What was your first semester as head of department like?
Hectic. Educational. Welcoming. I've had a lot of support from Valeria and the administrative team. It's always nice to have a team you can rely on. (AD) I see this first semester as a time of learning, working together, and growing. (VB)
What is on your IfS agenda for the next two years?
We want the Department to be seen as a place of collaboration where, despite a busy agenda and many tasks, we can find time to share ideas and where different perspectives and approaches can develop under one roof. The Department should be a pleasant intellectual place where we can think together about what contribution we can make in these complex times. And our research activities show every day that we can do a lot.
10 quick Q&A’s:
1. Coffee or tea?
AD: Freshly ground, strong coffee. Best at sunrise.
VB: Coffee
2. Dog or cat?
Both: Definitely - plants!
3. Mountains or sea?
AD: Mountains with a sea view!
VB: Both
4. Lark or owl?
AD: Lark!
VB: I'm more of a coffee person - awake when I want to be.
5. Call or text?
AD: Call
VB: It depends, "Verba volant, scripta manent".
6. My role model:
AD: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
VB: My mentors, who were there not only to supervise my master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, but also to advise me on professional decisions.
7. This sociologist/scientist has influenced me:
AD: Jeffrey Alexander and Sarah Ahmed
VB: Pearl Dykstra, Professor of Empirical Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She has just retired, and as I was thinking about what to write on her greeting card, I realized how much she has influenced my work.
8. I'm reading this now:
AD: "Conversations with Friends" by Sally Rooney
VB: My students' homework
9. What I am currently working on:
AD: Emotional strategies around abortion and what they can tell us about our democracy.
VB: A book chapter on the sociology of aging and the role of grandparents.
10. What fascinates me about sociology:
AD: That it has methods to address the unwanted in discussions and to show the invisible.
VB: The search for mechanisms to explain the relationship between two or more characteristics.
Anna Durnová is Head of Department and Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of Sociology, University of Vienna. She is also a Faculty Fellow at the Yale University Center for Cultural Sociology and a member of the editorial boards of Policy & Politics and Critical Policy Studies. She leads the international consortium of CIDAPE (Climate Inequality and Democratic Action: The Force of Political Emotions - Horizon Europe).
Research interests: Political sociology, sociology of emotions, public policy, feminist sociology, interpretative social research
Valeria Bordone is Deputy Head of Department and Associate Professor of Life Course, Generations, Ageing at the Department of Sociology, University of Vienna. She is also a visiting researcher at IIASA and the Dondena Center (Bocconi University).
Research interests: Intergenerational relations, ageing and inequality, ageing societies, well-being / health, family sociology, causal inference
