Academic Career
- Studium der Germanistik, Philosophie, Kommunikationswissenschaften, Kunstgeschichte und Soziologie an den Universitäten Tübingen, Köln und Bonn.
since 2013
- Permanent Visiting Fellow, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn, Forum Internationale Wissenschaft (FIW)
since 2010
- Senior Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Law as Culture”, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn
2009-2013
- Guest Professorship, University of Luzern
since 2008
- Board member and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen
since 2007
- Senior Fellow “Exzellenzcluster Religion und Politik”, University of Münster
2007, 2009
- Guest Professorship, University of St. Gallen
1996, 2011-2013
- Guest Professorship, University of Vienna
1996
- Guest Professorship, University of California, Berkeley
1994-2008
- Professorship for Sociology, University of Konstanz
since 1994
- Head of the researchteam „sociology of knowledge“ and director of the archive of social sciences, University of Konstanz
1993
- Professorship for Sociology, University of Potsdam
1993
- Guest Professorship, Boston University
1992
- Guest Professorship, Universidad Santiago de Chile
1986-1992
- Guest professorship, University of Zurich
1984, 1987, 1991
- Guest professorship, University of California, San Francisco
1984-1994
- Member of the research team of Anselm Strauss, USA
1980-1992
- Professorship, FernUniversität in Hagen
1978-1980
- Professorship, University of Duisburg-Essen
1976
- Habilitation, University of Duisburg-Essen; Venia Legendi: communication studies/sociology of communications
1972
- PhD, philosophy, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn
1966
- First state examination, philosophy and german studies
Memberships and cooperations
2011-2013
- Member of “Strukturkommission zur Evaluierung”, Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2008-2018
- Together with Prof. Dr. Dieter Gutzen, head of education seminars for DAAD lectorssince 2008
Cooperation, Stiftung Mercator
2007-2011
- Chairman, German Sociological Society (DGS)
since 2004
- Expert for VolkswagenStiftung
2002-2008
- Chairman of the advisory council “Wissenschaft und Zeitgeschehen”, Goethe-Institute
since 2002
- University of Haifa: Member of the Board Haifa Center for German and European Studies (HCGES); Hebrew University Jerusalem: Member of the Board Center for German Studies
since 2000
- Cooperation, Hamburger Institute for Social Sciences
since 2000
- Cooperation, Academy for Social Sciences, Beijing
since 1996
- Expert for German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
1996-2010
- Cooperation, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) Saitama University, Japan
since 1994
- Cooperation, Justizakademie NRW Recklinghausen and Justizakademie Trier
since 1986
- Expert for German Research Foundation (DFG)
Research Interests
- Theory in sociology, everyday culture, sociology of knowledge, culture, media and religion, methodology and methods of hermeneutics
Publications (Selection)
- Soeffner, Hans-Georg (1989): Auslegung des Alltags – Der Alltag der Auslegung. Zur wissenssoziologischen Konzeption einer sozialwissenschaftlichen Hermeneutik. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp.
- Soeffner, Hans-Georg (1992): Die Ordnung der Rituale – Die Auslegung des Alltags II. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp.
- Soeffner, Hans-Georg (2000): Gesellschaft ohne Baldachin. Über die Labilität von Ordnungskonstruktionen. Frankfurt/M.: Velbrück Wissenschaft.
- Soeffner, Hans-Georg (2010): Symbolische Formung. Eine Soziologie des Symbols und des Rituals. Frankfurt/M.: Velbrück Wissenschaft.
- Soeffner, Hans-Georg (2019): Bedrohliche Attraktivität. Charisma der Gewalt. In: Ecarius, Jutta; Bilstein, Johannes (eds.): Gewalt – Vernunft – Angst. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag (coming soon).