Elisabeth Schilling

Elisabeth Schilling serves as Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration North Rhine-Westphalia (HSPV NRW), holding a W2 professorship since December 2009. She previously taught at the Cologne department until 2012 and now works at the Bielefeld location. Her academic appointments include habilitation in Sociology at the University of Erfurt (2022) and guest professorship at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (2015). Schilling's institutional affiliations extend to the Max-Weber-Kolleg at the University of Erfurt and the Institute for Diversity Research at Göttingen.

Her education includes a PhD in Sociology from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (2005, magna cum laude), with dissertation titled "Die Zukunft der Zeit: Vergleich von Zeitvorstellungen in Russland und Deutschland im Zeichen der Globalisierung." Additional academic training includes specialized sociology studies at RWTH Aachen (2000-2001) and University of California at Davis (2000), where she achieved top 5% standing in her cohort.

Schilling's research fundamentally examines how time structures shape social experience across multiple domains. Her work explores temporal dimensions of migration, particularly how Ukrainian refugees construct future perspectives amid trauma. She investigates gendered time inequalities in public administration careers, analyzing how interrupted career paths disproportionately affect women. Her scholarship reveals how bureaucratic systems administer time through scheduling practices that reinforce social inequalities. Schilling develops methodological approaches for studying temporal diversity through qualitative time practice assessments, bridging classical life course theory with biographical subjectivity.

Her publication trajectory shows consistent focus on time, migration, and biography since 2005, with recent work increasingly addressing refugee experiences and temporal aspects of public administration. The articles reveal methodological sophistication in qualitative time research, with growing emphasis on practical applications for public sector management. Schilling's work demonstrates strong interdisciplinary connections between sociology, gender studies, and public administration.

Her current research portfolio includes multiple funded projects examining time perspectives among Ukrainian refugees (2023-2024), integration of Ukrainian refugees (2022-2023), and time management during remote work periods (2020-2021). These projects reflect her ability to address timely social issues through her temporal lens while maintaining theoretical rigor.

Schilling maintains active research collaborations including the Time Perspective Network around Philip Zimbardo and the Max-Weber-Kolleg. Her editorial work includes special issues of BIOS journal and edited volumes with Springer VS. She directs research groups focusing on time structures as inequality-reproducing classification systems, demonstrating sustained scholarly impact in her field.