Dr. Anna Wanka

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Forschungsschwerpunkte

• Theoretical perspectives: doing age, linking ages, practice theories, new materialisms / material gerontology
• Methodological foci: mixed- and multi-methods research, reflexivity in empirical research
• Topics: life course transitions, the re/production of social inequalities across the life course, ageing and technologies, age-friendly cities and communities

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Vita

Higher education including obtained degrees

13.12.2016	Graduation (PhD, summa cum laude), University of Vienna PhD Thesis: “Withdrawal from Public Space – Older Urban Residents and the Social Practices of Spatial (Dis-) Engagement“
09/2012 – 06/2015	PhD scholar at Institute for Higher Studies (HIS), Vienna Postgraduate Program: “Sociology of Social Practices
11/2011 – 12/2016	PhD student at the University of Vienna (Sociology)
14.11.2011	Graduation (MA), University of Vienna Master Thesis: “Abstieg aus der Mittelschicht? Soziale Herkunft, Arbeitsorientierungen und Karrieren von Neuen Selbstständigen und Ein-Personen-Unternehmen“
09/2006 – 11/2011	Study of Sociology and Law at the University of Vienna

Employment and professional affiliations

ab 10/2021	Vertretrung des Lehrbereichs "Politische Soziologie sozialer Ungleichheit"
2021 – 2023	Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department for Sociology and Empirical Social Sciences, University of Stuttgart, Germany
2017 – 2021	Postdoctoral Researcher at the DFG-funded Research Training Group 'Doing Transitions', Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany Habilitation project “Doing Age Retiring – The Social Practices of Transiting into Retirement and the Distribution of Transitional Risks”
2009 – 2016	Researcher in the joint research area Family / Generations / Life Course / Health at the Department for Sociology, University of Vienna

International research and teaching visits and fellowships

2019	Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar at The National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland Research on spatial aspects of life course transitions
2018	Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar at the Trent Centre for Aging and Society, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada Research on ageing and digital cultures
2017, 2018	Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Demand Centre, University of Lancaster, UK Research on the sociology of social practices
2016	Lecturer in the international MA Programme “European Societies” at the Department of Sociology, Free University Berlin
2015	Visiting PhD Fellow at the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, University of Manchester, UK Research on age-friendly cities and communities

 ____________________________________________________________________________________________

Key publications

• Wanka, A. & Höppner, G. (2021). Multiperspektivität als Potential einer intersektionalen Betrachtung von Differenz- und Ungleichheitsverhältnissen. Zeitschrift für Soziologie (to be published 01/2021).
• Walther, A./Stauber, B./Rieger-Ladich, M./Wanka, A. (Eds.) (2019): Reflexive Übergangsforschung – theoretische und methodologische Grundlagen. Opladen: Barbara Budrich Verlag.
• Wanka, A. (2019): Change Ahead—Emerging Life-Course Transitions as Practical Accomplishments of Growing Old(er). Frontiers in Sociology. Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2018.00045
• Wanka, A.; Wiesböck, L.; Allex, B.; Mayrhuber, E.; Arnberger, A.; Eder, R.; Kutalek, R.; Wallner, P.; Hutter, H.-P.; Kolland, F. (2018). Everyday discrimination in the neighbourhood: What a ‘doing’ perspective on age and ethnicity can offer. Ageing and Society, 1-26. Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X18000466
• Wanka A. & Gallistl, V. (2018): Doing Age in a Digitized World—A Material Praxeology of Aging with Technology. Frontiers in Sociology 3: 6. Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2018.00006
• Wanka, A. (2018): Disengagement as Withdrawal From Public Space: Rethinking the Relation between Place Attachment, Place Appropriation, and Identity-Building among Older Adults. The Gerontologist 58(1):130-139. Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnx081

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Lectures and scientific talks

Upcoming:

• un/doing age - Zur sozialen De/Konstruktion der Differenzkategorie Alter über den Lebenslauf, Soziologisches Colloquium Hamburg, 17.11.2021 (online).
• Doing Ageing Research Together: Innovative Perspectives on Participatory Approaches (with Anna Urbaniak), Panel at the Gerontological Society of America’s Annual Scientific Meeting, Pheonix / Online 10.11. – 13.11. 2021.
• Understanding Measurements of Exclusion From Social Relations in Later Life: Insights From a Mixed Methods Study, Conference on ‘Old age social exclusion: from data to age-friendly policies’, Bucharest / Online, 22.10.2021.

Previous:

• Linking Ages – An approach towards un/doing age while un/doing family in the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Grit Höppner), Plenary at the ‘The Making and Doing of Family’ Conference, Trier / Online, 22.09. – 24.09.2021.
• Transformations of ‘Resonance’ - Affective Choreographies Throughout Life Course Transitions (with Luisa Bischoff and Annette Franke), European Sociological Association ‘Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Futues, Barcelona / Online, 31.08. – 3.09.2021.
• Pandemic Classism, Sexism, Ageism, Racism? Intersektionale Differenzierungen während und nach der Corona-Pandemie (with Cornelia Dlabaja and Carina Altreiter). Plenary at the DGS ÖGS Kongress ‘Post-Corona Gesellschaft? Pandemie, Krise und ihre Folgen’, Vienna / Online, 23.-25.08.2021.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Memberships

Memberships /Research Associations

• International Sociological Association (ISA),
• RC11 European Sociological Association (ESA), RN01
• British Society for Gerontology (BSG)
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), Sektion Alter(n) und Gesellschaft & Sektion Wissenssoziologie

Memberships /Research Networks

• Research network “Socio-Gerontechnology” (since 2017)
• DFG-funded research network “Material Gerontology” (2020 - 2022)
• COST-Action Reducing Old-Age Social Exclusion: Collaborations in Research and Policy (ROSENet) (2016 - 2020)