I am a social psychologist with a strong interest in social identity. I often use a social cognitive approach to explain aspects of intergroup relations. Most of my research focuses on two key contemporary social issues, economic inequality and people social mobility. Economic inequality is increasing in many countries and it goes along with negative consequences for individuals and the society as a whole. With international collaborators, I investigate how inequality among social groups may contribute to increased discrimination and worsened intergroup relations. Migration is another key contemporary issue. Every year thousands of people leave their country of origin. Migration is just one example of peoples social mobility. Changing or losing job, becoming a parent, changing from high school to University are other examples of changing group membership. These changes confront people with new social identities. My international colleagues and I suggest that the successful integration of new identities into the self-concept depends on whether the new in-group shares norms and values with previous in-groups. If norms and values of a new in-group contradict those of previous in-groups, integration will fail. I am also interested in person perception, self-esteem, prejudice and discrimination, attitudes and attitude change.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited. Plutarch I am particularly enthusiastic about teaching Social Psychology and its subfields where I aim to elucidate a similar enthusiasm about the topics in my students. I believe that curiosity in a discipline and its topics facilitates acquiring the relevant knowledge. In my teaching, I train students to reflect critically upon the knowledge and to implementing it to improve real world issues. I use a learner-centred teaching approach and I aim to prepare students as best as possible for their individual career aspirations.

I graduated with a Diploma (equivalent to a Master degree) from the University of Jena, Germany, in 2006. Afterwards, I worked in Biological and Clinical Psychology before I became a fellow of the International Graduate College Conflict and Cooperation between Social Groups . I received my PhD (summa cum laude, supervisors Melanie C. Steffens and Vivian L. Vignoles) in 2010 from the University of Jena, Germany. During my PhD, I was a visiting researcher at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. After my PhD I was a researcher and lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Dresden, Germany (2010-2014) and at the University of Würzburg, Germany (2016-2019; mentor: Roland Deutsch). From 2014 to 2016, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Social Cognition Lab (PI: Jeff Sherman) at the University of California Davis, CA, USA. In summer 2019, I joined the Psychology department at UL.