Institute of Sociology

Papers and Lectures


  • 02/2024: Trusted encounters – interview settings before and after the Covid-19 pandemic in students’ research projects. ESA RN 03 “Biographical Perspectives on European Societies” in association with the Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI) mid-term conference: The Meanings of Trust in Post-Pandemic Societies: Theoretical and Practical Advancements in Biographical Research, TUS Athlone/Ireland/online.
  • 04/2022: Triangulation in der Biografieforschung. Gastvortrag im Rahmen der Veranstaltung Entwicklung und Biografie FS22 (Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Hedderich & Federica Hofer), Universität Zürich/online [Triangulation in Biographical Research].
  • 12/2021: "I am Civil Society" -Polish experiences - Impulsreferat. 6. Deutscher Engagementtag: Workshop: Zivilgesellschaft in Polen - Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood?, Berlin/online.
  • 05/2019: Triangulation in der Biografieforschung. Mini-Conference "Data Analysis and Sampling in Mixed Methods and Multimethod Social Research", Göttingen.[Triangulation in biographical research].
  • 09/2018: Biographies make sense!? Methodological inspiration from the “Polish Peasant” ESA Midterm Conference RN03 "Theoretical and empirical reflections on social disorganisation and 'otherness' in modern European societies. Following the biographical and discursive approach of Thomas and Znaniecki's legacy of 'Polish Peasant in Europe and America'", Lodz.
  • 09/2016: Why do you (not) engage in this discourse? Methodological remarks on the triangulation of discourse and biographical analysis. ESA Midterm Conference RN03 "Biographical Research: Inequality and Innovation", Riga.
  • 07/2016: Care Workers in Transnational Polish-German Spaces. ISA Forum THE FUTURES WE WANT: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World, Vienna
  • 07/2016: Your History and My History - Doing Biographical Research within the Framework of German-Polish Relations. ISA Forum THE FUTURES WE WANT: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World, Vienna
  • 06/2016: Doing Europe. Biographies and Discourses in Poland. Invited lecture at Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warszawa.
  • 05/2016: Deutsch-polnische Beziehungen in der Altenpflege. Institutskolloquium Soziologie, Universität Göttingen [German-Polish relations in care for elderly people]
  • 09/2015: Europeanness among Polish civil society activists. DUE conference: European Narratives. Europe and the European Union in the 21st Century as Political, Social and Cultural Constructions, Kraków.
  • 08/2015: The 'transition to democracy' in biographical perspective. 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2015, Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination, Prague.
  • 03/2015: Götterpolemik und Weisheitsdiskurs - Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse als Forschungsperspektive auf antike Kulturen [Discourse on polemics and wisdom - Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse Analysis (SKAD) as research perspectives on ancient cultures] with Sonja Ammann. Tagung: Die diskursive Konstruktion von Wirklichkeit II. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven einer wissenssoziologischen Diskursforschung, Augsburg.
  • 01/2015: Der Diskurs der Zivilgesellschaft - von ostmitteleuropäischer Opposition zum demokratiekonsolidierenden "Allheilmittel" [The discourse on civil society - from East Central European opposition to democracy's/democratisation's remedy]. Vortrag in der Reihe: "Was ist Politik?" - Bilder und Ideen der interdisziplinären Forschung, Portal Ideengeschichte, FB03, Universität Marburg.
  • 11/2014: Wie öffentlich ist das Private? Forschungsethische Fragen bei der Triangulation von Diskurs- und Biographieforschung [How public is private? Research ethical questions when triangulation discourse and biographical research]. Konferenz: Politisches Handeln in digitalen Öffentlichkeiten: Grassroots zwischen Autonomie, Aufschrei und Überwachung, Göttingen.
  • 11/2014: Zivilgesellschaftliches Engagement im postsozialistischen Polen - soziologische Perspektiven [Civic engagement in post-socialist Poland - sociological perspectives] Herder-Kolloquium, Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung - Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Marburg.
  • 11/2014: Narrating the 'Transition to Democracy' - on the Interdependency of Discourses and Biographies. Genealogies of Memory-Conference: Collective vs Collected Memories. 1989-1991 from an Oral History Perspective, Warsaw.
  • 09/2014: 'Gläserne AkteurInnen' - zwischen Anonymisierung und intersubjektiver Nachvollziehbarkeit ['Transparent actors' between anonymity and intersubjective comprehensibility]. Conference: Forschungsethik in der qualitativen und quantitativen Sozialforschung, LMU München.
  • 08/2014: Civil Society and its Role in Reconciliation Processes in East Central Europe. International Summer School: Societies in Transition - Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe between Conflict and Reconciliation, Jena.
  • 08/2014: The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse Analysis. Workshop: Discourse Analysis of Ancient Religious Texts, Max Weber Center of Advanced Social and Cultural Studies, Erfurt.
  • 03/2014: 'Maybe you remember from history' - Biographical narrations from times of Polish communism. Conference: The People's Republic of Poland and the German Democratic Republic in everyday experience. Biography - Memory - Interpretation. Warsaw.
  • 03/2014: Erinnerungs- und Erzählmuster oppositioneller Kategorien in der heutigen polnischen Zivilgesellschaft [Patterns of remembering and narrating oppositional categories in the Polish civil society today]. Dritte Tagung Deutsche Polenforschung: Wissen, Verstehen, Übersetzen: Nachbarn im Dialog, Gießen.
  • 10/2013: Varför är just Du ideellt engagerad? På biografiska spåret: Tyskland - Sverige - Polen [Why are you socially engaged? On biographical tracks in Germany, Sweden, Poland]. Vortrag auf Einladung von Svenska Kyrkan, Alingsås/ Schweden
  • 08/2013: 'Unlike my brother I managed to adapt well to the new times' - Narrating transformation in Poland. ESA 11th Conference: Crisis, Critique and Change, Torino/Italy.
  • 08/2013: Biographical purposes to join Political Critique in Poland. ESA 11th Conference: Crisis, Critique and Change, Torino/Italy.

  • 04/2013: Cultures of Opposition in Biographical Narrations - Memories from Poland. Workshop: Cultures of Opposition - Samizdat in East Central Europe, Herder-Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe - Institute of the Leibniz-Association, Marburg.
  • 04/2013: Creating Knowledge About Civil Society - Democracy Promotion In Transnational Contexts. 2nd Copernicus Graduate School Interdisciplinary Conference: Good Governance and Civil Society, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Polen.
  • 03/2013: Warum reproduzierst gerade Du diesen Diskurs? Zur Interdependenz von biographisch etablierten Handlungsmustern und Diskursen [Why are you reproducing this specific discourse? The Interdependency of biographically established patterns of acting and discourse]. Frühjahrstagung der Sektion Wissenssoziologie in der DGS: Die diskursive Konstruktion von Wirklichkeit. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven einer wissenssoziologischen Diskursforschung, Universität Augsburg.
  • 01/2013: Zur Triangulation von biographischen und diskursanalytischen Fallrekonstruktionen [Triangulationg in biographical and discourse analytical case reconstructions] with Anna Ransiek and Rixta Wundrak, Jahrestagung der Sektion Biographieforschung in der DGS, Biographie und Diskurs, Universität Kassel.
  • 09/2012: Internet Presence, Web 2.0 & Biographical Research Ethics. ESA RN03 Mid-Term Conference 2012: Biographical Research: emotion, ethics & performative praxis, University of Lódz, Poland.
  • 09/2012: Wissenstransfer im polnischen Zivilgesellschaftsdiskurs. Das Beispiel der Krytyka Polityczna und der DPO [Transfer of Knowledge in the Polish Discourse on Civil Society. The Example of Political Critique and DPO]. Vortrag im Kolloquium der Leibniz Graduate School for Cultures of Knowledge in Central European Transnational Contexts am Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung in Marburg.
  • 09/2012: Zivilgesellschaftliches Engagement unter Transformationsbedingungen in Polen [Civic Engagement under Conditions of Transformation in Poland]. Vortrag im Rahmen der Sommerakademie des Deutschen Polen-Instituts Darmstadt.
  • 06/2012: 'I am Civil Society - I am a Citizen'. Civic Engagement in Poland. Vortrag im Rahmen der Summer School 'What Civil? What Society?', CISRUL, University of Aberdeen/ GB.
  • 05/2012: Methodologische Überlegungen zur Herstellung von zivilgesellschaftlichem Engagement in Polen nach 1989 [Methodological Remarks on the Creationg of Civic Engagement in Poland after 1989]. Vortrag im Rahmen des Doktorandenkolloquiums, Prof. G. Rosenthal, Universität Göttingen.
  • 10/2011: Gesellschaftliches Engagement in Polen nach 1989 [Civic engagement in Poland after 1989]. Invited lecture, German-Polish Society in Göttingen.
  • 05/2011: Diskursanalytische und sozialwissenschaftliche Methoden. Perspektiven für die antike Mythosforschung.? [Discourse analysis and methods in social sciences. Perspectives for antique mythos research]. Paper with Sonja Ammann, Collegium mythologicum - Interdisziplinäre Kolloquien zur Mythosforschung, Seminar für Altorientalistik, University of Göttingen.
  • 04/2011: A dlaczego Polska? Zu den Diskursen und zu der Rolle als deutsche Soziologin im Feld polnischer MenschenrechtsaktivistInnen? [A dlaczego Polska? About the discourses and the role of being a German sociologist doing research among Polish human rights activists]. Paper at the conference Polenorientiert. Dlaczego Polska jest krajem interesujacym dla Niemców. Warsaw/ Poland.
  • 11/2010: Dealing with Discourses. Methodological discussions about the relation of biographies and discourses. Paper with Anna-Christin Ransiek at the international conference Creating Knowledge, University of Goettingen.
  • 07/2010: Biographical Meanings of Europe among Polish Civil Society Activists? Paper at the XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology, Göteborg/Sweden.
  • 03/2010: Die polnische Zivilgesellschaft? [The Polish Civil Society]. Invited Lecture at the Institute of German Studies, University of Warsaw/Poland.
  • 04/2009: Civic Engagement and Civil Society in Poland. Invited Lecture at the University of Lodz/Poland.
  • 01/2009: Die polnische Zivilgesellschaft im Kontext externer Demokratieförderung. [Polish civil society in the context of democracy promotion]. Paper at the VII Ostblick-Kongress Go West! Stay East? Politik, Gesellschaft, Identität in Ost-, Mittel- und Südosteuropa 1989- 2009, Goettingen.
  • 06/2006: The case of Shirin, an Iranian woman. Paper at a working conference, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation as a Transcoop Program between the Centre of Methods in Social Sciences in Goettingen and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Nova Southeastern Universtiy, Florida/USA.