Biography

I graduated in Sociology, Philosophy and Economics at the Free University of Berlin in 1996. I finished my doctorate in Sociology in 2002 in Berlin, where I was a member of a Graduate School and received a doctoral fellowship (DFG) from 1996 to 2000. My dissertation dealt with the Catholic Church and US social policies during the 20th century and was published in 2003.
From 2000 to 2002 I worked as a researcher at the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society. Since 2002 I have been working as an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Goettingen. In spring 2004 I taught at the New School for Social Research in NYC as a Theodor Heuss Lecturer. I am currently working on a book (my ‘habilitation’) on philanthropic foundations in Germany and the United States from a historical-sociological perspective.
My current research interests focus on: historical-comparative macro-sociology, philanthropy, gift-giving and reciprocity, civil society, social theory, religion and the welfare state.
My main publications include: Im Dienste der Armen: Katholische Kirche und amerikanische Sozialpolitik im 20. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt/New York 2003. Zivilgesellschaft: Theorie und politische Praxis, Frankfurt/New York. Vom Geben und Nehmen: Zur Soziologie der Reziprozität (ed. with S. Mau), as well as several articles on philanthropy and gift-giving in modern societies.