Former MZES employee David Kretschmer receives the prestigious Lorenz von Stein Award

Sociologist David Kretschmer has been granted this year’s Lorenz von Stein Award for his outstanding thesis titled "Gender(ed) Segregation? Gender, Gender-Related Norms, and the Interreligious and Cross-Gender Friendships of Muslim Youth in Germany." The Lorenz von Stein Foundation annually awards the best dissertation from the School of Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim. The prize money is 1,000 euros.

In his dissertation Kretschmer investigates the social dynamics affecting friendships of Muslim youth in Germany. It explores how gender and religious norms shape the formation of interreligious and cross-gender friendships. Through a detailed analysis of social interaction patterns, the author identifies significant (gender) disparities influenced by cultural and religious factors. The research highlights the challenges Muslim youth face in forming diverse social networks and suggests that entrenched norms significantly impact their social integration and the broader intercultural dialogue in German society.

David Kretschmer was a researcher at the MZES from 2017 to 2023 and primarily contributed to the two projects "Friendship and Identity in School" and "Religion, Religiosity, and the Social-Emotional Integration of Muslim Youth".

Since 2023, he has been a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

(July 4, 2024)