Barbara Piotrowska

Dr. Barbara Piotrowska is a Lecturer in Public Policy at King’s College London, based in the Department of Political Economy within the School of Politics & Economics, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. Previously, she held roles as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and teaching associate at the University of Oxford’s School of Global and Area Studies, and conducted research at the Blavatnik School of Government. She holds a PhD and MA in Political Science from the University of Rochester and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Her research focuses on bureaucratic incentives in authoritarian regimes and transitional states, particularly examining how institutions adapt during regime changes. Notable projects include analyzing East German Stasi informants’ files to understand authoritarian survival mechanisms and studying post-communist police reforms in Poland. She also explores democratic backsliding’s impact on public sector motivation, leveraging mixed-methods approaches.

Barbara teaches courses on policy processes, non-democratic policymaking, and comparative public policy. She supervises PhD students on topics like bureaucracy, regime transitions, and authoritarian governance. Her work has been recognized through the Leverhulme Fellowship and a book co-authored prize nomination.

Barbara is affiliated with King’s research groups such as Quantitative Political Economy and Public Policy & Regulation, emphasizing interdisciplinary methods and policy analysis. Her recent studies highlight tensions between political alignment and bureaucratic motivation, contributing to debates on governance and institutional resilience.