Simina Dragoș (she/her)
I was born and raised on the Romanian border to Hungary, in a multi-ethnic village: I went to Hungarian kindergarten, German secondary school, and to a Romanian high school. I've also lived and studied in Germany, and am fluent in Romanian, German and English. I can just about hold a conversation in French. These life experiences shape how I think about the social world and how I conduct my research very deeply.
In 2016 I moved to Cambridge, UK, to become an undergraduate student at Emmanuel College and the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. I graduated with a double First Class BA in 2019. I then joined Fitzwilliam College Cambridge that same year for my MPhil in Education (2019-2020) from which I graduated with Distinction. During this time, I was supervised by Prof Joanne Dillabough.
I was fortunate enough to be offered a Cambridge ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership full scholarship to stay on for my PhD at the University of Cambridge (2020-2024), under the supervision of Prof Joanne Dillabough and Dr Ali Meghji. My PhD sat at the interest of critical education studies, memory studies and political sociology.
At the moment, I am part of the fellowship of Queens' College at the University of Cambridge, where my primary responsibility is research.
Through my research ageanda, I seek to create transdisciplinary research which addresses the violence of Western modernity, particularly race as a global system of oppresion. However, my research interests are varied and broadly cover the application of state power in the cultural domain. I therefore learn from memory studies, critical education studies, the sociology of race and racism, political sociology, political theory, decolonial theory, nationalism studies, cultural studies. I am also interested in the politics of research, representation and research methodologies. You can find out more about my research on the Research tab of this website and more about my teaching on the Teaching tab of this website.
I aim to be a politically engaged and compassionate teacher, scholar and colleague. I am a member of many communities at the University of Cambridge and beyond, and teach undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge, which I love.
When I'm not doing research or teaching, I enjoy fiction books, long walks, yoga and podcasts. I love getting lost in museums and bookstores, and spending time with family and friends.
