Ellen Wagner
Functions at the IAB
Professional background
Ellen Wagner is a researcher at the unit “Joblessness and Social Inclusion” of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). Her work focuses on qualitative analysis of in- and exclusion processes in the labor market. She is currently involved in the project “Hiring Practices,” which examines hiring processes with regards to diversely disadvantaged applicant groups.
In 2025, Ellen Wagner began working on her PhD project on situated knowledge among disabled workers, which has been accepted for a scholarship in the IAB’s graduate programme. Using ethnographic methods, she explores the competencies and precarities of disabled people across diverse work contexts—from unpaid care work to formal employment. Her studies in International Relations (B.A., Malmö University) and in “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures” (M.A., FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) shaped her scientific interest in intersectional feminist and other critical approaches.