Maria Brandén has a PhD in Sociological Demography and is employed as a researcher at the Department of Sociology. She teaches the undergraduate course “Samhälle och befolkningsfrågor”. In addition to her employment at the Department, she is a lecturer at the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Linköping University. Maria Brandén is currently involved in four research projects at the Department.

1. She is project investigator of a project funded by Vetenskapsrådet, which concerns how contextual factors matter for social mobility, ”Äpplen som faller långt från träden – barndomens sociala kontext och dess betydelse för social mobilitet”.
2. She does research on geographical distance between children and non-resident parents within the project “Shared Physical Custody in Sweden: Development, determinants, stability and outcomes of a new form of family organization” (PI: Jani Turunen).
3. She is responsible for a work package on immigrants’ educational trajectories within the large-scale research project “Immigrant Trajectories: Geographical Mobility, Family Careers, Employment, Education, and Social Insurance in Sweden, 1990-2016” (PI: Bo Malmberg). Finally, she (4) does research on neighbourhood polarization within a large-scale project called “Lyckliga gatan? Geografisk polarisering och social sammanhållning i dagens Sverige” (PI: Bo Malmberg). Selected outlet during 2018 includes participation in the 2018 annual meeting of the Population Association of America; writing a report on neighbourhood effects for LO which she presented at one of their seminars.