Rate My Professor Martina Ritter

Prof. Dr. Martina Ritter holds the professorship for Cultural Sociology, Political Sociology, Youth and Gender Sociology in the Department of Social Work at Hochschule Fulda, a position she has occupied since August 2006. Currently, she serves as Vice-President for Research and Transfer, responsible for research and transfer activities, central scientific institutions, doctoral procedures, equality and diversity, as well as fostering a family-friendly university environment. From 2007 to 2022, she was Dean of the Department of Social Work, the largest faculty at the university, overseeing its growth and development during her 15-year tenure. Her career also includes earlier roles at Justus Liebig University Giessen, where she served as scientific assistant from 1992 to 2001, substituted for the professorship in microsociology from 2001 to 2003, and completed her habilitation in 2004 with venia legendi in sociology. She began her academic path with studies in sociology and philosophy from 1981 to 1987, earning her doctoral degree in 1994 from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in technology sociology, following positions as scientific assistant at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt.

Ritter's research focuses on social work and democracy, qualitative empirical social research methods including participatory approaches, intersections of age, migration, and gender in social work and social space analysis, volunteerism, and critical social work. She has led several funded research projects, such as DIWAN (2018-2022), which developed dialogue processes and exhibitions for coexistence in immigration society under the federal-state Innovative University program; BUSLAR (2014-2017), examining citizen help associations and social cooperatives for rural elderly support, funded by BMBF; and regional participation indicators for people with disabilities (2013-2016) with the European Social Fund. Other initiatives include gender-specific space appropriation by migrant women (2010) and concepts for youth social work in St. Petersburg since 2008. A member of the European Association of Social Work Research, Collaborative Action Research Network, European Society for Rural Sociology, and German Sociological Association sections on women's and gender studies and European research, she contributes to editorial and committee roles. Key publications encompass 'Alltag im Umbruch: Zur Dynamik von Öffentlichkeit und Privatheit im neuen Russland' (2008) and works on participatory action research, gender relations in post-Soviet Russia, and volunteering in citizen help associations.