Max Schellbach

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

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max.schellbach[at]uni-koeln.de

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50931 Köln

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Research Project: (Post-)Migrant Youth and the Transformation of Urban Youth Work in a German-British Comparison (ca. 1970 to 1989)

(Greek youths on Gollier Square in Munich, ca. 1980 © Munich City Archives)

In European debates surrounding the “problem” of migration, attention in the last third of the 20th century increasingly focused on children and youth with a migration background. In contrast to their parents, these children represented the prospect of staying, thereby sparking debates among contemporaries—on a scale previously unknown—about cultural belonging and opportunities for participation in a diverse society. This doctoral project examines, from a comparative perspective, social negotiation processes regarding the position of the so-called “second generation” of postcolonial migrants from the Commonwealth in England and the descendants of labor migrants in the Federal Republic of Germany. As a case study, it focuses on youth and social work as welfare state actors in the urban contexts of Munich and London. 

In what ways were disadvantaged, non-white communities and youth subcultures represented as problematic spaces of socialization requiring social-educational intervention? What role did differing understandings of nationality and integration play in marking and hierarchizing “those with a migration background”? How, in turn, did social pedagogical actors shape urban debates on migration and integration? This examination of the controversies surrounding the “second generation” issue in an urban context thus promises new insights into the social and cultural contexts that frame migration as a problem in the first place. 

Curriculum Vitae

• Since October 2025 – Research Assistant in the Historical Education Research Unit at the University of Cologne
• October 2023 – September 2025 – Research Assistant at the General Inclusion Education Research Group (Prof. Dr. Kirsten Puhr)
• June 2023 – October 2023 – Research Assistant at the SALAM Saxony-Anhalt Center for the Prevention of Violence and Radicalization
• 2019 – 2023 – Master’s degree in Educational Science at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Grade: 1.0)
• 2021–2022 – Master’s degree in “International and Comparative Perspectives on Education” at the University of Birmingham, England (Grade: First Class)
• 2019–2023 – Research Assistant in the Department of Historical Education (Prof. Dr. Till Kössler)
• 2015–2019 – Bachelor’s degree in Education at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Grade: 1.1)

Awards and Scholarships

• July 2025 – September 2025 – Research Fellowship from the German Historical Institute in London
• September 2021 – 2022 – Scholarship for a master’s degree abroad, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• June 2023 – Research Grant from the Institute of Education for the master’s thesis “Emancipation in the Ghetto? Traditions of Critical Social Work with Migrant Youth in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s and 1980s” (Advisors: Prof. Dr. Till Kössler and Dr. Janosch Steuwer)