Irene Messinger

Curriculum Vitae / Biography

Dr. Irene Messinger

social scientist
in the field of migration and exile research
based in Vienna, Austria.

Irene Messinger was awarded the professorship at the University of Applied Sciences for Social Work in May 2020, after working for that institution since 2017.  Her recent research project is on The Persecution of Austria´s Social Workers during National Socialism

2013-2016 Irene Messinger lead a research project 'Marriages of Convenience during the Nazi Era', about fake marriages of persecuted (jewish) women with a foreign national, enabling them to escape or to live in countries of exile. The project was awarded the 'Edith-Saurer grant'. In 2017-18, Messinger was co-curator of the exhibition 'Persecuted. Engaged. Married.' at the Jewish Museum Vienna, where 12 biographies were shown, one was published as a book, Anita Bilds A Cherry Dress (2018). 
Doing Gender in Exile: Co-Organizer of the conference (Oct 2017) and co-publisher of a book by the same name (May 2019, with Katharina Prager).

Prior to her academic studies she obtained a degree in social work and worked as a social worker and legal counselor for asylum seekers and illegalized immigrants.

Awards for the Ph.D. project