Lara Altenstädter

Lara Altenstädter is a Research Associate at the University of Duisburg-Essen's Institute of Sociology, where she has been employed since 2016. She earned her doctorate (Dr. phil.) in 2022 with summa cum laude distinction for her dissertation on the professional habitus of junior professors. Currently, she is a key collaborator in the EXENKO project (2021-2024), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which focuses on raising awareness about excellence and gender for postdocs and higher education communications professionals.

Her research interests center on university research, gender studies, political knowledge in social and equality policy contexts, and social inequality with particular emphasis on habitus reconstructions. Using qualitative methods including photo interviews and in-depth analysis, she examines the interplay between societal structures, university norms, and the frameworks of individuals operating within academia. She has special expertise in qualitative interview studies and is also interested in the societal and political participation of young women without fixed residences.

Altenstädter's publication record demonstrates a clear trajectory examining academic working conditions, particularly focusing on gender dynamics in higher education. Her most recent works analyze visibility of female scientists, academic excellence frameworks, and the pressures faced by junior professors. She has developed a distinctive approach using visual methods to investigate academic habitus and professional identity formation.

• Best Presenter Award (Canadian International Conference on Gender & Women's Studies 2024) for the presentation of the paper "Invisibility of Female Scientists in the German Media"

As an active member of the academic community, Altenstädter has participated in numerous committees including serving as deputy chair in an interim evaluation commission for a junior professor (2021/2022) and contributing to habilitation commissions. She has been on the executive board of the Essen College for Gender Research since August 2020, representing early career researchers, and has co-organized the Nachwuchsforum (early career forum) of the college since 2020.

Her research is primarily conducted through the Institute of Sociology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where she collaborates with scholars like Eva Wegrzyn, Ute Klammer, and Ralitsa Petrova-Stoyanov on gender equality projects. She has presented her work at numerous international conferences and has been instrumental in developing the EXENKO project's framework for examining how excellence is conceptualized and communicated in academic contexts with attention to gender dimensions.