Dr Joanna Bagniewska

Profile details

Biography

BSc, MSc (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon), PGCAP, SFHEA

Dr Joanna Bagniewska is a Departmental Lecturer in Environmental Science, a Co-Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques. She received her BSc in Biology from Jacobs University Bremen in Germany, then moved to the UK to pursue her MSc in Biology at the University of Oxford, and went on to do a DPhil in Zoology at the same institution.

Joanna currently splits her time between the Department for Continuing Education and Brunel University London, where she is Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sciences and Programme Lead for the BSc in Environmental Sciences.

Research and teaching

Joanna’s expertise lies in behavioural ecology and biodiversity conservation. She has a soft spot for mammals, having worked on the American mink during her doctorate (as well as jackals, foxes, wombats and mole-rats before that) – though she does take an interest in other taxonomic groups.

Having taught, amongst others, at Oxford University, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Reading, Joanna built a diverse pedagogical portfolio that includes field courses, teaching large (150+) classes, small group tutorials and team-based learning. She obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Reading, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Organisation memberships include:

Science communication

Alongside her academic work, Joanna is an accomplished science communicator, having won British Council’s FameLab Poland and the Wellcome-funded “I’m a Scientist, get me out of here!”, given a TEDx talk, and performed at science stand-up comedy events. Until 2024, she held the post of Communications and Public Engagement Officer at Oxford University’s Department of Paediatrics – a particularly exciting experience during the development of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine. She regularly writes popular science articles for various media in Poland (including Focus, Gazeta Wyborcza and Tygodnik Powszechny), and has collaborated with the Discovery Channel on the “How Do They Do It?” series.

Her popular science book, The Modern Bestiary, was published in 2022.