) on a variety of grants. Her completed and ongoing projects include several major ESRC-funded studies on Russian prisons.
ESRC
- In the Gulag鈥檚 Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Perceiving Prisons in the Former USSR (2018鈥�2023)
Principal Investigator (拢735k). This was the first study of its kind in global criminology, examining penal culture across former Soviet states.
Team: Dr Gavin Slade (Lead Co-I, Nazarbayev University); Professor Elena Omelchenko (Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg); Professor Alexei Trochev (Nazarbayev University). - Regulating Justice: The Dynamics of Compliance and Breach in Criminal Justice Social Work in Scotland (2012鈥�2014, 拢206k)
Co-I, with Dr Monica Barry (PI, Law) and Dr Beth Weaver (Co-I, Social Work and Social Policy). - Women in the Russian Penal System: The Role of Distance in the Theory and Practice of Imprisonment in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia (2006鈥�2010, 拢253k)
Co-I, with Professor Judith Pallot (PI) and Dr Dominique Moran (Co-I, University of Birmingham). - Work to Live: The Function of Prison Labour in Russian Prisons (1997鈥�2001, 拢45k)
Principal Investigator (ESRC).
AHRC
- The Right to Health in Brazilian and Scottish Prisons (2018鈥�2020, 拢180k)
Co-I, with Professor Sally Haw (PI).
Leverhulme Trust
- Towards a Sociology of Rights Consciousness Among Russian Prisoners (拢45办)
Principal Investigator.
Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Criminal Justice in Crisis (2023鈥搊ngoing, 拢10,000)
With Professors Lesley McAra, Michele Burman, and Susan McVie.
Project link:
吃瓜tv / University of Waterloo
- Covid Justice 鈥� Penal Justice? (2022鈥�2024, 拢10,000)
With Professor Sarah Burton, Socio-Legal Studies, University of Waterloo.
Knowledge Exchange
Laura has advised the United Nations and various NGOs on topics including forced labour in prisons (1998), Russian political prisoners (2000-2005), and asylum seekers (2008). She has also provided expertise to the Scottish Parliament on prison rehabilitation (2000).
She has presented papers at institutions such as Nur-Sultan University (Qazaqstan), Harvard University, the Higher Education Institute of Smolensk, and Moscow State University. She has taught at Russian prison-service training colleges, Russian police colleges, and at the Central European University, Budapest.
Recent Knowledge Exchange
- Criminal Justice Leaders Network with Professors Lesley McAra, Michele Burman and Susan McVie with support from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (December 2025)
- 鈥淔armers Have No Freedom鈥� 鈥� Uzbek Forum Report on Land, Labour and Farmers鈥� Rights (June 2025)
Advisors: Darren McGuire, Laura Piacentini, Michael Combe
Areas: Work, Employment & Organisation; Social Policy; Law
Commissioned by: Uzbek Forum for Human Rights (Germany)
Nature of Work: Review and expert appraisal of the pre-launch report
Scope: International
听
Professional Activities
- Advisor
- 1/6/2025
- Participant
- 10/7/2024
- Participant
- 24/6/2024
- Participant
- 18/4/2024
- Participant
- 18/4/2024
- Organiser
- 17/4/2024
Projects
- Sanjurjo-Ramos, Jesus (Principal Investigator) Belton, Lloyd (CoPI) Moshfeghi, Yashar (Co-investigator) Izaguirre, Yaimara (Co-investigator) Thompson-Brown, Beverley (Co-investigator) Barcia, Manuel (Researcher) Bardes, John (Researcher) Basques, Messias (Researcher) GONZALEZ ARANA, Roberto (Researcher) Guyatt, Nicholas (Researcher) Gyollai, Daniel (Researcher) Jardine, Cara (Researcher) Mantilla Morales, Valeria Sofia (Researcher) Moss, Kellie (Researcher) Naranjo, Consuelo (Researcher) Piacentini, Laura (Researcher) Sabala, Vanesa (Researcher) Sarmiento Ramirez, Ismael (Researcher) Bhopal, Aneel Singh (Fellow) Surwillo, Lisa (Researcher) Weaver, Beth (Researcher)
- This flagship project encompasses various initiatives to examine the historical origins of systemic racism and class discrimination in contemporary criminal justice systems by bringing together historians, computer scientists specialising in AI, criminologists, philosophers, and justice policy experts. Led by Dr Jes煤s Sanjurjo (吃瓜tv) and Dr Lloyd Belton (University of Glasgow), our research is centred around the recent unearthing of a unique historical collection: Havana's Royal Prison Logbooks.
Spanning a century (1837-1937), these extraordinary manuscripts from one of the Atlantic's largest colonial prisons contain detailed records of thousands of men, women, and children, both free and enslaved. By connecting this rich historical data with contemporary policy, we aim to directly inform current debates on prison reform and the enduring legacies of racial injustice. The initiative is generously funded by the 吃瓜tv, the University of Glasgow, the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme, the UKRI-ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
The project comprises the following research initiatives:
1. 'Using AI for Tracking Systemic Racism in Historical Carceral Systems', co-led by Dr Sanjurjo, Dr Moshfeghi, and Dr Belton, 1/02/25 鈫� 31/07/25, funded by a 吃瓜tv's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant, 拢2,000.00.
2. 'Havana鈥檚 Royal Prison Logbooks (1836-1898): Digitisation, Preservation and Dissemination', co-led by Dr Sanjurjo, Dr Moshfeghi, Dr Belton, and MSc. Izaguirre,听1/10/25 鈫� Ongoing, funded by the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme (pilot), 拢15,000.00, https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1676
3. 'To contain the diffusion of pernicious ideas. The systematic imprisonment of Black sailors in Cuba and the United States, 1830-1850' ['Para contener la difusi贸n de ideas perniciosas: Encarcelamiento sistem谩tico de marineros negros en Cuba y Estados Unidos, 1830-1850'], co-led by Dr Belton, Dr Sanjurjo, MSc. Izaguirre, in partnership with Dr John Bardes, 1/05/25 鈫� Ongoing, internally funded.
4. 'Using AI to Track Systemic Racism in Historical Carceral Systems', ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA), co-led by Dr Sanjurjo, Dr Moshfeghi, and Dr Belton in partnership with Beverley Thompson-Brown OBE, 01/11/25 鈫� Ongoing, funded by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) Award, 拢14,769.96.
5. 'Historical Prison Systems in The Atlantic World and Their Impact on the Construction of Contemporary Penitentiary Models', I-LINK Programme of the CSIC and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities Scheme, led by Prof Consuelo Naranjo, co-led by Prof Consuelo Naranjo (CSIC-Madrid) and Dr Sanjurjo, 1/01/2026 鈫� Ongoing, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities' I-LINK Scheme, 鈧�30,000.00 - 01-Jan-2025
- McGuire, Darren (Principal Investigator) Sambajee, Pratima (Research Co-investigator) Lassalle, Paul (Research Co-investigator) Makhmadshoev, Dilshod (Research Co-investigator) Piacentini, Laura (Research Co-investigator) Remnant, Jennifer (Co-investigator)
- This project aims to develop a new cross-department and cross-faculty research collaboration on societal and business transformations in Central Asia and former Soviet States.
- 09-Jan-2023 - 30-Jan-2024
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator)
- I am co-investigating (with Dr Sarah Turnbull of the University of Waterloo) the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on prisons in Canada and Scotland, focusing specifically on issues of systemic inequalities. This project, COVID-19 Justice as Penal Justice: Examining the Impacts of the Pandemic on Prisons in Canada and Scotland, is funded by a 吃瓜tv and Waterloo Joint Transatlantic Partnership Award.
- 01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2023
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2018 - 01-Jan-2023
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator) Slade, Gavin (Principal Investigator) Olmenchenko, Elena (Co-investigator) Trochev, Alexei (Co-investigator)
- This a major (circa 拢735k), new comparative study of two of the largest penal systems of the former Soviet Union: Russia and Kazakhstan. It advances knowledge of one of the most extraordinary systems of penal power, the Gulag, and seeks to understand it's legacies today in policy, in practice and in feelings and attitudes to punishment in this udner-researched world region.
- 01-Jan-2018 - 01-Jan-2021
- Piacentini, Laura (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2019