Team
Asst. Prof. Katharina T. Paul
Asst. Prof. Katharina T. Paul
Principal Investigator
Katharina Paul is Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna (Department of Political Science and Research Platform Governance of Digital Practices). She obtained her PhD in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Amsterdam in 2009 and joined Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2010 as Assistant Professor of comparative health policy. In March 2013, Katharina Paul joined the University of Vienna. In June 2021, she was awarded a START Prize by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for her project Valuing Vaccination (VALUE-VACC).
Research interests
Critical policy studies, health policy, vaccination, global health, digital health governance
Dr. Anna Pichelstorfer
Dr. Anna Pichelstorfer
Anna Pichelstorfer, MA studied sociology and science and technology studies at the University of Vienna. She was a scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna (2011-2013) and a visiting researcher at the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen (2016). Her PhD Thesis (supervisor: Ulrike Felt, University of Vienna) investigated the co-production of assisted reproductive technologies and democracy in Austria. From 2013-2018 she worked as a university assistant (praedoc) at the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna and from 2018-2022 as a researcher in the EU Horizon 2020 project InsSciDE (Inventing a Shared Science Diplomacy for Europe).
Since February 2023, Anna is a researcher in the FWF Start Project “Valuing Vaccination: A multi-sited policy valuography” (principal investigator: Katharina T. Paul). She examines researchers’ practices of ascribing value to their work and the knowledge they create. And she also studies the question how vaccination is valued and evaluated in policy programs.
Research interests
Science and technology studies, health policy, vaccination, global health, science and democracy
Dmitrii M. Zhikharevich, PhD
Dmitrii M. Zhikharevich, PhD
Dmitrii M. Zhikharevich, PhD studied economic sociology and social theory at St Petersburg State University and London School of Economics. His PhD thesis, supervised by Peter Miller and Martin Giraudeau, examined the emergence and early history of venture capitalism in the U.S. In 2020-2022, Dmitrii worked as a Research Fellow at the STS Center, European University at St Petersburg.
Since February 2023, Dmitrii is a researcher in the FWF Start Project “Valuing Vaccination: A multi-sited policy valuography” (principal investigator: Katharina T. Paul). Dmitrii’s empirical work examines how pharmaceutical companies attribute value to their products, thus turning vaccines into capital. In a longer-term, historical perspective, he also works on the genealogy of ‘immunization economics.’
Research interests
Valuation studies, social theory, economic sociology, history and sociology of expertise, STS
Nora Hansl, BA MA
Nora Hansl, BA MA
Nora Hansl is a PhD candidate and researcher at the FWF START project "Valuing Vaccination: a multi-sited policy-valuography" (PI: Katharina T. Paul) since December 2022. Her research focuses on valuation practices of parents and Health Care Workers concerning childhood vaccination and primary care.
She studied Political Science at the University of Vienna, specialising in Policy- and Governance Analysis, International Political Economy and Qualitative Methods. Her collaborative Master’s thesis (Supervision: Barbara Prainsack) investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and the university through a qualitative interview series with students at the University of Vienna.
During her Master’s studies, she worked as student assistant for Dr. Josef Melchior and was responsible for administrative and organizational tasks concerning the SPL and university lecturers. Additionally, she was empolyed as tutor for digital and hybrid teaching as well as qualitative methods at the Department of Political Science.
Research interests
Health Policy, Vaccination Policy, Interpretative Policy Research, Critical Policy Studies, Qualitative Methods, Political Ethnography
Paula-Marie Pucker, BA
Paula-Marie Pucker, BA
Paula-Marie Pucker studies political science at the University of Vienna and is a research assistant at the FWF START project "Valuing Vaccination: a multi-sited policy-valuography" (PI: Katharina T. Paul) since July 2023. She is responsible for different management tasks, such as coordination of internal processes, event management, media and public relations, financial management, and daily operations.
In her Master’s studies she is specialising in Policy- and Governance Analysis, Qualitative Methods and Austrian Politics. She also obtained her Bachelor’s degree at the Department of Political Science, and her Bachelor’s thesis (Supervision: Ursula Naue) investigated the conflict over Slovene place-name signs in Carinthia and its solution through a qualitative interview series with actors involved in the dispute. Before joining the team, she worked as a student assistant for Gertrude Saxinger at the Department of Political Science as well as a tutor for qualitative methods.
Research interests
Qualitative methods, minority rights, critical policy analysis, solidarity studies
Maximilian Martin, BA
Maximilian Martin, BA
Maximilian Martin studies political science at the University of Vienna and is a research assistant in the FWF Start Project "Valuing Vaccination: A multi-sited policy valuography" (principal investigator: Katharina T. Paul) since September 2023 as well as a research assistant at the Department of Government (University of Vienna). In the VALUE-VACC project, they work on how the stigmatization of social minority groups, especially queer people, is problematized in the context of recent mpox vaccination campaigns.
In their master's studies, Maximilian works on the broader fields of politics and gender as well as policy and governance analysis. They have lately focused on researching hostility towards sexual and gender minorities, feminism, and queerness from a queer-feminist and intersectional theory perspective. Their bachelor's thesis (University of Vienna, 2022) examined the bio-essentialist and exclusionary frames of transphobic radical feminist civil society actors in Germany.
Research interests
Queerfeminism, intersectionality, antifeminist and queerphobic mobilizations, qualitative methods