Margherita Cusmano

Margherita Cusmano is a Research Fellow at the Department of Inequality, Transformation and Conflict. In her mixed-methods Ph.D. project, she explored how migrants in Germany perceive and judge economic inequality. Her research interests include beliefs about inequality and stratification, migration sociology, biographical research, and methodological pluralism.

Prior to joining the institute, Margherita studied Sociology (M.A.) in Göttingen and Foreign Languages and Literatures (B.A.) in Bergamo, Italy. She wrote her master’s thesis within the project “Biographies of migrants from Syria and West Africa in Brazil and in Germany” under the direction of Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rosenthal, researching how illegalized refugees experience legal practices of (im)mobilization. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute and at the Institute of Methods and Methodological Principles in the Social Sciences at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen.

Margherita welcomes emails from anyone interested in her research.

Research projects

• How do migrants in Germany make sense of economic inequality?

DAAD Prize 2025
Margherita has being awarded the DAAD Prize for outstanding international students. The panel commended her expertise and dedication.

Best Poster Award
Margherita received the Best Poster Award for her poster "How do migrants judge inequality" at the In_equality Conference 2024 in Konstanz.

Publications

Journal Articles

Petermann, S., Schönwälder, K., Harris, E., & Cusmano, M. (2025). Diffuse Vielfalt: Migration in individuellen Wahrnehmungen und Kategorisierungen. Soziale Welt, 76(3), 215-243. doi:10.5771/0038-6073-2025-3-215

Petermann, S., Schönwälder, K., Harris, E., & Cusmano, M. (2025). [Diffuse Vielfalt] Online-Anhang zum Beitrag Petermann. Soziale Welt, 76(3), A1-A12. doi:10.5771/0038-6073-2025-3-A1

Cusmano, M. (2025). Generation matters: The role of migration and generational status for distributive justice preferences. SocArXiv Papers. doi:10.31235/osf.io/ew9j5_v2

Cusmano, M. (2025). Traces of the past, visions of the future: How asylum seekers navigate legal im/mobilization. SocArXiv Papers, 1-20. doi:10.31235/osf.io/ty654_v1