معرفی
Dr. Zoe Baker is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of York, where she conducts research on care-experienced graduates' transitions out of higher education and into the labor market. Previously, she completed her ESRC-funded PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2017, focusing on higher education choices of socioeconomically underrepresented students.
Her educational background includes a PhD from the School of Education at the University of Sheffield (2017), supported by an ESRC studentship. Prior to her current position at York, she held research roles at Sheffield University focused on widening participation in higher education.
Dr. Baker's research centers on widening participation, educational inequalities, and social justice within higher education. She employs qualitative and longitudinal methodologies to examine how structural constraints interact with individual agency in educational pathways. Her work particularly focuses on care-experienced students, BTEC holders, and socioeconomically disadvantaged learners, using creative research methods like diaries and photo elicitation to capture lived experiences. She has developed significant expertise in understanding how educational transitions are shaped by complex social factors.
Her publication portfolio demonstrates a clear trajectory from examining access to higher education, to academic experiences within institutions, and now to graduate outcomes and transitions. The research consistently applies sociological frameworks to understand the interplay between structural constraints and individual agency, with increasing focus on care-experienced students as a particularly vulnerable group within the higher education system.
- British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-24)
- Best Early Career Article Prize from British Journal of Sociology of Education (2019)
Dr. Baker has secured multiple significant research grants including the British Academy-funded 'Care-experienced Graduates' Decision-Making, Choices, and Destinations' project (2021-24), the Unite Foundation project on care-experienced students (2018-2020), and her ESRC-funded PhD research. She is an active member of the Centre for Research in Education and Social Justice (CRESJ) and the Qualitative Research Group at York, and maintains professional affiliations with the Society for Research in Higher Education and as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Her research is conducted through collaborative projects that often involve partnerships with care organizations, universities, and policy bodies, ensuring practical impact alongside academic contribution.
