Prof. Dr. Katja Möhring

I lead the Chair of Sociology, especially Family and Work at the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg and am project leader at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. Before, I was Assistant Professor of Sociology of the Welfare State and from 2018 to 2021 Interim Chair of Macrosociology at the University of Mannheim. I studied Social Sciences at the Humboldt University of Berlin and received my PhD from the University of Cologne in November 2013. I was then a postdoctoral fellow at the SOCIUM Research Center at the University of Bremen, and in 2017 a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

What factors influence gender inequality in employment histories and retirement incomes across Europe? How does caregiving affect women’s labour force participation? Did the Corona crisis increase inequality in work and care? How do migrants in Europe age well? Which quotas for leadership positions are accepted by citizens and why? These and related questions are the focus of my research agenda.

Currently, I lead the international research project “Do migrants in Europe age well? A mixed methods and intervention study in four countries (MIG-AGE)” (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation) and the project "Life Course, Wealth and Retirement Income in East and West Germany: A Cohort and Gender Comparison" (funded by the German Pension Insurance "Forschungsnetzwerk Alterssicherung").

I am External Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). I was Board Member of the Social Policy Section of the German Sociological Association (2019-25) and in this role initiated the Section’s dissertation award and co-organized the international conference “Social Policy and Inequality in the Polycrisis” in Bamberg (2025). Between 2023 and 2026, I was also Fellow of the German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (DIFIS). I serve in advisory roles for the Research Network on Old-Age Provision (FNA), the project “HBS-IAQ – Continuous Reporting on the World of Work,” the Swedish Research Council–funded programme “Sustainable Synergies,” and the Finnish Research Council–funded consortium “SustAgeable.” I am Co-editor of Zeitschrift für Sozialreform (since 2020) and Editorial Board Member of Work, Aging and Retirement (since 2021). Since 2025, I serve as Equal Opportunity Officer of the SoWi faculty, and have recently been appointed as Jury member for the Bavarian prize for family-friendly companies.

Dear students

Check out the chair's course program in BA and MA Sociology. We emphasize the combination of learning theoretical knowledge and practical (research) skills.

I and the team are happy to take on the supervision of Bachelor's and Master's theses. Please contact me personally or at sfa(at)uni-bamberg.de

Contact

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
Feldkirchenstraße 21 / Room 00.19c
96052 Bamberg

phone. +49 (0)951/863-3148  / -3122

e-mail: katja.moehring(at)uni-bamberg.de

Research interests

• Life course sociology
• Age and retirement
• Gender inequality and attitudes
• Comparative welfare state research
• Multi-level and panel analyses