Thomas Kern is Professor of Sociology at SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy at Bremen University in Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Bamberg (1996) and completed his habilitation thesis at the University of Hagen (2005). From 2000 to 2003 he spent three years as postdoctoral researcher at the Yonsei University in Seoul (South Korea). From 2003 to 2008 he worked at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg. In 2008 and 2009, he was a fellow of the Max-Weber-Kolleg for Advanced Studies in Erfurt. From 2009 to 2013 he held a Professorship of Sociology at the University of Heidelberg. From 2013 to 2016 he was Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Sociology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, and from 2016 to 2022 he was Professor of Sociology at the University of Bamberg, Germany. He conducted research projects in South Korea, the United States, and Germany. His major research interests are related to the fields of political sociology, sociology of religion, and economic sociology. Professor Kern’s current projects include one study about the growth of Megachurches in the United States. Another study deals with the causes of high-risk activism in the former German Democratic Republic before the collapse of the authoritarian regime in 1989/90.
