Professor Dr. Matthias Koenig - Vice President of the DFG since 2021

Portrait of the member of the Executive Committee - Professor Dr. Matthias Koenig

Prof. Dr. Matthias Koenig

Academic résumé

YearDiscription
Since 2020Chair (W3) for Empirical Macrosociology, University of Heidelberg
2015Offer of appointment at the University of Bonn (declined)
2013Offer of appointment at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA, declined)
2006 - 2020Professorship (W3, W2 until 2008) for Sociology with a focus on Sociology of Religion, University of Göttingen
2008Postdoctoral lecturing qualification in sociology, University of Bamberg
2003 - 2006University Assistant (C1), General Sociology, University of Bamberg
2003Doctorate in Sociology, University of Marburg
1998 - 2003Research Associate, General Sociology, University of Marburg
1998Internship at the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO, Paris
1997M.A. in Sociology and Protestant Theology, University of Marburg
1991 - 1997Degree in sociology and Protestant theology at the universities of Hamburg, Marburg and Princeton

Awards, visiting professorships, fellowships

YearDiscription
2018 - 2019Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
2015Directeur d’Études Invité, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
2011 - 2021Max Planck Fellow, Max Planck Institut zur Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer Gesellschaften
2011Visiting Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2010 - 2011Hannah Arendt Chair in German and European Studies (DAAD), University of Toronto
2006Directeur d’Études Invité, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
2005 - 2010Member of the Junge Akademie at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
2003Dissertation Award, University of Marburg
2002Marie Curie Fellowship, Institut de la Recherche sur les Sociétés Contemporaines, Paris
1999EUSSIRF Fellowship, London School of Economics and Social Sciences
1991 - 1997Scholarships under the Bavarian Scholarship Programme for the Gifted and the Protestant Academic Foundation Villigst

Third-party funded projects

YearDiscription
2020 - 2023ORA / DFG „Muslim-Jewish encounter, diversity and distance in urban Europe. Religion, culture and social model” (ENCOUNTERS)
2018 - 2021Era-Net RUS / BMBF “Post-imperial diversities – majority-minority relations in the transition from empires to nation-states” (ImpDiv)
2017 - 2021DFG “Recent immigration processes and early integration trajectories in Germany” (ENTRA)
2016 - 2017Stiftung Mercator “Religion, cultural resources and educational attainment”
2013 - 2015BMBF Transregionales Netzwerk CETREN
2009 - 2013Era-Net NORFACE “Causes and consequences of early socio-cultural integration processes among new immigrants in Europe” (SCIP)
2008 - 2011Volkswagen Foundation “Europeanization, multiple modernities, and collective identities – religion, nation, and ethnicity in an enlarged Europe”

Academic positions and offices

YearDescription
Since 2020Board Member of the Human Rights Section, American Sociological Association
Since 2017Member of the Selection Committee of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize (DFG)
Since 2015Member of the Selection Committee of the Minerva Fellowships Programme (Minerva Foundation)
Since 2012Academic Advisory Board, International Sociology
2018 - 2020Member of the Göttingen Campus Council
2014 - 2020Deputy Director, Lichtenberg Kolleg, University of Göttingen
2010 - 2021Academic Advisory Board, Journal of Sociology
2009 - 2017Board Member of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion
2008 - 2017Academic Advisory Board, Institute for World Society Studies, University of Bielefeld
2008 - 2013Academic Advisory Board, Social Science Institute of the EKD
2008 - 2009Member of the Coordination Group “Science Year 2009” (BMBF)
2007 - 2017Board Member of the Sociology of Religion Section of the German Sociological Association
2007 - 2008Spokesperson of the Junge Akademie at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Knowledge transfer and consultancy

YearDescription
2015Expert on the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, German Bundestag, Berlin
2010, 2019Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Washington D.C.
1999 - 2000European Minority Centre, Flensburg
1998 - 2009Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO, Paris

Research focus

Empirical macrosociology, globalisation, human rights, migration, sociology of law and religion, sociological theory

Review activity

Journals

Acta Sociologica; American Sociological Review; British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies; British Journal of Sociology; Comparative Migration Studies; Comparative Political Studies; Current Sociology; Ethnic and Racial Studies; Ethnicities; European Sociological Review; International Migration; International Migration Review; International Sociology; Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie; Nordic Journal of Migration Studies; Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft; Political Studies; Politics and Religion; Social Compass – International Review of Sociology of Religion; Social Forces; Social Science Research; Socio-Economic Review; Sociological Quarterly; Soziale Welt; The International Spectator; Theory and Society; World Politics; Zeitschrift für Soziologie.

Publishers

Amsterdam University Press; Brill Academic Publishers; Hamburger Edition; Palgrave Macmillan; Oxford University Press; University of British Columbia Press; University of Toronto Press.

Research

Agence Nationale de la Recherche; Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst; European Union Horizon 2020; Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung; Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej; Leibniz-Gemeinschaft; Stiftung Mercator; Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften; Schweizer Nationalfond; Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes; Thyssen Stiftung; Volkswagen Stiftung.

Selected Publications

  • Koenig, Matthias. 2020. “Emile Durkheim and the sociology of religion”. In: Hans Joas & Andreas Pettenkofer (Hg.), Oxford Handbook for Durkheim Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Burchardt, Marian, Zeynep Yanasmayan & Matthias Koenig. 2019. “The judicial politics of ‘burqa bans’ in Belgium and Spain – socio-legal field dynamics and the standardization of justificatory repertoires”. Law and Social Inquiry 44(2): 333-358.
  • Ohlendorf, David, Claudia Diehl & Matthias Koenig. 2017. „Religion und Bildungserfolg im Migrationskontext – theoretische Argumente, empirische Befunde und offene Fragen“. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 69(4): 561-591.
  • Koenig, Matthias, Mieke Malipaard & Ayse Güveli. 2016. “Religion and new immigrants’ labor market entry in Western Europe”, Ethnicities 16(2): 213-235.
  • Spohn, Willfried, Matthias Koenig & Wolfgang Knöbl (Hg.). 2015. Religion and National Identities in an Enlarged Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Koenig, Matthias. 2015. “Governance of religious diversity at the European Court of Human Rights”. In: Jane Bolden & Will Kymlicka (Hg.), International Approaches to Governing Ethnic Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, S. 51-78.
  • Connor, Phillip & Matthias Koenig. 2013. “Bridge and barrier - religion and immigrant occupational attainment across integration contexts”, International Migration Review 47/1: 3-38.
  • Koenig, Matthias & Julian Dierkes 2011. „Conflict in the world-polity – neo-institutional perspectives”. Acta Sociologica 54/1: 5-25.
  • Bramadat, Paul & Matthias Koenig (Hg.). 2009. International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
  • Diehl, Claudia, Matthias Koenig & Kerstin Rueckdeschel. 2009. „Religiosity and gender equality – comparing natives and Muslim migrants in Germany“. Ethnic and Racial Studies 32/2: 278-301.
  • Koenig, Matthias & Jean-Paul Willaime (Hg.). 2008. Religionskontroversen in Frankreich und Deutschland. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition.
  • Koenig, Matthias. 2008. „Institutional change in the world polity – international human rights and the construction of collective identities“. International Sociology 23/1: 95-114.
  • Koenig, Matthias & Paul de Guchteneire (Hg.). 2007. Human Rights and Democracy in Multicultural Societies. Aldershot: Ashgate.
  • Koenig, Matthias. 2007. „Europeanising the governance of religious diversity? An institutionalist account of Muslim struggles for public recognition“. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33/6: 911-932.
  • Koenig, Matthias. 2005. Menschenrechte. Frankfurt a.M. & New York: Campus.