Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck is group leader and Principal Investigator of collaborative and international project CareOrg (https://careorg.eu/) at the Institute of Sociology and the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Gender (CGC) of Goethe University Frankfurt. She is interested in connection between migration, care and social inequalities, specializing in questions of ageing and transnational families, welfare/policy analysis and intersectionality. Care in particular has always been central for her work at academia and beyond: „CareOrg“ project (2023-2026) analyzes transnational organization of senior care in in eight countries of Central and Eastern Europe (https://careorg.eu/ ) and ties in with the research done for the project “Decent Care Work” (2017–2021) (https://decent-care-work.net/), a three-country study on international placement agencies in senior care and the transnationalization of labor markets. An earlier international project completed in 2010 on global care chains from Ukraine to Poland and from Poland to Germany investigated the change in care arrangements and gender relations and the redistribution of care work in the context of female migration. In an explorative study on “New Butlers” (2011–2012), she investigated paid domestic services from the perspective of masculinity studies.

Outside academia, she collected experience working with vulnerable groups, among others for a Polish association caring for mentally disabled people and in home care with seniors and disabled people in Germany.

She has extensive experience in teaching and organizing and leading international projects, programmes and networks promoting junior researchers. She actively contributes to the transfer of knowledge between academia and practical work through regular publications in media, cooperation with stakeholders and policy makers.