Stanislaw Burdziej

Stanislaw Burdziej is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. He holds an MA in American Studies from Heidelberg University (Germany), as well as an MA and PhD in Sociology from Nicolaus Copernicus University. His recent research focuses on procedural fairness in courts and in higher education. In 2010, he helped found Court Watch Poland Foundation, an NGO promoting public engagement in court monitoring and legal education (see http://www.courtwatch.pl). For the past 14 years the Foundation has actively worked to increase transparency and access to justice in Poland and various East and South European countries (Armenia, Croatia, Georgia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia). Another area of his interest is cultural expertise – the use of social science evidence by the courts. Between 2018-2022 he collaborated with Prof. Livia Holden on the ERC Consolidator Grant titled “Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for? EURO-EXPERT”. He stayed briefly at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University in November 2013 and June 2018.

In 2023 he was awarded a grant from the Polish Ministry of Science and Education to study the role of digital technologies in the life of young people. The project will last 3 years (2023-2026) and encompass nationally representative surveys of adults and teens aged 13-17, as well as a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews to better understand the youth’s attitudes towards the regulation of smartphones and other digital technology use in schools and beyond. Recent publications include: ‘Cultural expertise versus strategic ignorance: confronting cultural diversity in and out of court in Poland’, East European Politics and Societies 37(2): 413-434 (2023); ‘(In)justice in academia: procedural fairness, students’ academic identification, and perceived legitimacy of university authorities’, Higher Education 86(1): s.163-184 (with M. Główczewski, 2023); ‘How civility matters in civil matters: procedural justice and court legitimacy in the midst of a legitimacy crisis’, Law and Social Inquiry 47(2): 558-583(with K. Guzik and B. Pilitowski, 2022); ‘Judging the communist past: historians and cultural expertise in Polish Administrative Courts’, Law and History Review 38(1): 99-122 (2020); ‘Fairness at Trial: The Impact of Procedural Justice and Other Experiential Factors on Criminal Defendants' Perceptions of Court Legitimacy in Poland’, Law & Social Inquiry 44(2): 59-390 (with K. Guzik and B. Pilitowski, 2019)