Newly appointed: Prof. Dr. Marlene Walk

You were the first female researcher at the University of Freiburg to apply for the new Margarete von Wrangell Female Junior Professor Programme. How did that come about?

The initiative came from Dr. Hana Fehrenbach, who is now a postdoctoral researcher working with me as part of the Wrangell Programme. Although we didn’t know each other, she contacted me about the programme – which I also didn’t know about – and convinced me to apply. The staff at Freiburg Research Services provided me with a great deal of support.

What does your collaboration look like?

Hana Fehrenbach and I have developed goals for the postdoctoral period with the intention of pursuing them through joint research. One of these goals is to strengthen her skills in mixed-method research, which involves combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. Since purely qualitative research positions are very rare, gaining this skill will help her to better position herself for future opportunities. As a mixed-method researcher, I am well positioned to support her in this endeavour. Last year, we also published a virtual issue paper and are currently working on a second article that we plan to submit by the end of the year. However, it is uncertain whether it will be published during the project period.

Among other things, the University of Freiburg strives to be a place that offers equal opportunities and is committed to gender equality at various levels. How does the Wrangell programme contribute to equal opportunities in academia?

In our case, Hana Fehrenbach, who completed her doctorate alongside a non-academic job, would probably have left academia without the programme due to a lack of alternatives. I also think the programme is important because it gives a woman who has just completed her doctorate time to advance her own research and explore academia as a future field of work. Whether it increases the visibility of the postdoctoral researcher and the junior professor’s chair during the project phase is uncertain due to the lengthy publication process – this may only come later.

However, the programme could be a little longer, perhaps five years instead of three. This is also with a view to equal opportunities. After all, this is a case of one woman supporting another, even though the highly responsible and sometimes time-consuming and labour-intensive mentoring of the postdoctoral researcher falls at a stage when the junior professor should primarily be focusing on her own research. At the same time, accompanying a postdoctoral researcher can be a very valuable experience.

How could we succeed in retaining more women in academia?

We need structural change. In my view, it should be possible, for example, to work on a PhD during working hours. For mothers in particular, the change of roles after work or at the weekend makes it almost impossible to work on articles during these times. This is usually different for men. In this respect, there also needs to be a rethink in management positions so that women do not work themselves to exhaustion due to multiple burdens and are lost to the world of academia.

The University of Freiburg recently appointed you as a tenured professor. How has this changed things for you?

It’s great to finally have arrived at the W3 professorship. One big change is that I now have a permanent position, which comes with more creative freedom and financial resources. I feel like I can step out of the academic rat race. It’s okay now to pause, rethink research and consider what I want to do in the next few years. With the second doctoral position I have just filled, I can also set new priorities for my own research. For example, by starting a new research project that fits in with the new direction I want to take.

Do you already know what direction might be?

I will continue to study the non-profit sector using interdisciplinary, quantitative and qualitative methods. In addition, I would like to expand this branch of research in Freiburg with new programmes and focus more strongly on Germany and German-speaking countries. The first projects are already underway: for a study on the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, I interviewed people who volunteered during the Eurovision Song Contest and examined volunteer management during the event. To this end, I collaborated with colleagues from Freiburg, the Centre for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS) at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and those responsible for volunteer management in the Swiss canton of Basel-Stadt. In the future, I will also focus more on issues of nonprofit governance and leadership such as the question as to how we can attract more volunteers to serve on the boards of associations and foundations.

Why are you shifting your focus to other countries?

Partly because of my new location, and partly because of current developments in the United States. In order to ensure the best possible continuity of my research, I have continued projects with American colleagues after my move and also initiated new ones. However, current developments in the United States are making this work more difficult.

In what way?

I am working on a project on racial justice in the context of community foundations in the United States, and it was relatively clear that we would conduct all our communication via the Freiburg Zoom room. We no longer write emails either, as my colleagues, who all work at public universities, are subject to the Freedom of Information Act in the United States. And we didn’t want to put any of our colleagues there at risk by using ‘forbidden’ words such as racial justice, discrimination or diversity. That’s why we use a messenger service. As organisations are currently very cautious about participating in research, we are deliberately focusing on publishing existing data.