Prof. Dr. Diana Lengersdorf

Diana Lengersdorf is Professor of Sociology of Gender at the Faculty of Sociology and board member of the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies (IZG) at Bielefeld University, on the board of the Research Training Group "Gender as Experience" and on the board of the joint project "InChangE" at Bielefeld and Münster University. Diana Lengersdorf is an elected member of the Faculty Conference, the Research Commission as well as Chair of the Doctoral Committee of the Faculty of Sociology, and she is also Deputy Senator of Bielefeld University.

After Diana Lengersdorf studied sociology, psychology and economics at RWTH Aachen University, she first worked in business for several years before returning to academia. After scientific activities at the Essen College for Gender Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Diana Lengersdorf moved to the Technical University of Dortmund to the research area "Sociology of Gender Relations" at the Faculty of Education and Sociology, where she received her PhD in 2011 with an ethnographic dissertation on social practices in an internet agency. In 2013, Diana Lengersdorf moved to the University of Cologne to a junior professorship in Gender, Technology, and Organization and received in 2017 the Leo Spitzer Young Researcher Award of the University of Cologne for outstanding scientific achievements. With her appointment to the professorship of Sociology of Gender, Diana Lengersdorf has been teaching and researching at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University since the winter semester of 2017.

In her research, Diana Lengersdorf tries to understand how the stabilization of masculinities can succeed in everyday life, against the background of processes of change in the gender order, e.g. in a DFG-funded project together with Michael Meuser on the change of masculinities and occupational work. The concept of hegemonic masculinity is central to her empirical work, in particular against the background of caring masculinities. Recently, Diana Lengersdorf has turned in particular to researching the relationship between nature and masculinities, furthermore gender-care-relations.

Diana Lengersdorf is a board member of the German Sociological Association. She is also deputy spokesperson of the interdisciplinary network Women's and Gender Studies NRW and co-editor of the journal GENDER. Diana Lengersdorf has directed various DFG-funded projects and is currently PI in the Research Training Group "Gender as Experience" (DFG-GRK 2650). In addition, she is involved in the current Excellence Initiative through an interdisciplinary network led by Biology and in cooperation with the Universities of Bielefeld and Münster.