Caroline Schmitt
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Growing up in Trier, Germany’s oldest city, located in the border region between France, Luxembourg, and Belgium, I developed an early interest in living together in diverse communities and the question of how inclusion can be fostered in dynamic and pluralistic societies. This question has since become the focus of my professional work.
My research is dedicated to exploring how inclusive, solidary, and resilient societies can be shaped in the context of migration, diversity, and socio-ecological crises. Grounded in intersectional and transnational perspectives, my focus lies on advancing theories and practices of social work that promote socio-ecological transformation, justice, and peace. I understand social work as a transformative force that critically reflects on and actively challenges societal inequalities.
My primary areas of focus in research, teaching, and continuing education are:
- Diversity, Inclusion & Peace
- Ecosocial Work, Green Social Work & Sustainability
- Intersectional Crisis & Disaster Research
- Solidarity in Social Work & in Social Movements
- (Forced) Migration & Postmigrant Society
- Transnational Social Work
I am currently a professor of ecosocial work and care at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Previously, I held the position of professor of migration and inclusion research at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria, served as an interim professor in social work at the University of Trier, and worked as a research associate at the University of Mainz in Germany.
My research and teaching have also taken me to the University of Innsbruck (Austria), Kent University in Istanbul (Türkyie), the University of Olomouc (Czech Republic), and Kangnam University in Yongin (South Korea).
In the course of my academic work, I cooperate closely with social services, educational institutions, and civil society alliances (engaged science & arts-based research).
In my diversity & inclusion trainings, I find the intersection of science and practice to be an immense enrichment.
Digital expert day "Social Work as Disaster Relief", May, 23, 2025
Lecture Series
Just published: Anthology "Krieg, Konflikt und Soziale Arbeit" (2024)
Our anthology "Krieg, Konflikt und Soziale Arbeit. Herausforderungen, Visionen und Praxen zur Friedensgestaltung" is now available!
Social work requires a systematic integration of war and peace within its discipline and profession. It possesses extensive experience in addressing the impacts of war, peacebuilding, and transformation, particularly in the Global South and Eastern Europe. However, this wealth of knowledge remains largely underrecognized, insufficiently accessible, and not adequately processed theoretically and methodologically. This anthology seeks to bring together these experiences and advance peace-oriented social work through a dialogue of diverse perspectives, practices, and visions.
A heartfelt thank you to my collaborators, Karsten Kiewitt, Ronald Lutz, and Tanja Kleibl, for our fruitful collaboration. I would also like to extend a big thank you to all the authors who contributed their expertise to this important topic.
Habilitation published (2024)
My habilitation was published in 2024. In this book, I connect discussions on inclusion, forced migration, and social work, offering insights into a comprehensive societal inclusion program. The book presents a heterogeneity-theoretical, power-critical, and relational understanding of inclusion, applying this framework in empirical analyses. This approach goes beyond a narrow focus on forced migration. It develops a critically reflective research and practice field that addresses the normalcy of human movement, without trivializing the suffering and social inequalities experienced—aiming towards an inclusive, solidaristic, and convivial society.
Free download available here.
New book on international social work & social movements (2023 & 2024)
Historically and to the present day, social work has been closely intertwined with social movements, both as allies and in opposition to them. This engagement finds its expression in conventions (human rights), cooperation (world conferences) and coalitions (NGOs). This textbook offers an insight into the connections between social movements and social work from an international perspective, teaching their historical and theoretical foundations and illustrating them in a practical way with case studies from around the world. It aims to bring the perspectives of a ‘global social work profession and discipline’, and thus the international and political dimensions of social work, back to the forefront of the discipline.
With contributions by
Susan Arndt | Mario Faust-Scalisi | Ernst Kočnik | Claudia Lohrenscheit | Rahel More | Hans Karl Peterlini | Monika Pfaller-Rott | Andrea Frieda Schmelz | Caroline Schmitt | Marion Sigot | Ute Straub
More information here.
Video project "Voices of Solidarity - Botschaften der Solidarität" (2022)
Digital Lecture Series "No War. Bildung als Praxis des Friedens" (Winter Semester 2022/2023)
You are cordially invited to participate in the digital lecture series.
Link to online participation.
Since February 24, 2022, with the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we have been experiencing a previously unimaginable increase of the "catastrophic" in our time. Climate change and the still rampant pandemic are now joined by yet another war. This war once again shows the fragility of our globalized world and the interdependencies within it. The diversity of problems in this globalized world is once again apparent, as if in a burning glass: Dependencies on oil, gas, coal; supply chain and supply problems. Social and global inequality will become more entrenched and the vulnerable, as in climate change and the pandemic, are the "losers".
Many questions arise in light of this, including:
What is peace?
What role can or should social work play in the "catastrophic" in our time?
As a human rights profession, social work must take a position and at the same time see itself as an actor in peacebuilding and conceptualize a notion of peace. In doing so, it can and must draw on diverse international experiences in the context of "peacebuilding", in which it has been involved as a profession for a long time.
New book on solidarity, forced migration, climate crisis & social work (2021)
Please check our new publication on solidarity in times of crisis (together with Marc Hill)!
Find the newest review here.
Thank you very much, dear Karin
E. Sauer, for your appreciative feedback!
Feel free to download your free paper!
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