March 21, 2025
Pictures of Simone M. Schneider, Juan Carlos Castillo, Julio Iturra | Private Source
In March 2025, Dr. Simone Schneider visited the Department of Sociology at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago as part of a growing research collaboration on social justice, meritocracy, and the perception of inequality.
The visit was hosted by Prof. Juan Carlos Castillo, Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of the FONDECYT/ANID-funded project Education and Meritocracy, and embedded in a vibrant research environment that included scholars affiliated with COES – the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies, and the NUDOS Millennium Nucleus on Digital Opportunities and Inequalities.
During her stay (March 10–21, 2025), Dr. Schneider engaged in a series of academic meetings and research workshops with faculty and early-career researchers from the sociology department. These exchanges facilitated in-depth discussion of ongoing work in the field of inequality studies—including institutional design, public perceptions, and policy legitimacy—and opened the door for the development of future collaborative research initiatives between research teams in Barcelona and Santiago.
A particular highlight of the stay was Prof. Schneider’s inaugural lecture for the Master’s Program in Social Sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences on March 14, 2025, titled The (Mis)Perception of Inequality. In her lecture, she presented recent findings from the PERGAP project, which investigates how welfare state institutions shape individuals’ perceptions of inequality and fairness. The presentation sparked lively discussions on the mechanisms through which institutional contexts inform normative beliefs about redistribution and justice, and how these beliefs vary across national settings.
The visit also included scholarly exchange around the doctoral research of Julio Iturra-Sanhueza, a PhD candidate at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), with whom Prof. Schneider collaborates as a supervisor. Conversations with Prof. Castillo’s research group enriched the academic dialogue and further strengthened the foundation for long-term collaboration between both institutions.
We warmly thank Prof. Juan Carlos Castillo and the Universidad de Chile for the invitation, the generous hospitality, and the inspiring intellectual exchange.
Learn more about the ongoing research of Prof. Juan Carlos Castillo here: