Kristina Kaempfer

Financial Elites and the Spatial Variation of Inequality: Examining the Intersection of Gender, Race and Class in Frankfurt, London and New York City

Kristina is a doctoral candidate at the School of Geography and the Environment researching inequality in finance. Specifically, she explores how inequalities are (re)produced among financial elites. She holds an MSt in Women's Studies from the University of Oxford (Distinction), an MA in Political Theory from Goethe University, Frankfurt, and a BA in Political Science from Free University Berlin.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Kristina worked for a technology start-up in London overseeing and consulting on the implementation of their conversation rate optimisation products. She was also engaged in the 2017 German federal elections, assisting the management of a digital campaigning team and has a long-standing political experience. Kristina is an active advocate for feminism, has published on issues relating to feminism and instructed educational seminars on women's role in politics in Germany.

In her doctoral thesis, Kristina seeks to answer the question of how gender, race, as well as class relations intersect and are (re)produced among financial elites. As the financial crisis of 2007 - 2009 reignited the debate on gender inequality in finance, the unchanged discrimination against women as well as other minorities accessing the bodies of financial decision-making poses not only a democratic problem but also perpetuates social injustice. Scrutinizing this status quo and approaching the issue from a geographical as well as feminist perspective, the analysis compares three international financial centres: Frankfurt, London, and New York City. It explores their cultural as well as institutional landscapes, studying the impact of events like the financial crisis 2007 - 2009 and external factors, for example regulation. Theoretically and methodologically, the research draws upon influences from gender studies as well as political theory.

This doctoral project builds upon Kristina's master's dissertation, which followed an ethnographic approach and explored the work experience of junior and senior women working in finance in Frankfurt.

Awards

• Scholarship: Friedrich Naumann Foundation (provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) for Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral Research
• Securing the Future of the Financial Industry Via Improved Gender Diversity - SWIFT Institute Research Grant (2019)