VALERIA BORDONE  

Principal Investigator

Valeria is Associate Professor in Life course, generations, ageing at the Department of Sociology of the University of Vienna. Before joining the University of Vienna, she was lecturer in Sociology at the LMU. She has also held a position as lecturer in Gerontology at the University of Southampton and postdoctoral appointments at the Dondena Centre at Bocconi University in Italy and at the Wittgenstein Centre in Austria, where she is guest researcher. Valeria has received her PhD from the University of Mannheim and participated in the European Doctoral School of Demography, held by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. Her research is mainly on intergenerational relationships, ageing, cognitive functioning.

CAROLINE BERGHAMMER

Principal Investigator

Caroline is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology of the University of Vienna and research scientist at the Vienna Institute of Demography/Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wittgenstein Centre. Her main research interests include fertility behaviour and the reconciliation of work and family. From 2018 to 2022, she held an Elise Richter senior postdoctoral position, funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. She received her PHD at the University of Vienna and participated in the European Doctoral School of Demography, held by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. Caroline was also a short-term visiting scholar at Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Toronto and University of British Columbia (Vancouver).

MELANIE WAGNER

Post-Doc

Melanie is a trained psychologist (TU Berlin) and social scientist (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and earned her doctorate in 2018 at the TU Dortmund University. Her research focuses on issues related to

informal care, ageing at home, and socio-economic inequalities at older ages. From 2011 to 2024, she worked for the Central Coordination of the SHARE survey in the fields of operations, questionnaire development and scientific dissemination.

ANNA KARMANN

Prae-Doc

Anna has studied Sociology and holds an MSc in Statistical Science. Previously, she was a researcher in the research group "Quantitative Methods of Empirical Social Research" at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. Her doctoral research focuses on the paradox effects of family policies, investigating how family policies have heterogeneous effects on women depending on their social class. Her wider research interests include the political economy of the welfare state, the development and variation of work-family policies, and the resulting inequalities.

SUSAN L. BROWN

External Advisor

Susan L. Brown is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology of the Bowling Green State University (USA). She also serves as Director of the Center for Family and Demographic Research and the Co-Director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research. Her areas of expertise include family sociology and demography. Dr. Brown's research examines the implications of the rapid transformation of American family life, with a focus on union dynamics and their consequences for well-being at various stages of the life course. Much of her work examines recent changes in cohabitation, marriage, and divorce.