Dr Monika Fratczak

BA, MA, PhD

Department of Sociological Studies

Teaching Associate

Dr Monika Fratczak
Profile picture of Dr Monika Fratczak
m.fratczak@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Monika Fratczak
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

Monika joined the University of Sheffield as a PhD student in 2018 and defended her doctoral thesis in 2022. Her PhD research explored emotional responses and (potential) democratic participation through data visualisation about climate change in two different national contexts.

Monika is currently working as a teaching associate in the Department of Sociological Studies and a as a postdoctoral researcher on the Patterns in Practice project in the Information School.


In 2022 Monika held two research posts working on the Nuffield Foundation funded project entitled ‘Living With Data: understanding people’s knowledge, experiences and perceptions of data practices’ and on the British Academy funded project entitled ‘Mapping and visualising intersections of social inequalities, community mistrust, and vaccine hesitancy in online and physical spaces in the UK and US.’ In 2021 Monika worked on the AHRC funded project ‘Generic Visuals in the News: The Role of Stock Photos and Simple Data Visualizations in Assembling Publics.’

Qualifications
  • Ph.D. in Sociology (University of Sheffield, England)
  • MA Sociology (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland)
  • BA Sociology (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland)
Research interests
  • Data (visualisation)
  • Visual communication
  • Digital media
  • Emotions
  • Mobilisations and political participation
  • AI and machine learning
Publications

Journal articles

Grants
  • Postgraduate Writing Scholarship, University of Sheffield, 2022
  • ESRC White Rose Social Science DTC +3 PhD, Scholarship 2018-2021
Teaching activities

Monika is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) and she has
taught:

  • ‘Visual methods & digital media’ lecture and workshop on the module Visual Methods for Social Scientists, MA Digital Media and Society, University of Sheffield, 2021-2022
  • Digital Media in Datafied Society (MA); Social Media, Data and Society (MA); the Sociological Imagination (BA); Exploring Classical Social Thought (BA) as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Sheffield, 2019-2022
Professional activities and memberships

Practitioner Experience / non-academic employment

After completing her postgraduate studies Monika worked at Creative Initiatives Foundation and Urban Initiative of Kalisz on local, national and international community art projects and in digital literacy education including City counts: The first participatory budget monitoring in Poland (2013-2015) funded by EEA Grants and From zero to hacking hero free online learning platform (2016-2018) funded by Erasmus+.

Other Experience 

  • Conference organisation the 4th International Data Power conference, organised by University of Sheffield in the UK, Carleton University in Canada and the University of Bremen in Germany, Feb-July 2022

Awards:

  • 2018 Scholarship award, Economic and Social Research Council White Rose Social Science DTP, United Kingdom.
  • 2012 Rector's best student prize, MA course, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland.

Published Articles: 

Articles in progress:

  • Anderson, C.W., Aiello, G., Kennedy, H. and Fratczak, M. (to be submitted Oct 2022). Generic visuals, production routines, and understandings of ‘good journalistic work’. To be submitted to Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism
  • Fratczak, M. (to be submitted Oct 2022). Data visualisation as emotional repository. To be submitted to Visual Communication.
  • Fratczak, M. (to be submitted Feb 2023). Do data visualisations mobilise people to act democratically? To be submitted to Big Data and Society.
  • Fratczak, M. (to be submitted June 2023). Differences in engagements with data and data visualisation. To be submitted to Sociology. 

Reports:

Website content: 

Datasets:

Conferences:

  • Nov 2022, The Association of Internet Researchers Conference
  • July 2022, International Conference on Social Media & Society
  • Jun 2022, Data Power Conference: Dialogues in Data Power.
  • Apr 2022, British Sociological Association Conference
  • Sep 2021, European Communication Research and Education Association Conference
  • May 2021, Data Justice Conference
  • Feb 2021, International Sociological Association Conference

Professional Memberships 

  • European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) 
  • TG10 Digital Sociology at the International Sociological Association (ISA)
Publications

Journal articles

Book chapters