Helena Flam


Helena Flam is a Polish-born sociologist and Professor of Sociology at the University of Leipzig, Germany, known for her work on social organization, emotions and social movements.

Life and work

After leaving Poland for Sweden in 1969, Flam studied sociology at Lund University, where she obtained a Filosofie kandidat degree in 1977. She then obtained an M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University's Department of Sociology in 1977, 1978 and 1982, respectively. Returning to Sweden, she did research at the Scandinavian Institutes of Administrative Research and SIFO as well as Uppsala University. She then worked for the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences.
In 1987, inadvertently, her academic career in Germany began: she was first a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, then assistant professor at the University of Konstanz, and eventually full professor of sociology at the University of Leipzig.
Flam's focus is on political sociology, in particular social movement research, and the political dimension of migration, including institutional discrimination. She also contributed to the sociology of emotions and rule systems theory.

Books