Ania Zbyszewska

Associate Professor

Email Ania Zbyszewska
613-520-2600 ext 2621

Research Interests

I research regulation of work and labour markets from a critical, socio-legal perspective that is conceptually and methodologically informed by feminist political economy and critical policy studies. Broadly, I am interested in law’s constitutive role in the re/production of social relations, and its distributional effects. My work also attends to the interaction of legal discourses and governance regimes operating at multiple scales, such as in the context of regional integration, and under conditions of political-economic change.

I have written on the gendered (and other relational) dimensions of work and labour markets and the regulatory challenges and possibilities inherent in their historical constitution and ongoing transformations. Among others, I have published on working time, work family reconciliation, gender equality and inclusion policies, as well as neoliberalism, post-socialist transition, and crisis governance and labour market reform.

A parallel strand of my research revolves around the interface of work and environmental regulation, with focus on legal contestations and conflicts produced by jurisdictional boundaries and legal dis/articulations as well as the possibilities inherent in more ecologically-attuned forms of governance and social organization of work.

Current Projects

Since 2018, I have been involved in a EU-funded comparative project , which investigates the role of unions and labour movements in bargaining on issues of environmental sustainability within and beyond the workplace. The project covers 6 EU countries: France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. I am responsible for the UK study together with Marie Pillon (research assistant) (Grant Agreement VP/2017/004/0037).

Teaching and Supervision

I teach courses in Labour Law, Employment Law, and Employment Dispute Resolution in a manner that is informed by the conceptual and methodological lenses I adopt in my research.

I am interested in supervising legal and socio-legal research on regulation of work and labour markets; gender, law and work; labour/environmental sustainability nexus; feminist theories of law; feminist political economy and ecology of work; critical policy studies; post-socialist transitions; and multi-level governance regimes.

Biography

Prior to joining �Ӱ�ԭ��’s Department of Law and Legal Studies, I was Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick School of Law (UK) and Director of Warwick’s Connecting Research on Employment and Work (CREW) Network (2017-2019). I also held Research Fellowships at Warwick Law School (2013-2016) and Lund University Faculty of Law in Sweden (2015), and I was selected as the 2019-20 France-ILO Research Chair at Nantes Institute of Advanced Study (declined). I won the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) Best Thesis prize for my doctoral work (2013) and was a member of the British Academy Raising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA)-funded project entitled (2015). I have a PhD in Law and Society from University of Victoria Faculty of Law (2012), an LL.B. from the University of Windsor, and a BA in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Toronto.

Selected Publications

Books

Zbyszewska, A. 2016. Gendering European Working Time Regimes: The Working Time Directive and the Case of Poland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

[Reviewed: Plomien, A. (2018) “Book review: Ania Zbyszewska: Gendering European working time regimes.” Feminist Legal Studies, 26(2): 229-232].

Blackham, A., Kullmann, M. and Zbyszewska, A. (eds.) 2019. Theorizing Labour Law in a Changing World: Towards an Inclusive Labour Law. Hart/Bloomsbury.

Journal Articles

Zbyszewska, A. 2018. “Regulating Work with People and ‘Nature’ in Mind: Feminist Reflections”. Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 40(1).

Benedi-Lahuerta, S., Zbyszewska, A., 2018. “EU Equality Law after a Decade of Austerity: On the Social Pillar and its Transformative Potential.” International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 18(2-3), 162-192.

Kresal, B., Zbyszewska, A., 2017. “Through Work-Life-Family Reconciliation to Gender Equality? Slovenia and the United Kingdom’s Legal Frameworks Compared.” Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations (on Work Life Balance) vol 98, 155-182.

Zbyszewska, A. 2016. “Active Aging through Employment: A Critical Feminist Perspective on Polish Policy.” International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 32(4): 449-472.

—-. 2016. “Reshaping the European Working-time Regime: Towards a Sustainable Model.” European Labour Law Journal 7(3): 331-347.

—-. 2013. “The European Working Time Directive: Keeping the Long Hours with Gendered Consequences.” Women’s Studies Int. Forum, 39(1): 30-41.

—-. 2012. “Regulating Working Time in the Times of Crisis: Flexibility, Gender and the Case of Long Hours in Poland.” International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 28(4): 421-441.

Guest Editorials (Journals)

Zbyszewska, A. 2018. “Labour Law for a Warming World? Exploring the Intersections of Work Regulation and Environmental Sustainability – Guest Editorial” in Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 40(1).

Zbyszewska, A., Kullmann M., Blackham, A. 2018. “Scrutinizing the Standardized Worker: Critical and International Perspectives – Guest Editorial” in International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 34(4): 345-350.

Zbyszewska, A., Benedi Lahuerta, S. 2018. “Taking Stock of Twenty Years of EU Equality Law and Policymaking and Looking Ahead– Guest Editorial” in International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 18(2-3): 55-59.

Chapters in Edited Collections

Kullmann, M., Zbyszewska, A., Blackham, A. 2019. “Introduction” in Theorizing Labour Law in a Changing World: Towards an Inclusive Labour Law. Hart/Bloomsbury (August).

Zbyszewska, A., Routh, S. 2019. “‘Challenging Labour Law’s Productivist Focus: Insights from Research on Informal and Unpaid Work’ in Theorizing Labour Law in a Changing World: Towards Inclusive Labour Law, A. Blackham, M. Kullmann, A. Zbyszewska (eds.), Hart/Bloomsbury (August).

Zbyszewska, A. 2017. “Gendering Poland’s Crisis Response: A Europeanization Perspective” in Gender, Politics and the Crisis in Europe, ed. Johanna Kantola and Emanuela Lombardo, Palgrave, Gender and Politics Series.

—-. 2017. “Women in Research and Academic Labour Markets: Revisiting the Issue Ten Years On.” in Festskrift for Ann-Numhauser Henning. Juristforlaget, Lund.

Numhauser-Henning, A., Julén Votinius, J., Zbyszewska, A. 2017. “Equal Treatment and Age-discrimination – Inside and Outside Working Life” in Elder Law: Evolving European Perspectives, Edward Elgar.

Blackham, A., Kullmann, M., Petterson, H., Zbyszewska, A., 2017 “The Rationales of Government Action on Aging and the Extension of Working Lives” in Elder Law: Evolving European Perspectives, Edward Elgar.

Fudge, J., Zbyszewska, A., 2015. “An Intersectional Approach to Age Discrimination in EU Law: Bridging Dignity and Distribution.” In Age Discrimination and Labour Law, A. Numhauser-Henning & M. Ronnmar, eds., 141-163. Kluwer Law International.

Zbyszewska, A. 2014. “Visions of the Future: Imagining and Anticipating Tomorrow’s Working Hours from the North American Perspective.” In Factor of Time in the New Economy. Where are we Heading?” H. Strzeminska, ed., 58-75. Institute of Work and Social Matters: Warsaw.