Faculty of Social Sciences

Professorships at the Faculty of Social Sciences

(valid on April 1st 2026)

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

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. Dr. Andreas Weich

Institution: Institute for Educational Science

Professorship:
Educational Science with a focus on digital educational media

Research focus:
tba

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 April 1st 2026)

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

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

Dr. Silke Haas

Institution: Institute for Sports Sciences

Substitute professorship:
Sports education and sports didactic

Research focus:
tba

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. 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