Research in focus

Inaugural Lectures: Prof. Uta Rußmann and Prof. Martin Senn

From left to right: Rector Veronika Sexl, Professor Martin Senn, Professor Uta Rußmann and Dean Franz Eder

 

On the 13th of December 2023, Prof. Uta Rußmann, Department of Media, Society and Communication, and Prof. Martin Senn, Department of Political Science, held their inaugural lectures at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. In the venerable Kaiser-Leopold Saal and in the presence of Rector Prof. Veronika Sexl, the two newly appointed professors presented their current research and plans for future projects.

Prof. Uta Rußmann was appointed to a §98 professorship with the title "Media and Communication Studies with a focus on Democracy" at the University of Innsbruck in March 2022.

Prof. Martin Senn was appointed to a §99(4) professorship at the University of Innsbruck in December 2022 with the title "Political Science with a focus on International Regulatory Policy".

The titles of the two inaugural lectures gave rise to expectations of exciting insights into the research and teaching of the two newly appointed professors:

Social media or beer tent? Living democracy.
Univ.-Prof.in Dr.in Uta Rußmann
Institute for Media, Society and Communication, University of Innsbruck

and

(Dis)order in world politics
Prof. Dr. Martin Senn
Institute for Political Science, University of Innsbruck

Afterwards, more than 130 members of the audience had the opportunity to chat informally with the two professors.

 

 

Archive of previous posts

FWF-Projekt: Affluence and the gender gap in STEM study choices

Surprisingly, female underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors is larger in more affluent societies. This Gender-Equality Paradox (GEP) is theoretically explained by individuals' greater economic opportunities for gendered self-expression. Yet, what the effect is of individual-level household affluence on men's and women's STEM study preferences and choices is largely unknown, let alone whether household affluence accounts for GEP. In addition, the literature did not investigate mediators of household affluence effects and variation in these effects across contexts.

We aim to fill the research gaps and address four research questions: (a) What is the effect of household affluence on the gender gap in STEM study preferences and choices?; (b) To what extent can household affluence account for the positive effect of societal affluence on this gender gap?; (c) How can we account for household affluence effects on the gender gap in STEM study preferences and choices?; (d) To what extent is the effect of household affluence on men's and women's STEM study preferences and choices moderated by contextual factors such as societal affluence, welfare provision, and socio-economic inequality? We test two contrasting expectations: first, household affluence increases the gender gap in STEM study preferences and choices through more gendered life goal preferences; second, household affluence reduces this gap due to more gender-egalitarian attitudes and ability patterns. We expect that household affluence has a smaller effect on (gendered) STEM study preferences and choices in more affluent and welfare-supportive settings. We answer the research questions with a series of quantitative studies using large-scale cross-national comparative data as well as longitudinal data from Germany.

Primary researchers involved
Wilfred Uunk (Principal investigator)

Founding
FWF, Principal Investigator Project (“Einzelprojekt”), P36789

Contact
UUNK, Wilfred, Univ.-Prof. Dr.