Nora Waitkus
Professor of Sociology
I am a sociologist interested in socio-economic stratification in contemporary capitalist societies.
In my research, I focus on exploring and explaining cross-national variation and the institutional drivers of wealth and asset inequality and concentration. I am further studying class, housing inequalities, economic elites, and redistribution using (comparative) household (panel) data as well as media data and survey experiments.
My work has been featured in leading journals of the field, such as American Sociological Review, Sociology, Socius, European Societies, amongst others. I further publish in journals outside of Sociology (e.g., Feminist Economics, Social Justice Research). For my work on comparative inequality, I have received multiple prices and grants, including the RC28 Significant Scholarship Award, the Aleida Hagenaars Memorial Award and a NWO Talent Grant (VENI).
Since January 2025, I am the Chair of Comparative Social Stratification at Heidelberg University, Max-Weber Institute of Sociology (DE). I continue to work as an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute (III) at LSE (UK). Prior to joining Heidelberg, I was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tilburg University (NL), a Postdoc at the LSE, a Research associate at SOCIUM Bremen (DE), and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (US).
I hold a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bremen as well as a M.A. in Political Science (Freie Universität Berlin) and a B.A. in Political Science (University of Hamburg).
Current Projects
Varieties of Wealth (VENI project, funded by NWO)
Wealth Conflicts within Families (TiU Starting Grant with K. Ivanova)
Education
PhD in Sociology, University of Bremen (2019)
M.A. in Political Science, Freie Universität zu Berlin (2013)
B.A. in Political Science, University of Hamburg (2010)