About EIS

“European and International Studies”

The team European and International Studies (EIS) is part of the “European Economy and Business Management” degree programme at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. The team  integrates teaching and research in the areas of European Integration and Internationalization from an interdisciplinary perspective into the degree programme.

This focus on research and teaching includes the analysis of the political, economic, and social developments within the European Union and its corresponding institutions in global governance. Increasing disparities within and between EU member states lead our research: What is the state of European Integration, especially in times of multiple crises? Which forces and power relations determine the narrative and implementation of European policies and reconfigure European, international and national institutions? How have international institutions influenced regional development?

Team



Prof. (FH) Dr. Stefanie Wöhl

Former Jean Monnet Chair “Diversity and Social Cohesion in the European Union”

Mail: stefanie.woehl@fh-vie.ac.at 

Phone: +43 1 720 12 86-228

Stefanie Wöhl was born in Hamburg, Germany. After living in the USA and working in France, she studied political science at the University of Bonn and the Goethe University in Frankfurt/M. until 2001. She worked at the Institute for Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung) in Frankfurt/M., Germany, and obtained her doctoral degree from the Philipps University Marburg, Germany in 2006, working in the research group “European Integration in the process of Globalization”. She held an Assistant Professor position at the University of Vienna from 2006 to 2010, was a Research Fellow in the Einstein Research Group on Crisis headed by Prof. Nancy Fraser at the John F. Kennedy Institute at the Free University Berlin (2011 – 2013) and has held Guest Professorships at the University of Vienna (2013) and the University of Kassel, Germany (2015). She joined the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna in 2015 as Head of the City of Vienna Competence Team on European and International Studies.

Research and Teaching Focus

Stefanie’s main research and teaching interests are state transformations in global capitalism, democratic development, European Integration, and the international political economy of social reproduction, employment and gender. She has discussed these issues in several book projects and numerous articles, where she highlighted uneven developments between states and markets, in global governance and in gender equality within the European Union.

She is editorial team member of the open-access journal momentum quarterly – Journal for Societal Progress and reviewer for international journals such as Social Politics: Oxford University Press; Critical Policy Studies: Routledge; Signs. Journal of Women in Culture and Society: University of Chicago Press; Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft: Facultas Wien; Capital & Class: Sage. She is currently working on a project called “Affordable Living” and has directed several projects including a project on the digitalization of the care sector and the Jean Monnet Chair on “Diversity and Social Cohesion in the European Union”. For a full list of publications and selected research projects please see this website.


Mag. Martin Pachel – Research Associate and Lecturer

Mail: martin.pachel@fh-vie.ac.at               Phone: +43 1 720 12 86-226

Martin Pachel holds a degree in socio-economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and has worked for several research institutions (primarily for the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and the Institute for Institutional and Heterodox Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business) before becoming a member of the Competence Team EIS. Since 2012, he has been working as a lecturer in political economy, economic history and theory, economics, and history of management theory at the UAS BFI Vienna, the UAS Salzburg, and the University of Economics and Business. In addition, he has been working as a translator and editor for magazines and scientific publications.

Research and Teaching Focus

His main research interests are in the areas of socioeconomics, critical political economy, economy of inequality, sociology of deviance and gender. He was responsible for the analysis of socioeconomic aspects of water supply and liberalization within the project “Climate Change and Impacts on Water Supply“ (EU SEE Programme). Martin is currently working on a publication examining the interrelations of socioeconomic modes of reproduction, economic and social inequality in context of crises phenomena and the upsurge of authoritarianism in the European Union.


portraitbild-zeilinger

Dr. Bernhard Zeilinger – Research Associate and Lecturer

Mail: bernhard.zeilinger@fh-vie.ac.at               

Phone: +43 1 720 12 86-227

Bernhard Zeilinger obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Vienna in 2011 and was a Prae-Doc researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna from 2007-2011, where he completed the post-graduate program on European Integration. He was also accepted to join the Ph.D. Seminar on Global Governance, Regionalism and the EU of the GARNET Ph.D. School’s Academic Council and contributed to the final publication with the title “Shifting Borders in the European Union”, published by Routledge in 2011. After obtaining his PhD he joined the Institute for European Integration Research at the Vienna Academy of Sciences as a Post-Doctoral Fellow, where he worked on the EU´s Asylum and Migration Policy (2011-2012). From 2013 to 2015 he implemented two EuropeAid projects on sustainable and fair trade at the NGO Südwind in Vienna. Bernhard Zeilinger has also been a lecturer at the University of Vienna and Paris-Lodron University Salzburg from 2010-2013.

Research and Teaching Focus

Bernhard’s research mainly draws on Integration Theories to empirically examine EU politics in the area of Economic and Monetary Union. Currently, he participates in a collaborative research project dealing with the recent political and economic state of affairs of the EU and the challenges it faces to act as a sovereign legislator. Further research interests include political representation, policy learning, the EU´s trade policy and the institutionalization of the EU´s external governance. Currently, he is teaching Political Theory, EU Politics and courses on Comparative Politics, Interdisciplinary Analysis of EU Politics and Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna.

Head of Degree Programme



Prof (FH) Dr. Elisabeth Springler – Director of Studies “European Economy and Business Management”

Mail: elisabeth.springler@fh-vie.ac.at

Elisabeth Springler, economist (doctoral degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business), is the director of studies “European Economy and Business Management” and coordinator of Economics at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna, Austria. Previously she was appointed Assistant Professor at the Vienna University of Economics, Visiting Professor at the University of Applied Sciences, Volda, Norway and Marshallplan-Chair at the University of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Besides Post Keynesian theory (with focus on monetary economics), her research interests include European Integration and housing economics and policy.

She is editorial board member of the journal Kurswechsel as well as reviewer for many international journals. Elisabeth Springler has numerous publications in these fields including edited books, like “Asymmetric Crisis in Europe and Possible Futures” together with Johannes Jäger or “Heterodoxe Ökonomie” together with colleagues from the Vienna University of Economics.

Apart from her theoretical work she serves as member of the Austrian Fiscal Advisory Council and the Financial Stability board. For a more detailed CV see: http://www.fh-vie.ac.at/Die-FH/FH-Team