Professor Michał P. Garapich is a Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Sciences and Professions.
Michał is an anthropologist, author and co-author of over 60 publications in English, Polish, French, Czech and German. He holds a PhD from Jagiellonian University, Kraków, supervised by Prof. Zdzisław Mach. After a PhD scholarship at the University of Padova, he lectured and conducted research at University of Surrey, and then at University of Roehampton. In 2023 he took the position of Professor of Sociology at the London Metropolitan University, at the School of Social Sciences and Professions.
Michał conducted research and wrote on migration from Poland, transnationalism, far-right, deathscapes, resistance, homelessness, nationalism, diaspora, Roma, and intimate ethnography. His fieldwork experience involves Britain, Poland, Ukraine and Peru. He is the author of two monographs: London Polish Borders. Transnationalizing Class and Ethnicity among Polish migrants in London (Ibidem Verlag 2016) and Dzieci Kazimierza (Czarne 2019) for which he received the History Book of the Year Prize granted by Polityka (top Polish weekly magazine). He also co-authored a monograph on migrants’ social remittances (Migrants as Agents of Change, Palgrave 2017; with Izabela Grabowska, Ewa Jaźwińska and Agnieszka Radziwinowiczówna).
Born in Kraków, he lives in London in a multispecies household (humans, dogs, cats, rabbits). Husband of Katarzyna Depta-Garapich, a sculptor and visual artist, father of Mateusz and Matylda. Surfer (longboard, 9ft 2 log), scuba diver, skier and coffee drinker.
Michał’s research expertise falls in broadly understood migration studies, with the focus on migration from Poland, diaspora radicalisation, nationalism, ethnicity, homelessness, political participation, far-right movements, and social resistance. His recent monograph ventured in the area of intimate ethnography, family studies, emotions in the context of family history and complex Polish-Ukrainian relations. His fieldwork with homeless migrants in London (2010-11) has resulted in a decade long partnerships with various homeless charities for which he, and his students, conducted numerous research projects which aided the charities in their PR, fundraising and improving their practice. For his work with students and charities helping the homeless, Michał was twice nominated for a teaching award (Times Higher Education, Central European University).
As an anthropologist, he is passionate about ethnographic methods with all their strengths and weaknesses. He has used them extensively in very diverse and challenging contexts (although has also experience in large sample surveys) and taught courses on ethnographic methods for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
He is affiliated with Centre for Global Diversities and Inequalities.
Currently he is the Principal Investigator in a 3 year (2023-2026) ESRC funded study on participation of migrants from Poland in transnational far-right politics.
Selected publications:
Garapich, M.P. (2023). Pisanie i rozmawianie z umarłymi, czyli ćwiczenia z etnografii intymnej. Czas Kultury. Vol 3.
Garapich, M.P., Fiałkowska, K., Mirga-Wójtowicz, E. (2023). Migratory encounters, common idiom and the king. Relationship between two Roma groups from Poland in transnational social space. Romani Studies Journal; vol.1/2023.
Garapich M. P., Styrkacz, S., Szewczyk, M., Mirga-Wójtowicz E., Fiałkowska, K., Jóźwiak, I.
(2023). Roma and Covid-19: Introduction to Polish Chronicles. [in]: Romani chronicles of
Covid-19; red. P. Gay y Blasco, M. Fott, Berghahn Books.
Garapich M.P., Styrkacz, S., Szewczyk M., (2023). Pandemic (im)mobilities of Polish Roma.
[in]: Romani chronicles of Covid-19; red. P. Gay y Blasco, M. Fott, Berghahn Books
Fiałkowska, K., Mirga-Wójtowicz E., Garapich, M.P. (2022). Unequal citizenship and ethnic
boundaries in the migration experience of Polish Roma. Nationalities Papers. pp. 1-21;
doi:10.1017/nps.2022.92;
Garapich, M.P. (2021). Creuser et écrire – réflexions sur l'anthropologie intime et la pratique
des récits auto-ethnographiques; Sociologie et Sociétés, 53/1; Les Presses de l’Université de
Montréal;
Garapich, M.P., Fiałkowska, K., Mirga-Wójtowicz, E. (2020). Why Do Roma Migrate (from our
sight)? A Critical Analysis of Academic Silence in Polish Scholarship. Critical Romani Studies,
2(2), pp. 4-22. https://doi.org/10.29098/crs.v2i2.37;
Garapich M.P. (2019). Die polnishen Migranten in Großbritannien im Kontext des Brexit; Aus
Polen-Analysen Nr. 247.
Garapich, M.P., Fiałkowska K., Mirga-Wójtowicz E. (2019). Roma Migrations –
Transnationalism and Identity in Anthropological Perspective. Ethnologia Polona vil. 40. pp.
247-275; https://journals.iaepan.pl/ethp/article/view/33;
Grabowska, I., Garapich, M.P (2016). Social remittances and intra-EU mobility: non-financial
transfers between U.K. and Poland, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.42(13), pp.2146-
2162 [cit.46]; https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2016.1170592;
Garapich, M.P. (2016). Breaking borders, changing structures – transnationalism of migrants
from Poland as anti-state resistance, Social Identities, 22(1), pp. 95-111.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2015.1110360;
Garapich, M.P. (2016). ‘I Don’t Want This Town to Change’: Resistance, Bifocality and the
Infra-Politics of Social Remittances; Central and Eastern European Migration Review vol. 5(2);
pp. 155-166. doi: 10.17467/ceemr.2016.17
Drinkwater, S., Garapich, M.P. (2015). Migration Plans and Strategies of Recent Polish
Migrants to England and Wales: Do They Have Any At All? Journal of Ethnic and Migration
Studies, 41(12), pp. 1909-1931 https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1027180;
Principal Investigator of a 3 year ESRC (2023-2026) funded study on participation of migrants from Poland in transnational far-right politics.
Modern Slavery and Homelessness (2023) - Hestia funded project on links between modern slavery and homelessness (PI - Dr Melissa Jogie, University of Roehampton).
Prof. Michał P. Garapich
m.garapich@londonmet.ac.uk