Max Jansen

Max Jansen is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology within the Faculty of Social Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt. He contributes to the DFG-funded Research Group RISS (Reconfiguration and Internalization of Social Structure), specifically Project No. 4 on Internalized Efficacy Beliefs for Participation in Education and Political Life.

His educational background includes:

• Master's in International Studies / Peace and Conflict Studies and Gender Studies (Goethe University Frankfurt)
• Bachelor's in Social Sciences (University of Cologne)

International research experiences span Lebanon (American University of Beirut), Israel (Ben-Gurion University), and Hungary (Corvinus University).

Jansen's research centers on educational inequalities, social stratification, and the Impostor Phenomenon (IP), employing sociological perspectives with innovative survey methodologies. His work examines how efficacy beliefs mediate political participation and educational trajectories among adolescents from diverse socioeconomic and migration backgrounds. Current projects involve large-scale surveys of 15-17-year-olds across Germany.

His publication record reveals a strong focus on IP measurement development (notably the IPSS-3 scale) and its intersection with structural inequalities. Recent works demonstrate cross-national validation efforts and connections between impostor feelings, discrimination, and educational outcomes. Key journals include Frontiers in Psychology, Cogent Education, and Politics and Governance.

Awards include the Best Poster Award at the Sixth Joint Doctoral Conference (2024) for work on workplace attachment and discrimination.

Jansen actively contributes to academic governance as a board member of the GRADE Center Social Sciences and Forum for Critical Science (FkW), serves on AQAS expert panels for international study programs, and participates in graduate programs at the Institute for Social Research (IfS) and DIPF.

His research integrates with collaborative initiatives including the RISS research group, Dialectics of Participation graduate program, and Peers4Practic teacher-researcher tandems.