Detail Personnel

Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Anna Pospech Durnova, Ph.D.

T: +43-1-4277-49220

anna.durnova@univie.ac.at

News: Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Vienna and Faculty Fellow at the Yale University Center for Cultural Sociology. She completed her habilitation at Sciences Po Paris. She is a member of the editorial board of the journals Policy & Politics and Critical Policy Studies. Her research focuses on the role of emotions in democratic societies, and she currently coordinates the international Horizon Europe project CIDAPE and the ERC Advanced Grant LONERS. Her publications include The Politics of Intimacy (2018) and Understanding Emotions in Post-Factual Politics (2019). In 2024, she was awarded the Mattei Dogan Foundation Prize for European Political Sociology.

Research interests: political sociology, sociology of emotions, public policy, feminist sociology, interpretive social research.

Consultation hours: The appointment should be arranged in advance via email with the study assistant at anna.raza@univie.ac.at
Available time slots:
Tuesday 14:30 - 16:00

Fullerton, A. H., Durnová, A., & Weible, C. M. (Accepted/In press). Characterizing allies and opponents in gender policy debates. Review of Policy Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.70009

Durnova, A., Hilmar, T., Blum, S., Císař, O., Hajer, M., & Kolmaš, M. (Accepted/In press). Political emotions: a new policy science for tackling the climate crisis. Policy Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-025-09586-5

Durnová, A. (2024). Critical Policy Studies. In Encyclopedia of Public Policy Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90434-0_13-1

Durnová, A., Schmid, J., & Herzog, S. (2024). (Un)Eingeschränkte Selbstbestimmung? Gesellschaftliche Reproduktionsdiskurse als Regulativ von Körper, Wissen und Emotionen. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie (ÖZS).

Durnová, A., Hejzlarová, E., & Mouralová, M. (2024). Teaching qualitative methods in times of global pandemics and beyond. In Handbook of Teaching Public Policy (pp. 181-200). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd..

Yordy, J., Durnová, A., & Weible, C. M. (2024). Exploring emotional discourses: The case of COVID-19 protests in the US media. Administrative Theory and Praxis, 46(1), 35-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2023.2176074

Durnova, A. (2024). Psychosocial well-being, policies, and the emotional boundaries of home. Critical Policy Studies, 18(4), 682-701. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2024.2306237

Durnová, A., & Karell, D. (2023). Emotions and the ‘truths’ of contentious politics: Advances in research on emotions, knowledge and contemporary contentious politics. Emotions and Society, 5(3), 252-256. https://doi.org/10.1332/26316897Y2023D000000004

Durnova, A. P., & Hejzlarova, E. M. (2023). Navigating the role of emotions in expertise: public framing of expertise in the Czech public controversy on birth care. Policy Sciences, 56(3), 549-571. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-022-09471-5

Brand, U., Dannecker, P., Dietz, K., Durnová, A., Felt, U., & Flecker, J. (2022). Arbeitsplatz Universität: Die verhinderte wissenschaftliche Exzellenz. derStandard.at. https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000141526818/arbeitsplatz-universitaet-die-verhinderte-wissenschaftliche-exzellenz

Durnova, A., Formankova, L., & Hejzlarova, E. (2022). Empowered or patronized? The role of emotions in policies and professional discourses on birth care. Critical Social Policy, 42(1), 129-149. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183211001494

Durnova, A. (2022). Making interpretive policy analysis critical and societally relevant: emotions, ethnography and language. Policy & Politics, 50(1), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1332/030557321X16129850569011

Durnova, A., Marhankova, J. H., & Císař, O. (2022). Pandemie jako sociologický problém: individuum, péče a proměny domova. Sociologický časopis, 58(4), 369-372. https://sreview.soc.cas.cz/artkey/csr-202204-0004_pandemie-jako-sociologicky-problem-individuum-pece-a-promeny-domova.php

Marhánková, J. H., Durnová, A., & Císar, O. (2022). Pandemie jako sociologický problém: krize institucí. Sociologicky Casopis, 58(5), 473-475. https://sreviewdev.soc.cas.cz/artkey/csr-202205-0009_pandemie-jako-sociologicky-problem-krize-instituci.php?l=cz

Hejzlarova, E. M., & Durnová, A. (2022). Spor o domácí porody jako příklad aktivizace občanské sféry: koncept societalizace Jeffreyho Alexandera. Sociologický časopis, 58(2), 151-180. https://doi.org/10.13060/csr.2022.017

Durnova, A., & Mohammadi, E. (2021). Intimacy, home, and emotions in the era of the pandemic. Sociology compass, 15(4), Article e12852. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12852

Durnova, A. (2021). Czech postcommunist trouble with participatory governance. Toward an analysis of the cultural agency of policy discourses. Policy Studies, 42(1), 80-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2019.1581155

Durnová, A., & Čada, K. (2021). Introduction: War on expertise–war on culture: understanding the expert-culture boundary in current socio-political landscapes. International Review of Public Policy, 3(3), 241-246. https://doi.org/10.4000/irpp.2548

Durnová, A., & Mohammadi, E. (2021). Policy expertise and culture: the case of “civil sexuality” in Iran. International Review of Public Policy, 3(3), 314-334. https://doi.org/10.4000/irpp.2030

Durnová, A. P., & Weible, C. M. (2020). Tempest in a teapot? Toward new collaborations between mainstream policy process studies and interpretive policy studies. Policy Sciences, 53(3), 571-588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-020-09387-y

Loneliness, Emotions, and Regulation: Understanding Institutions through Privacy (LONERS)

Durnová, A. (Project Lead)

1/06/26 → 31/05/31

Project: Research funding

CIDAPE: Climate, Inequality, and Democratic Action: The Force of Political Emotions

Durnová, A. (Project Lead), Hilmar, T. (Project Staff), Lind, F. (Project Staff), Schäfer, S. H. (Project Staff), Herzog, S. (Project Staff), Zeberer, Z. (Project Staff), Ebner, V. (Project Staff) & Boomgaarden, H. (Project Staff)

1/01/24 → 31/12/27

Project: Research funding

Crafting liberal democracy through self-determination

Durnová, A. (Project Lead), Schmid, J. (Scientific Project Staff) & Herzog, S. (Project Staff)

1/03/22 → 31/08/24

Project: Research funding

Does 'Post-Truth' Spread Resistance to Authority? When and Why Citizens Resist the Authority of Professional Expertise, Politics and Media

Durnová, A. (Project Lead)

1/07/20 → 30/06/25

Project: Research cooperation

Negotiating Truth:Semmelweis, Discourse on Hand Hygiene and the Politics of Emotions

Durnová, A. (Project Lead)

1/10/12 → 30/04/18

Project: Research funding

Climate Boundaries: Linking Emotional Dimensions of the Relational Foundations of Solidarity to Civil Sphere Theory

Durnová, A. (Contributor), Hilmar, T. (Contributor) & Herzog, S. (Speaker)

9 Jul 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Politics of Vulnerability? Public Debate on Obstetric Violence and the Sociality of Emotions

Durnová, A. (Speaker)

9 Apr 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Emotions and Climate Crisis - Experiences from Horizon Europe CIDAPE research

Durnová, A. (Speaker)

19 Mar 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public

Trends in Politics on Climate Change - Polarisation, Emotions, Social Values

Durnová, A. (Speaker)

19 Mar 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public

The Sociality of Emotions: Vulnerability and the Legal Debate on Obstetric Violence in France

Durnová, A. (Invited speaker)

5 Mar 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Political Emotions, Lessons from the CIDAPE project

Durnová, A. (Speaker)

27 Feb 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Anthropological meditations: What are the anthropological assumptions of palliative care?

Durnová, A. (Speaker)

5 Nov 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Everyday Life in a Democracy: Between Emotions and Institutional Processes

Durnová, A. (Invited speaker)

24 Oct 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Toward a Political Sociology of Vulnerability

Durnová, A. (Speaker)

11 Oct 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Exploring Ambivalent Emotional Landscapes in Narratives Surrounding Abortion Debate

Durnová, A. (Speaker), Herzog, S. (Speaker) & Schmid, J. (Speaker)

30 Aug 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

How am I supposed to feel? Reconstructing Abortion Decision in Austria

Durnová, A. (Speaker), Herzog, S. (Speaker) & Schmid, J. (Speaker)

9 Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

About the Importance of an Intersectional Perspective on Reproductive Rights, Self-Determination, and Emotions

Schmid, J. (Speaker), Herzog, S. (Speaker) & Durnová, A. (Speaker)

4 Sept 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Reproductive Justice Politics: Self-Determination and the Governance of Emotions in Liberal Democracies

Schmid, J. (Speaker), Herzog, S. (Speaker) & Durnová, A. (Speaker)

28 Jun 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

The Emotional Society and the Politicized Everday

Durnová, A. (Speaker)

23 Mar 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Krise der Selbstbestimmung. Eine intersektionale Betrachtung gesellschaftlicher Reproduktionsdiskurse als Regulativ von Körper, Wissen und Emotionen

Schmid, J. (Speaker), Herzog, S. (Speaker) & Durnová, A. (Speaker)

25 Nov 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science