Dr. Verena Benoit is currently a research assistant (postdoc) at the Chair of Political Sociology.Previously, she was a research assistant at the Chair of Empirical Theories of Politics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2020 - 2024), a visiting researcher at Princeton University (NJ) and a visiting lecturer in sociology at the University of Communication and Design (HfK+G)in Ulm (2017-2020).She completed her doctorate in 2023 at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg and the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS) on the topic 'Bridge or Barrier?“Religious Identification’s Role in Shaping Attitudes towards Immigrants and Immigration in the European Context” (https://doi.org/10.20378/irb-58562).Previously, she studied sociology at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg with a focus on 'migration, integration and population'.Her research focuses, among other things, on the importance of social (particularly religious) identity in the formation of attitudes, particularly in connection with attitudes towards migrants and immigration policy.