The Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences promotes innovative, excellent, problem-oriented research that aspires to contribute to societal debates and address key global challenges.

The cohorts trained and supported by the ViDSS are part of a vibrant research environment and international networks. The ViDSS encompasses and fosters connections between a broad range of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives. The ViDSS embraces the entire range of epistemological, methodological and theoretical approaches that are employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Doctoral candidates receive research training and write a doctoral thesis in the fields of communication, demography, development studies, nursing science, political science, science and technology studies, social and cultural anthropology, and sociology. The ViDSS aims for the highest standards in doctoral training and close supervision to ensure a mastery of social scientific debates and relevant theories and methods. As a result, ViDSS graduates are highly employable both within and outside academia.

Fellowship and award winners
 

Michaela Forrai, Alexandra Wölfle, Thomas Kirchmair and Aleksandra Lazić won the Klaus Schönbach Award 2025 of the Department of Communication. The award aims to support doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers in pursuing, refining and enhancing their own international lines of research.

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Fellowship and award winners
 

We warmly welcome our new sowi:docs Fellows! Léa Dudouet (science and technology studies) will explore the sociotechnical meanings of fertility tracking and reproductive decision-making in Austria. Clara Lerch (communication) will investigate how political and media discourse influences public perception and policymaking in three European Member States.
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Blog
 

(by Alice Vadrot, Emil W. Hildebrand, Carolin Hirt, Wenwen Lyu, Felix Nütz, Hristina Talkova)

Kingston, Jamaica. July 2025. The tickets to Jamaica were already booked, the US transit visa secured, and a field note outline meticulously prepared. Then the news broke: academics and civil society actors would be barred from fully accessing this year’s Council Meeting of the ...
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Radio and podcast
 

Felix Maile and Dorota Vargová provide insights into their experiences with archives and data bases. Learn about the extraordinary lengths they had to go to chase primary sources, which ethical questions they have to deal with and why they are not using any AI tools for their analyses.
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Media articles and press releases
 

A recent publication by ViDSS Student Carolin Hirt (co-authored with Alina Brad, Etienne Schneider, Christian Dorninger, Willi Haas, Dominik Wiedenhofer and Simone Gingrich) reveals that climate policy in Austria focus on efficiency improvements and technological alternatives. Measures aimed at directly reducing emissions-intensive demand remain largely untapped. (In German)
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Fellowship and award winners
 

Communication scientist, ViDSS Alumna and former sowi:doc Fellow Selina Noetzel received one of the 40 Awards of Excellence (Staatspreise für die besten Dissertationen) for her doctoral thesis “Why am I seeing this? Cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects of online political microtargeting”. Congratulations!
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Blog
 

(by Jule Kegel)

When asked about their views on politicians, the British public does not hold back. Eight in ten Britons agree that the gap between ordinary people and politicians is wider than the differences among ordinary people. The same proportion say that MPs in Parliament ...
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Media articles and press releases
 

Together with Ulrike Zartler and Lena Grabner, sociologist Vera Dafert presents the project “How 2 Survive A Pandemic” which investigates how the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns changed the daily lives of youth and the competencies they developed to overcome this crisis. (In German)
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Video
 

Political scientist Adham Hamed was interviewed by the TV channel Puls 24 about the implications of the 20-point Gaza Peace Plan initiated by US President Donald Trump and the risks related to its implementation. (In German)
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New publications by ViDSS students

Showing entries 41 - 60 out of 111
Question Form Matters: Examining Trust in Government through Open and Closed Survey Items. / Bernhard-Harrer, Jana (Corresponding author); Pfaff, Katharina.
In: Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 08.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Should they really see this? The depiction of alcohol in movies and series targeted at children. / Matthes, Jörg; Binder, Alice; Vranken, Sofie et al.
In: Mass Communication and Society , 08.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Coping with greenwashed ads. Greenwashing perceptions, eco-label confusion, and the willingness to pay more. / Matthes, Jörg; Neureiter, Ariadne; Seiffert-Brockmann, Jens.
In: Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 26.07.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Children’s legal consciousness: the thorny right to privacy in social media. / Sarikakis, Katharine; Moser, Lisa; Chatziefraimidou, Angeliki.
In: Information, Communication & Society, 23.07.2025, p. 1-16.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Conceptions of education and ethics of AI in higher education: An exploratory qualitative study. / Filipovic, Alexander; Beck, Celina; Van Elk, Noreen et al.
In: Journal of Open, Distance, and Digital Education, Vol. 2, No. 1, 21.07.2025, p. 1-24.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

“It has to somehow permeate to the public”: expert views on the solidaristic potential of Israel’s National genomic biobank initiative. / Weiss, Elias; Hashiloni-Dolev, Yael; Raz, Aviad et al.
In: Social Theory & Health, 07.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Beyond standardization: a comprehensive review of topic modeling validation methods for computational social science research. / Bernhard-Harrer, Jana; Ashour, Randa; Eberl, Jakob-Moritz et al.
In: Political Science Research and Methods, 30.06.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Expertise in/of co-Creation: The Care Work of Citizen Participation. / Davies, Sarah; Avkiran, Ariadne Sevgi.
In: Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 27.06.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Intersectional Perspective on Migrant Children’s Integration in Austrian Schools. / Wolter, Stella (Corresponding author); Tatzber, Rosa; Sauer, Birgit.
The Oxford Handbook of Child-Centered Approaches to Migrant Children. New York: OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2025. p. 465–484.

Publications: Contribution to book › Chapter › Peer Reviewed

Framing Multipolar Tourism: Imaginaries, Visualities and Futures. / Sinanan, Jolynna (Corresponding author); Adams, Ria-Maria; Budka, Philipp.
In: Visual Anthropology, 13.06.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Artificial Intelligence and Privacy: The Urgent Need for Children’s Media Literacy. / Sarikakis, Katharine; Chatziefraimidou, Angeliki.
In: Revista Comunicando, Vol. 14, No. 1, 02.06.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

The more things change: Exploring change in Australian journalists’ views over a decade of upheaval. / English, Peter (Corresponding author); Hanusch, Folker; Löhmann, Kim Dana.
In: Australian Journalism Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, 01.06.2025, p. 17-36.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Rewriting Femininity: Tradwives, Visual Aesthetics of Class, and Politics of Remembrance. / Beck, Celina; Lakkala, Emma.
In: Femina Politica: Zeitschrift für feministische Politik-Wissenschaft, Vol. 34, No. 1, 06.2025, p. 64-77.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Digital she-nanigans: Social media users’ response toward online hostilities targeting a female science communicator with marginalized identities. / Saumer, Melanie; Koban, Kevin; Matthes, Jörg.
In: New Media & Society, 29.05.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Health-related communication of social media influencers: A scoping review. / Kanková, Jaroslava; Binder, Alice; Matthes, Jörg.
In: Health Communication, Vol. 40, No. 7, 23.05.2025, p. 1300 – 1313.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Activists for Diversity or Diverse Journalists? How Austrian Peripheral Journalistic Actors’ Role Orientations Serve as Boundary Markers. / Löhmann, Kim Dana.
In: Journalism Studies, Vol. 26, No. 11, 15.05.2025, p. 1323-1341.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Wer spricht im illegitimen Wissen? Über die Relevanz epistemischer Autoritäten in den Lebenswelten von Impfskeptiker:innen. / Miko-Schefzig, Katharina; Trimmel, Markus; Pfadenhauer, Michaela.
In: Osterreichische Zeitschrift fur Soziologie, Vol. 50, No. 1, 18, 13.05.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

How healthy and unhealthy food and beverages appear in movies and series for children: A comprehensive content analysis. / Binder, Alice (Corresponding author); Matthes, Jörg; Heiss, Raffael et al.
In: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Vol. 57, No. 5, 05.2025, p. 385-394.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Recommendations on innovation for European film creators. / Sarikakis, Katharine; Biltereyst, Daniel; Ramadani, Gentiana et al.
170 p. The REBOOT Project (Reviving, Boosting, Optimising and Transforming European Film Competitiveness – REBOOT), funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101094769.. 2025.

Publications: Other publication › Other

Artificial presence, real-life influence? Effects of CGI influencers on young adults’ health behavior intentions. / Saumer, Melanie; Neureiter, Ariadne; Varga, Édua Mária et al.
In: Cyberpsychology : Journal of Psychological Research in Cyberspace, Vol. 19, No. 2, 3, 22.04.2025.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Showing entries 41 - 60 out of 111