Dr Christin Heß

I have joined Aston University in September 2012 as a Research Associate in Politics and International Relations. I have come to Aston from the University of Bath were I completed my PhD in May 2012 and have held various undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and tutoring posts in Politics and Modern German Studies over the past years. My PhD comparatively explored mobility and integration processes of co-ethnic migrants from the Former Soviet Union in Western and Southern Europe, contrasting Greek and German minorities for the first time. In Aston I will continue to work in the field of comparative migration research.

Together with Professor Simon Green I will be working on a project entitled ‘The Political Challenge of Managing Migration in the UK and Germany’. By comparing migration policy making across its constituent sectors in both countries and investigating how governments have attempted to resolve often contradictory pressures over the past twenty years, this study seeks to develop an integrated framework for understanding the evolution of migration policy.

I have previously worked for the Goethe Institute and the International Centre for Technological Cooperation, both in Moscow, as well as the Ministry for Justice and European Affairs and University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, Germany. I currently act as a referee for Europe-Asia Studies.

Research Interests

I am generally interested in researching ‘thick’ accounts of mobility processes. The interdisciplinary nature of migration is particularly suited to such endeavours. Comparative migration research has the potential to offer particularly rich narratives by allowing us to distinguish generic from more particular features of the migration process per se. More specifically, I am interested in nationhood and citizenship regimes, policy development, integration, ethnicities, national identities, diasporas and belonging, especially but not exclusively in post-socialist contexts.

Qualifications

• PhD Comparative Migration Research (University of Bath)

• MA Contemporary European Politics, Policy and Society (University of Bath, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Università degli Studi di Siena)

• BA (Hons) Russian and Politics, University of Bath

• Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy

Funding and Grants

• Full research scholarship by the Department of European Studies (University of Bath) for doctoral research (3 years), amended by various small fieldwork grants
• Grant awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to carry out fieldwork in Germany
• Grant awarded by the French School of Athens (École française d’Athènes) to carry out fieldwork in Greece
• Tuition fee stipend by the Department of European Studies (University of Bath) for MA Contemporary European Politics, Policy and Society (1 year) 

Professional memberships

• European Sociological Association, Research Network ‘Sociology of Migration’
• Higher Education Academy, UK

Publications

Journal Articles

Heß, Christin (2011b) ‘What can co-ethnic immigrants tell us about ethnic visions of the national self? A comparative analysis of Germany and Greece’, Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, vol. 2 (1), pp. 95-131.

Heß, Christin (2011a) ‘Analogies and the myth of permanence in the ‘repatriation’ from the Former Soviet Union to Greece and Germany’. Available online via the Institute of Sociology of the University of Vienna: http://www.soz.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/inst_soziologie/Forschung/Workshops/Researching_Migration_in_Europe/Hess_Repatriation_2010.pdf

Hess, Christin (2010) ‘Post-Soviet Repatriation and National Identity in Greece and Germany’, Political Perspectives, vol. 4 (2), pp. 25-48.

Hess, Christin (2008) ‘The Contested Terrain of the Parallel Society: The Other Natives in Contemporary Greece and Germany’, Europe Asia Studies, vol. 60 (9), pp. 1519 – 1537.

Other

Heß, Christin (2000) ‘AUS(lands)blick: Studienführer für Studierende and Studieninteressenten an der Fachhochschule Erfurt’, Fachhochschule Erfurt: Das Rekorat.

Heß, Christin (2001) ‘A(n inter)VIEW: A Guide for Prospective Students from Abroad and Foreign Students at the Fachhochschule Erfurt’, University of Applied Sciences Erfurt: The Rectorate.

Conference Presentations/Guest lectures

‘Post-Soviet diasporas after perestroika: Policies and integration trajectories in the field of housing’,  Guest lecture at Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece, Department of Social Administration and Social Work, 13 April 2011.

‘Post-Soviet Repatriation and National Identity in Greece’, University of Bath, UK; Department of European Studies; Postgraduate Conference: ‘Negotiating Modernity’, 5-6 July 2010.

‘Analogies and the myth of permanence in the ‘repatriation’ from the Former Soviet Union to Greece and Germany’, European Sociological Association, University of Vienna, Austria, Department of Sociology, 10-12 September 2010.

‘Home at last? The (re-?)settlement and integration of co-ethnic return migrants from the former Soviet Union in Greece and Germany’, University of Southampton, UK, Department of Modern Languages; Conference Title: Coming home? Conflict and Return Migration in 20th century Europe, 3-5 September 2009.

‘The Contested Terrain of the Parallel Society’, University of Bath, UK, Department of European Studies; Workshop funded by the Centre for East European Language Based Area Studies: ‘Temporary Migration and Community Cohesion: The nature and impact of migration from East-Central to Western Europe’, 7-8 January 2008.

Media

19/11/10                        BBC Radio Four Women’s Hour, UK

Title                                Discussion round with Prof. Jutta Allmendinger of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and host Jenni Murray on women’s lives in East and West Germany twenty years after re-unification

07/09/08                        Radio Frei Erfurt, Germany

Title                                Russlanddeutsche in Deutschland und ‘Russlandgriechen’ in Griechenland: gemeinsame Probleme und Geschichten (in Russian)