Mareike Ahns

Dr. Mareike Ahns serves as a Senior Scientist in the Research Group for Sports Pedagogy and Didactics at the Department of Sports and Movement Science, University of Salzburg. She holds multiple leadership roles including Deputy Chair of the Teacher Training Coordination Office, member of the Interdisciplinary Expert Council for Gender Studies, and serves as the Family, Gender, Disability & Diversity Representative for her department. Starting in the 2024/2025 academic year, she will hold a substitute professorship in Movement and Sports Didactics at the University of Vienna.

Her research focuses on emotional experiences in physical education, democracy education in sports teaching, and reflective competence development among sports coaches. She has developed innovative educational approaches through the Salzburg Education Laboratories, particularly focusing on emotions and democracy education in movement and sports instruction.

Dr. Ahns has published extensively since 2019, with significant contributions in 2022-2025, demonstrating an interdisciplinary approach that connects sports science with educational theory, emotional psychology, and democratic values education. Her work often employs qualitative methodologies to explore students' and teachers' experiences in physical education settings.

She is actively involved in academic conferences including the German Association for Sports Science University Day and the European College of Sport Science conference.