Dr Albert Varela
- Position: Lecturer in Quantitative Methods
- Areas of expertise: quantitative social research; welfare states; job quality; cross-national comparative research; migration; poverty and social exclusion; sentencing.
- Email: A.Varela@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 12.02 Social Sciences Building
Profile
I have been a Lecturer in Quantitative Methods at the University of Leeds since August 2015. I am a member of the University of Leeds Q-Step Centre leading a step-change in the organisation and delivery of quantitative methods training in the social sciences.
I obtained a PhD and MA from the University of Sheffield and a degree in Political Science from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. I have previously taught Social Statistics at the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (Manchester) and Social Policy at the Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield).
Research interests
My main research interests are the analysis of inequalities in relation to labour markets and welfare states. I am particularly interested in the social stratification of job quality and job search behaviour, the role of migration and transnational mobility in advanced labour markets, and public attitudes towards inequality and the welfare state. I have specialised in the use of quantitative methods, especially latent variable models and longitudinal data analysis, with national and comparative secondary datasets to understand these issues.
More recently I have been involved in joint research with the UoL School of Law analysing the impact of sentencing guidelines on sentencing practice and consistency on behalf of the Office of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Qualifications
- BA in Political Science and Public Administration (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
- MA in Sociological Research (University of Sheffield)
- PhD in Social Policy (University of Sheffield)
Student education
I teach in a range of modules on Quantitative Social Research, Social Policy and Sociology of Work. I am also an instructor in the University's Q-Step Summer Bootcamp.