Judith Kohlenberger

Judith Kohlenberger (*1986 in Vienna) is a habilitated sociologist with a focus on migration research at the Institute for Social Policy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), Senior Researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Politics (oiip) and Affiliated Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre Berlin. Her research interests are flight and displacement, integration of refugees in European host countries (with a focus on education, health and gender) and cultural crisis narratives.

She is a member of the Integration Council of the City of Vienna, co-editor of the Journal for Refugee and Displacement Studies and host of the podcast Aufnahmebereit. She also holds numerous board and advisory board positions, including at the Counselling Centre for Migrants, SOS Mitmensch, the Schumpeter Society Vienna, the Austrian Society for European Politics and the Catholic Social Academy.

Her work has been honoured with the Kurt Rothschild Prize and the Anas Shakfeh Prize for services to human rights, democracy and the promotion of the rule of law. Her book Das Fluchtparadox (2022) was Austrian Science Book of the Year 2023 and nominated for the German Non-Fiction Prize. Judith Kohlenberger’s most recent publications are: ‘Gegen die neue Härte’ (2024) and ‘Migrationspanik: Wie Abschottungspolitik die autoritäre Wende befördert’ (2025).