Katharina Scherke, Professor of Sociology at the University of Graz, deals with the genesis of socio-cultural expectations regarding ageing and gender and their reactivation in the actions of actors. She supervises various dissertations and master's theses in this field, was co-editor of a cultural studies yearbook with a focus on age(ing) and has also contributed her expertise on topics of gender mainstreaming and anti-discrimination to academic self-administration, including as chairwoman of the working group for equality issues at the University of Graz (2007-2016).

She studied sociology and art history at the University of Graz, was an associate member of the interdisciplinary special research area "Moderne. Wien und Zentraleuropa" and has been the spokesperson of the interdisciplinary research focus and research network "Heterogeneity and Cohesion" at the University of Graz since 2009. She was also able to contribute her expertise in questions of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity to the event series "Spannungsfeld Gesellschaftliche Vielfalt. Vorträge, Diskussionen, künstlerische Interventionen" (2013-2015), organized jointly with the province of Styria and ISOP.

In addition to the areas mentioned above, her research interests also include the sociology of emotions and cultural sociology. A particular focus here is the history of the topic of emotion in the sciences, especially in sociology. She recently co-edited the two-volume "Handbuch Kultursoziologie" (Wiesbaden 2019). She is also academic coordinator of the International Graduate Study Program in Cultural Sociology for the University of Graz.

In addition to the consortium of the Joint Master's degree, she also has international contacts via the Emotions Research Network of the European Sociological Association, of which she was Vice-Coordinator from 2009 to 2012 and has been a member of the Advisory Board since 2015. In addition to being a member of various scientific associations, she was also President of the Austrian Sociological Association from 2015 to 2017. She has extensive experience as a reviewer for various institutions and journals (including the European Commission - Research Executive Agency and the Austrian Academy of Sciences). She was also involved in research evaluation agendas during her time as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences (2007-2019).