I am a DPhil candidate in Sociology at Nuffield College. My research is supported by an ESRC grant and centers around voluntary organizations and their role in promoting social cohesion. I ask two questions tapping into inequalities in voluntary participation and their potential to bridge social divides: (i) Who is involved? and (ii) Who else is involved?

One of my papers (joint work with Hanno Kruse, University of Amsterdam) shows how adolescents reduce their participation as they grow older, and that socioeconomic disparities are largest at younger ages. The socioeconomic gap in participation decreases in size, in part because adolescents with a high socioeconomic background disproportionally undergo transitions to higher tertiary education which are most disruptive for their involvement in voluntary associations. In my other papers, I study gender segregation in voluntary organizations, the impact of voluntary involvement on individuals' network structures and social capital, as well as ethnic segregation across and within voluntary organizations. In an additional project, I describe volunteering dynamics in the United Kindom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I also taught tutorials and seminars on Sociological Theory and Introductory Statistics.

Prior to starting my DPhil at the University of Oxford, I graduated from the University of Cologne in Germany with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Sciences and Sociology, respectively. During this time, I visited the universities of Groningen and Oxford for one semester each and worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne.

You can find more information on my personal website https://kasimirdederichs.github.io/.