About me:
Simon Weiser is an affiliated researcher at the OIB since May 2023. He is a PhD Student in the Department of Educational Sciences at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) in Munich. His research is funded by the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, the second biggest „Begabtenförderungswerk“ in Germany. Previously he held a scholarship for young academics at the German Youth Institute (2021-22).
He obtained both his bachelor and master degree in Middle Eastern Studies from LMU and studied Sociology at the University of Durham, UK. Simon’s main research interests is how class inequality and migration shapes adolescence.

Project:
Simon’s research focuses on youth, migration and social inequality and is located at the intersection of family and migration research. Specifically, he studies romantic relationships of young refugees from the Levant. By drawing on the concept of the border regime, he analyses how individuation, as defined by the psychosocial development and identity formation in adolescence, takes shape under asylum conditions. In doing so, he asks how the process of individuation reproduces class inequality. He uses biographical narrative interviews as a method. During his time at the OIB he is conducting field research and is interviewing adolescents in Beirut.