Anna-Lisa Müller

Anna-Lisa Müller is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) at Bielefeld University, Germany. She serves as principal investigator for the collaborative research project "Social Spaces of Migration" involving IKG at Bielefeld University, IMIS at Osnabrück University, BIM at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and InZentIM at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She has deputised for Full Professorships at the University of Passau (October 2023-August 2024) and the University of Heidelberg (winter 2020/2021 and summer 2021 terms).

Her research examines the interrelation of sociality, materiality, and space in postmodern societies, with concentrated focus on international migration and urban dynamics. Key investigations include migration-infrastructure interdependencies, pandemic impacts on neighborhood social infrastructures, and art's role in urban justice. She analyzes how crises like COVID-19 reshape spatial practices and social relations in cities, emphasizing material dimensions of migration experiences.

Müller's publication trajectory reveals evolving emphasis from foundational work on materiality and architecture (2015) through urban infrastructure studies (2017) to contemporary pandemic migration research. Recent outputs prominently feature infrastructure-migration nexus analysis and critical examinations of urban resilience during crises, reflecting urgent global challenges in migration governance and urban sustainability.

As principal investigator of the multi-institutional "Social Spaces of Migration" project, she coordinates collaborative research across four German universities. Her methodological approach integrates human geography and sociology to examine spatial-material dimensions of migration, producing influential contributions to migration theory and urban studies.