Thomas Biegert is an Associate Professor in International Social and Public Policy. He joined the department in 2017. Previously he held positions at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and at the University of Mannheim, from where he received his PhD in 2014. Thomas is also a Visiting Research Fellow at Tallinn Univeristy.

Thomas studies welfare states and labour markets and how they shape social inequalities. He is particularly interested in social mechanisms of cumulative inequality. He also has a strong interest in research methods and causal inference. Currently, he is conducting research on household joblessness in the US, labour market transitions of younger and older workers, and the question of how we can analyse the interplay of different polices and institutions. He also does research on cumulative inequality in meritocratic domains, such as the NBA. Thomas’ research has been published in journals such as European Sociological Review, Journal of European Social Policy, Socio-economic Review, and American Sociological Review.

In 2024/25, Thomas will convene postgraduate courses on “Understanding Policy Research” (SP401) and “The Future of Work and Social Policy” (SP442).