Qualitative Methods of Social Research

Profile of the Qualitative Methods of Social Research

The (mostly transnational) projects in this research area are located in a power-sensitive, historical, process-oriented and methodologically pluralistic sociology. Current research focuses include collective and individual memory constructions, intergenerational effects of collective histories of violence, flight and migration as well as global sociology. Methodological focuses are: Multi-generational and biographical research, ethnography, visual sociology, discourse research and methodological plural research.

Latest News

New Publication: Cé Sangalli (2026) - The nexus between enslavement and migration: Changing belongings in Darfur and North Africa

In a new article Dr. Lucas Cé Sangalli discusses how migration and enslavement are sociohistorically intertwined in shaping migration opportunities for people from Africa south of the Sahara. This article addresses this question through an analysis of 65 biographical-narrative interviews with migrants from Sudan, particularly Darfur, who travelled through North Africa to Europe. Read more...

Dr. Lucas Cé Sangalli Receives the 2026 Norbert Elias Book Prize

The award, presented by the Norbert Elias Foundation, honors outstanding scholarly Monographs that build upon the work of sociologist Norbert Elias in a unique way. The award was given to Dr. Lucas Cé Sangalli’s book “Migrants from Sudan in Germany and Jordan: Changing Belongings in the Context of Life and Family Histories” (Göttingen University Press, 2024).

New Publication on the Interpretive Processes of Descendants of Victims Persecuted by the Nazis

In the journal Soziale Probleme 1/2026, Miriam Schäfer and Sarah Könecke discuss the processes of interpreting family history in the context of marginalized experiences of persecution, drawing on their biographical-theoretical multigenerational research on the descendants of stigmatized victims of the Nazi regime. Read more...

Professorship

Prof. Dr. Maria Pohn-Lauggas

professor

Team

Dr. Eva Bahl

researcher

Dr. Lucas Cé Sangalli

researcher

Sarah Könecke M.A.

research assistant

Dr. Miriam Schäfer

researcher

Anna Maria Noebels B.A.

student assistant B.A.