Knowledge for Social Change
Combining feminist political economy, political sociology and the sociology of work, I research the dynamics of crisis and change in welfare and social care systems and have a long-standing interest in how emotions are put to work in contemporary capitalism. My major concern at present is to forge synergies between care and climate justice.
Having held academic positions in the UK and Germany, I currently hold an academic position in Austria, teaching and researching sociologies of social change at the University of Vienna, where I am also the Deputy Director of Doctoral Studies in Social Science and Vice-Speaker for the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Science.
In addition, I work internationally with civil society organisations on social, economic and environmental justice. I carry out collaborative projects and offer trainings on topics across organisational development and political education. Together with colleagues at the TU Vienna and WU Vienna, I recently co-founded the Competence Centre for Infrastructure Economics, Public Services and Social Provisioning.
After studying Politics & International Studies at the University of Birmingham, I obtained a Masters degree in Global Ethics from the University of Birmingham and a Masters degree in Social & Political Theory from Birkbeck, University of London. In 2010, I completed my PhD in Politics at Birkbeck, University of London. In 2019, I was awarded the Venia Legendi & Docendi (Habilitation) in Sociology by the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena.
For my work on the care crisis, I received a Käthe-Leichter-Prize in 2022 (outstanding research on gender equality) and a Kurt-Rothschild-Prize in 2023 (outstanding public engagement research). Also in 2022, my book The Care Crisis was shortlisted for the annual book prize of the British International Studies Association International Political Economy Group.
I speak English, German and Spanish, and in 2009, I qualified as a Certified Translator for English and German in the Social Sciences (Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family).