Institute of Education

Dr.in Elisa Thevenot

Münzgasse 22-26
Room 115
+49-(0)7071 29- 78328
elisa.thevenotspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de

Office hours in the winter term 2025/26:
By appointment via e-mail

Office hours during the semester break:
By appointment via e-mail

Research

Research interests

  • Learning processes in the context of (youth) cultural practices and social change
  • Sustainability transitions studies with a special focus on commoning processes
  • Spatio-temporal perspectives of social living environments
  • Biographical transition research
  • Qualitative research methods

Current research projects

Completed research projects

  • Doctoral project within the DFG Research Training Group ‘Doing Transitions’: Working Out Sustainability in Transitions – Empirical reconstruction of work life trajectories within the sustainability context

Short CV

since 09/2025
Margarete von Wrangell postdoctoral researcher

linked to the Junior Professorship at the Department of Social Pedagogy, Institute of Education, University of Tübingen

2025
Doctorate within the DFG Research Training Group ‘Doing Transitions’ cooperation

at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Eberhard Karls University Tübingen (Dr. phil., dissertation title: “Working Out Sustainability in Transitions”)

2024-2025
Research assistant

at the Institute for Educational Research Methods at the Karlsruhe University of Education 

2020-2024
Research assistant fellow

in the “Doing Transitions” graduate college at the Institute of Education, University of Tübingen

2011-2017
Employed in international market development
2006-2011
Business Administration Studies (France)

Publications and presentations

Articles in academic journals

  • Thevenot, E. (in press). Learning from Rhythms: Navigating Personal Life Transitions at the Intersection of Work and Sustainability. In M. Bernhard, S. Billett, C. Hof, K. Kraus, V. J. Marsick, & P. H. Sawchuk (Eds.), Adult Education in Changing Times: Learning at the Nexus of Life, Work, and Transitions. Routledge.
  • Thevenot, E. (2025). Biographical Learning in the Context of Sustainability Transitions: Conceptual Reflections and Methodological Insights. Studies in Adult Education and Learning, 31(2), 117-134. https://doi.org/10.4312/as/19722
  • Schmeiduch, L., & Thevenot, E. (2025). Lifelong learning in sustainability-led initiatives: Exploring their learning potential along the reworked four pillars of education. International Review of Education – Journal of Lifelong Learning. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-024-10122-5
  • Thevenot, E., & Hof, C. (2024). Den Widersprüchen einen Sinn geben: Biografisches Lernen berufstätiger Erwachsener im Kontext der Anforderung von Nachhaltigkeit. Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung, 47(3), 533-549. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40955-024-00295-9
  • Thevenot, E. (2022). Quand le développement durable devient un projet professionnel : reconstruction des pratiques d’acteurs abordant la transition écologique par le travail, Le Monde du travail face aux défis de la transition écologique, Chroniques du Travail, 12, 175-197.

Conference reports

  • (2022) Cultivating Equitable Education Systems for the 21st Century. Tagungsbericht: WERA Focal Meeting, 21. bis 26. April 2022 (San Diego, USA). In: Erziehungswissenschaft 33(2), S. 119-120 (gemeinsam mit Flora Petrik, Kevin Stützel, Lukas Kammerlander und Natascha Shalutkevich).

Conference contributions and presentations

  • 09/2025 – “Using rhythmanalysis to understand the temporal disharmony of environmental transitions issues faced by adult learners” presentation for the Symposium Temporalities in dialogue: a stake for education in environmental transitions, in ESREA Triennial Conference, Prague.
  • 03/2024 “Life Course and Transitions” in the ESREA STREAM Network research Symposium “Spaces and Times of Transitions”. Online. Recording: www.youtube.com/channel/UCXAsOkeInX4OQdzWhOjoTcA
  • 02/2024 – « Vivre avec les contradictions du développement durable : étude empirique au prisme des parcours de vie dans le contexte de la transition écologique » in franco-german Symposium ‘Gesellschaftliche Transformationen auf dem Weg zu einer Nachhaltigen Entwicklung’, University of Tübingen
  • 09/2023 “Time to combine work and sustainability: learning to accommodate rhythms.” presentation for the event ‘Adult Learning at the Nexus of Life Course, Work & Transitions’, Goethe University Frankfurt (https://adult-learning.de/)
  • 08/2023 “When sustainability becomes something professional: Diverse ways of learning between Work & Sustainable Development” in symposium ‘Understanding Transitions to and Through Working Life: Concepts, Methods and Procedural Imperatives’ at the ECER (European Conference on Educational Research) Glasgow
  • 07/2023 – « Conjuguer travail et développement durable : « bifurquer » pour réagencer les rythmes qui structurent les parcours de vie », in RT38 Sociologie de l'environnement et des risques & « #bifurquer » pour concilier travail et valeurs socio-écologiques » in the RT22 Parcours de Vie at Association Française de Sociologie congress, Université de Lyon
  • 05/2023 – “Emerging Transitions in the context of sustainability” in panel: ‘Emerging transitions in and out of work in contemporary social change’, at the Doing Transitions International conference, Goethe University Frankfurt
  • 04/2023 – “Life Course transitions in the midst of sustainability: theoretical and methodological reflections”, at conference: “Neue (theoretische) Entwicklungen in der Übergangsforschung – Deutsch Schweizer Perspektiven”, Technical University of St. Gallen
  • 11/2022 – “Transitions, Transformations, Trajectories – Life Course Transitions through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu”, with Maria Keil & Flora Petrik, 20 years with(out) Pierre Bourdieu
    studying crisis and social change today, University of Cagliari
  • 09/2022 – “Sustainable communities - a time for resonance in older age“ with Lena Schmeiduch, Symposium “Gerontologie und Weltbeziehung – Das Resonanzkonzept nach Hartmut Rosa und seine Anknüpfungspunkte für die Alternsforschung” at DGGG Conference, Goethe Universität Frankfurt
  • 09/2022 - “Becoming a sustainability professional: the practice of arranging competences” at DGfE ESD Commission Conference, Goethe Universität Frankfurt
  • 04/2022 - “Becoming more sustainable? Doing Sustainability by Doing Difference” in the symposium ‘Doing transitions - on making and becoming across the life course.”, AERA & WERA annual conferences, San Diego, USA
  • 03/2022 - “The messy crossings of career and national boundaries in adulthood“ in the Symposium „Doing Transitions: Herstellung und Verhandlung von Grenzen und Zugehörigkeiten an Übergängen 28th. DGfE-Kongress, University of Bremen, Online
  • 11/2021 - „Nischen“ als Unterstützer für berufliche Übergänge im Kontext der nachhaltigen
    Entwicklung“, at conference: Reiz der Nische – Zeit.Räume der Nachhaltigkeit, Online
  • 07/2021 - « Le développement durable au cœur des transitions de carrières », presentation for RT22 Life course and social dynamics research, Association Française de Sociologie (AFS), Congrès de Lille, Online
  • 07/2021 - “Un(re)markable retirement: Career transitions in the context of Sustainability”,
    presentation in the “Linking Ages” Symposium, World Education Research Association
    (WERA), Online
  • 03/2021 - « Linking Ages : présentation théorique et mise en pratique dans les cas de transitions de carrières », at Journées d’Études (JE), Travailler les âges en professionel.le, Online

Memberships

  • European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA)
  • Network: Spaces, Times, and the Rhythms of the Education of Adults and its Movements (S.T.R.E.A.M)
  • Association Française de Sociologie (AFS)
  • Working Group (active participation): RT22 Parcours de Vie et Dynamiques Sociales (monthly meetings)