Univ.-Prof. Dr. Kornelia HAHN

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Kornelia HAHN
Chair of the Curriculum Commission for the Doctoral Program in Social Sciences

Paris Lodron University of Salzburg / Department of Sociology and Human Geography / Division of Sociology
Rudolfskai 42, A-5020 Salzburg

Tel.: 43 (0) 662-8044-4117
E-Mail:

Room: 033

Office hours during the semester: by appointment with E-mail registration


Kornelia Hahn is professor for General Sociology and Sociological Theory and chair of the department of Sociology, posts she is holding since 2010 and 2011, respectively. Previously, she was senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bonn/Germany, assistant and associated professor in the Department of Sociology at Helmut-Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, in the Department of Sociology and Theory of Culture at Leuphana University Lüneburg/ Germany, in the department of Sociology at Washington College at Chestertown (MD, USA), and professor for Fashion & Aesthetics at Technical University of Darmstadt/ Germany.  

Her research agenda is primarily focused on cultural dynamics through an interpretive approach that combines material, historical and semiotic perspectives, theorising these dynamics particularly in the areas of (digital) communication, intimate relationships, the political public sphere, and the embodied service and fashion/garment industries. 

Prof. Hahn teaches Sociological Theory, Sociology of Culture, Media, Fashion, Body, Intimate Relationship and Interpretive Methods. She has been co-director of the Doctoral Schools Art & Public Sphere (2010 – 2014) and On the Move: people, objects, signs (2016 – 2021). From 2010 to 2020 she has been a permanent reviewer for full Phd funding granted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Currently she is Chair of the Curriculum Committee of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

She received her PhD and her habilitation degree/venia legendi from the University of Bonn/ Germany where she also had been trained in sociology, modern German literature and linguistics. She has also been a fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland (College Park, MD/USA) in 2002-03 on a stipend of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Kornelia is co-editor of the book series Media Cultures in the Digital Age (Springer), and co-cordinator of the Research Network 29 Social Theory of the European Sociological Association, co-coordinator of the division Sociological Theory of the Austrian Sociological Association, and received an Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lecturing and an Award for Outstanding Achievement in Publishing from Leuphana University Lüneburg/Germany.

Recent Publication: Social Digitalisation. Persistent Transformations Beyond Digital Technology (palgrave macmillan 2021)  https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030798666