Research profile

Kathrine Vitus is PhD in sociology and an associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work. Kathrine’s research centres on migration and social work, with a particular focus on children and young people. Kathrine has extensive experiences in studies of migrant children and young people’s experiences and conditions within different political, welfare institutional and local (social work) contexts. These studies focus on a variety of social dynamics, such as subjectification and identification, inclusion and exclusion, affect and emotion, pleasure and desire, power and opposition, and how these dynamics unfold in intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality and social class.

Kathrine’s research also contributes to the further development of qualitative research methods. She has extensive experience with ethnographic fieldwork, interview, focus groups, collective memory work and participatory visual methodologies.

Kathrine has published her research in a number of high-ranking international journals such as Sociology of Health & Illness, Symbolic Interaction, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Youth Studies, Distinction, Childhood, Journal of Refugee Studies, International Journal of Social Welfare, Qualitative Inquiry. She has contributed as author and co-editor of books published both by Danish (Hans Reitzels Forlag, Roskilde Universitetsforlag, Aarhus Universitetsforlag, Gyldendal Akademisk) and international publishers (Ashgate, Routhledge, Taylor & Francis).

Kathrine leads the departments research centre CIW - Center Inclusion and Welfare. The center's research focus is the challenges and changes that are of welfare and inclusion in the form of both new moral and structural foundations, new pressures from migration, globalization and demographic changes and changing practices and sectoral divisions. Moreover, she is head of the steering group of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities' MIX - Center for Displacement, Migration and Integration. 

Kathrine is an Associate Editor on Nordic Journal of Social Research (NJSR) and is active as reviewer for a number of journals with her research filed, for instance Sociology of Health & Illness, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Youth Studies, Childhood, Journal of Refugee Studies, Children & Society, Critical Public Health. She takes part in both national, regional (Nordic) and international research networks.