Irene Ktori
Job Title
PhD student, Social Policy
Research interests
Research interests
I am interested in the political economy of the welfare state, discourse framing and nationalist conditions in family policies.
Background
I am PhD candidate under the supervision of Markus Ketola and Philip Rathgeb. My research looks into family policy and how this is used to induce gender norms in line with the neoconservative values of the Hungarian government. My research follows a discourse analysis as it seeks to identify and uncover the meaning making tools behind family policy and how those are set to define who is meant to be doing what within the household. This takes a historical approach as it sets to understand the past and how it shapes the present but also informs the future of how the Fidesz conservative government is reintroducing traditional family values of Christian nuclear households as normalised settings. To examine how that is taking place, the research looks into family policy, and in particular employment leave policies and how these are paired with family and tax allowances which are commonly attached to women as mothers instigated a gender division of the mother as the housewife and the men as breadwinners. The research aims to unpack the institutional language and how that is used meticulously over time to change something from border line excluding and inappropriate to socially normalised and accepted.
Outside my research duties, I am teaching various courses and I am currently an external associate teacher with the School of Management (Business School) at the University of Bristol. I have also set up a “learning english as a second language” weekly session to provide free teaching to Spanish speaking women who are unable to pay their way to a private institution. The aim is to help these women speak up for themselves and be able to work as a matter of their personal and financial independence within the household.
Academically, I come from a political science background with further studies in public policy and global political economy at the University of Bristol. Professionally, I have a diverse experience from being a mortgage advisor in the financial sector to a researcher in the third sector.