Elected: 2014
Discipline: Economics and Social Sciences
Professor Laura Piacentini
Professor of Criminology, University of Strathclyde
Professor Laura Piacentini is a world-leading prison sociologist and since 1997 she has conducted ethnographic research into the cultural forms of Russian contemporary imprisonment. Between 2004-2005, she was an advisor to the United Nations on forced labour in prisons and has advised the Scottish Parliament on prison rehabilitation. Laura has written two books on Russian prisons which have gone onto win various awards including British Society of Criminology Book of the Year (2005).