LiDS Early Career Researchers

Sophie Munte

Given the high linguistic diversity and language barriers in the communication between schools and parents who are not proficient in German/English, my PhD project investigates the circumstances within which students are used as child language brokers in parent-school communication.

Anouk Ticheloven

Language is inherently social, and multilingualism is no exception. In my research, I explore how multilingualism – understood as proficiencies in languages with different functions and status in society – intertwine with emotional wellbeing during adolescence. Social complexity is a key focus throughout my work, as I am interested in the underlying social processes and specific contexts that shape relationships between emotional wellbeing and proficiencies in different languages in the lives of young people.

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Büşra Kocabıyık

The objective of the dissertation project is to conduct a comprehensive and systematic comparison of the construction and processing of teaching and learning in social studies lessons between school systems that differ in their fundamental structural characteristics, specifically between the integrative model observed in Canada and the selective model observed in Germany. This comparison aims to identify whether and to what extent there are differences in teaching practices between these systems and to ascertain which facilitations and impediments to the academic and social participation of all students are associated with these structural differences. Furthermore, it is essential to investigate the relationship between the reconstruction results and the respective school-teaching framework, which encompasses the formal rules that govern it.

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Eray Kara

I am currently working on cognitive biases of international students` decision making processes. I am also interested in migration, higher education studies, academic mobility and narrative studies.

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Kseniia Pershina

In my dissertation, "Multilingualism of Migrant Care Workers as a Resource in the Labor Market," I examine the role of multilingual competence in the professional everyday life of migrant care workers. Multilingualism is considered from the perspective of Human Capital Theory as a competence that can enhance employee productivity. The main research questions are: What role does multilingualism play for migrant care workers in the healthcare sector? To what extent does multilingualism contribute to the professional competence of care workers?

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Nadine Cruz Neri

Currently, I am working on various studies and in two DFG projects, interested in the role of language in different learning contexts. For example, I am interested in the role of language in STEM subjects and the predictors of reading skills. I would also like to focus more on diversity aspects and examine how (linguistic) diversity can be promoted in the school context.

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Anna Mersmann

In my dissertation project “Under Pressure: Concepts of Literacy and Dis_Ability in Primary School Policy and Practice,” I examine how literacy and dis_ability are positioned, framed, and defined in different school frameworks. To this end, I analyze education policy documents and interview data from Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt (Germany), and British Columbia (Canada). The main focus is on how literacy, dis_ability, and special educational needs, as well as discrimination based on these characteristics, are produced in differently structured school systems. In addition, the project considers the rise of right-wing extremism and its influence on the inclusive school system.

Lisa Zastrow

In my dissertation project, I examine patterns of multilingualism among second-generation migrants in Germany and the importance of multilingual literacy for integration into education and the labor market.

Multilingualism is not viewed as a deficit, but rather as a resource that comes into play in different social contexts—school, family, peer groups, or the workplace.

The focus is on written language skills in German and in the language of origin, as literacy is considered a key resource for educational success and social participation. The analysis is based on representative data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which provides not only language skills but also key socio-demographic information. This allows us to examine how different literacy profiles relate to educational attainment, employment opportunities, and social integration.

The project takes a resource-oriented perspective that deliberately questions the common deficit orientation. Multilingualism is understood as a valuable resource for educational pathways, labor market integration, and social participation.