Maria joined IHS in 2018 and is a Junior Researcher in the research group Educational Structures and Educational Opportunities. She holds Masters’ degrees in Socioeconomics and Political Science and is currently pursuing a PhD in Sociology at the University of Vienna. Maria was previously employed as a teaching assistant and project staff at the University of Vienna’s Department of Political Science and Centre for Teacher Education. 

Maria’s research focuses on educational trajectories and educational inequalities. In her dissertation, she combines quantitative analyses of large-scale register data with qualitative methods to examine the educational pathways of youth with an immigrant background. Her particular interest lies in the transition at the end of lower secondary education and the individual and structural factors and decision-making processes that shape students’ pathways into various upper secondary educational tracks.