Team
Assoc. Prof. Katharina T. Paul
Assoc. Prof. Katharina T. Paul
Principal Investigator
Katharina Paul is Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna (Department of Political Science). 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
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 the decision-making process of parents and working practices of paediatricians. She explores vaccination governance through qualitative methods, including ethnographic observations and interviews.
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
Christina Walcherberger, BA
Christina Walcherberger, BA
Christina Walcherberger studies political science at the University of Vienna and climate change and societal transformation at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna. In her studies she is focusing on quantitative methods, gender issues, questions of ecology, and Austrian politics.
Christina has previously worked for the Austrian Corona Panel Project (ACPP), focusing her Bachelor’s thesis (University of Vienna, 2023) on the gendered impacts of Covid-19 on earned income, as well as at the Department of Government at the University of Vienna, concentrating on policy- and governance analysis and exploring quantitative research methods.
Research interests
Feminism, intersectionality, ecology and climate change, right-wing populism, quantitative methods
Former Team Members
Dr. Anna Pichelstorfer
Dr. Anna Pichelstorfer
Anna was a VALUE-VACC postdoctoral researcher between February 2023 and February 2025 and worked on practices and governance of vaccine R&D from a valuation studies perspective. We are delighted for her to have found a new professional opportunity – but we miss her!
Paula-Marie Pucker, BA
Paula-Marie Pucker, BA
Paula-Marie Pucker studied political science at the University of Vienna specializing in policy- and governance analysis, qualitative methods, and Austrian politics. She was a research assistant from July 2023 to September 2024 and now works as a journalist.
Maximilian Martin, BA
Maximilian Martin, BA
Maximilian obtained their BA in political science in 2022. Maximilian worked as a research assistant from 2023 to 2025, focusing on the mpox vaccination campaign in the Austrian context. They are interested in queer-feminist and intersectional theory and currently finishing their MA thesis.