Faculty of Social Sciences

Professorships at the Faculty of Social Sciences

(valid on October 2025)

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Abend

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Sociology with a focus on sociological theory

Research focus:
Sociological “theory”; science and technology studies; sociology of morality; logic and methodology of social research

Website

Prof. Dr. Thomas Bliesener

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Interdisciplinary criminological research

Research focus:
Development of aggression, violence, and criminality over the lifespan / Prevention and intervention in cases of social behavior disorders, aggression, and violence in the family, school, and youth welfare and rehabilitation institutions / Analysis of processes in criminal justice institutions

Website

Prof. Dr. Andrea D. Bührmann

Institution: Institute for Diversity Research

Professorship:
Sociology of Diversity

Research focus:
Reflexive diversity research

Website

Prof. Dr. Andreas Busch

Institution: Institute for Political Science

Professorship:
Comparative Political Economy

Research focus:
tba

Website

Prof. Dr. Patrick Eisenlohr

Institution: Centre for Modern Indian Studies

Professorship:
Society and Culture of Modern India

Research focus:
tba

Website

Prof. Dr. Simon Fink

Institution: Institute for Political Science

Professorship:
Political system of the Federal Republic of Germany

Research focus:
Policy area analysis, europeanization, public participation, infrastructure policy

Website

Prof. Dr. Simon Franzmann

Institution: Institute for Democracy Research

Professorship:
Democracy research with a focus on parties and political culture research

Research focus:
Political parties, populism, political culture

Website

Prof. Dr. Silke Hans

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Sociology with a focus on migration and ethnicity

Research focus:
Migration and integration
Transnationalization processes
Social inequality

Website

Prof. Dr. Anja Jetschke

Institution: Institute for Political Science

Professorship:
Political science with a focus on international relations

Research focus:
The emergence and effects of the institutional design of international and regional organizations

Website

Prof. Dr. Katharina Kunze

Institution: Institute for Educational Science

Professorship:
Educational science with a focus on pedagogical action and professionalism

Research focus:
Professional (ization) research, school and teaching research, higher education research

Website

Prof. Dr. Karin Kurz

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Sociology with the focus on empirical social structure analysis

Research focus:
Social structure analysis, life course research, and social inequality research Sociology of education, sociology of the labor market, sociology of the family, sociology of the environment

Website

Prof. Dr. Andrea Lauser

Institution: Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Professorship:
General Ethnology with a regional focus on Southeast Asia

Research focus:
Southeast Asia (with many years of research experience in the Philippines and Vietnam) / Europe, especially Germany as a destination for transnational mobility

Website

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jessica Löser

Institution: Institute for Educational Science

Professorship:
Inclusive secondary school subject teaching

Research focus:
Inclusive digital school and teaching development

Website

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Theres Matthieß

Institution: Institute for Democracy Research

Professorship:
Empirical democracy research

Research focus:
Political parties, elections, democratic representation, political inequality, methods

Website

Prof. Dr. Nicole Mayer-Ahuja

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Sociology with a focus on work, business, and economics

Research focus:
Work from a historical and transnational perspective, precariousness/informalization of work, working hours, work in class society

picture: (kpw-photo)

Website

Prof. Dr. Alexander-Kenneth Nagel

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Religious studies with a focus on social science research on religion

Research focus:
Migration and religion, religious pluralization and intercultural openness, apocalypticism in modern societies

Website

Prof. Dr. Sarah Nies

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Sociology with the focus on digitalization in the workplace

Research focus:
Reorganization and digital transformation of work; management and control of work; technical rationality and ideological criticism; demands on work and worker consciousness

Website

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Rabenstein

Institution: Institute for Educational Science

Professorship:
School pedagogy / Empirical teaching research and school development

Research focus:
Digital transformation of schools and teaching; differences and inequality in educational fields

Website

Prof. Dr. Srirupa Roy

Institution: Centre for Modern Indian Studies

Professorship:
State and Democracy in modern India

Research focus:
Nationalism and state-formation, democratic theory, identity and institutions, comparative InterAsian studies, media and populist politics, visual politics.

Website

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Schareika

Institution: Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Professorship:
Ethnology

Research focus:
Changing rural livelihoods, Pastoral societies, Rural-urban transformation, Economic anthropology, Social-ecological systems, Ethnography of communication, Conflict, negotiation and disputing

Website

Prof. Dr. Tine Stein

Institution: Institute for Political Science

Professorship:
Political theory and history of ideas

Research focus:
Theory of the democratic constitutional state, relationship between politics and religion, and politics and nature

Website

Prof. Dr. Tobias C. Stubbe

Institution: Institute for Methods and Methodological Foundations of Social Sciences

Professorship:
Quantitative methods in social sciences and statistics

Research focus:
Quantitative research methods / statistics, large-scale assessments

Website

Prof. Dr. Hermann Veith

Institution: Institute for Educational Science

Professorship:
Education with a focus on socialization research

Research focus:
Educational socialization research, transfer area

picture: © Björn Hänssler

Website

Prof. Timo Weishaupt, PhD

Institution: Institute of Sociology

Professorship:
Sociology with the focus on social policy

Research focus:
Welfare state in international comparison, labor market policy, homelessness

Website

Prof. Dr. Ariane Willems

Institution: Institute for Educational Science

Professorship:
Empirical educational research with a focus on school and classroom researchEmpirical educational research with a focus on school and classroom research

Research focus:
Motivation and interest research; teaching quality and effectiveness; teacher training research

Website

Substitute professorships at the Faculty of Social Sciences

(valid on October 1st 2025)

PD Dr. Christiana Bers

Institution: Institute for Educational Science

Substitute professorship:
General and Historical Education Studies

Research focus:
Educational science research at universities, historical education research, science research

Website

Dr. Christine Engartner

Institution: Institute for Political Science

Substitute professorship:
Political Science / Didactics of politics
(from October 27, 2025)

Research focus:
Social science education / Political and professional socialization research / Democratic identity formation / Research-based learning in social science education

Website

Dr. Christiane Falck

Institution: Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Substitute professorship:
General ethnology with the focus on the Asia-Pacific region

Research focus:
Human-environment relations, political ontology and onto-praxis, Melanesian Christianities, materiality and religion

Website

PD Dr. Nils Haller

Institution: Institute for Sports Sciences

Substitute professorship:
Training and exercise science

Research focus:
Sports physiology, acute and chronic adaptations to high-intensity interval training, training management in competitive sports, sports therapy for chronic diseases

Website

PD Dr. Jan Haut

Institution: Institute for Sports Sciences

Substitute professorship:
Sociology of sport and health

Research focus:
Social inequality, discrimination, and participation in sports

Website

Dr. Yoon-Sun Huh

Institution: Institute for Sports Sciences

Substitute professorship:
Sports education and sports didactics

Research focus:
Inclusive intercultural education in the context of movement, play, and sports

Website

Dr. Halyna Leontiy

Institution: Institute for Methods and Methodological Foundations of Social Sciences

Substitute professorship:
Fundamentals of Social Sciences

Research focus:
Cultural and migration sociology, interactionism, qualitative research methods

Website

Dr. Arne Worm

Institution: Institute for Methods and Methodological Foundations of Social Sciences

Substitute professorship:
Qualitative methods in the social sciences
Research focus:
Qualitative social research, interpretive paradigm, figurations in (post-)migration societies, refugee research, transnationality

Website