Dr Sandra Kostner

Dr Sandra Kostner is a historian and sociologist specializing in migration research. She studied history and sociology at the University of Stuttgart and received her doctorate from the University of Sydney with a comparative thesis on the educational attainment of second-generation students of Greek and Italian origin in Germany and Australia. During her doctorate, she also worked as a lecturer in the Department of History and the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney. Dr Kostner gained several years of non-university practical experience, including working as an employee in a consulting program for museums for Far North Queensland and in the Cairns City Council in the municipal development department and Department of Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Since 2010, she has been managing director of the master’s program “Interculturality and Integration” at the Schwäbisch Gmünd University for Education in southern Germany. Dr Kostner’s research focuses on comparative migration and integration policy with a focus on Germany, Australia and Great Britain; migration-related diversity as a challenge for liberal-democratic states; and social cohesion in diverse migration societies.

Among her many publications are the anthology “Lessons learnt from 9/11. How the West has dealt with Islamism” (‘Lehren aus 9/11. Zum Umgang des Westens mit Islamismus’; co-edited with Elham Manea, published in 2021/2022; the edited volume “The Identity-Left’s Redemption Agenda. A Debate on its Consequences for Countries of Immigration” (Identitätslinke Läuterungsagenda: eine Debatte zu ihre Folgen für Migrationsgesellschaften); and articles such as” Teaching and Learning Diversity: Making (Higher) Education More Accessible and Equitable” (2016-2017). Dr Kostner also authored the foreword to the German edition of “The Disuniting of America. Reflections on a Multicultural Society” by Arthur M. Schlesinger (2020), and edited a volume containing responses to Schlesinger’s essay, titled: The Us-against-Them-Society (Die Wir-gegen-die-Gesellschaft, to be published January 2024).

Aside from her academic research and teaching, Dr Kostner’s work has a distinct applied focus: she has, for example, been the leading research consultant for a number of government initiatives on integration and diversity at the state-level, such as for educational staff who teach children and adolescents from migrant families, or support of the ‘Welcome to Baden-Wuerttemberg! Engagement for Refugees and Asylum-Seeker’ project (2015-2017).

In February 2021, Dr Kostner co-founded the ‘Academic Freedom Network’, an association of academics dedicated to strengthening a liberal academic climate, by defending the constitutionally enshrined freedom of research and teaching against ideologically motivated restrictions and political censorship.