Anna Schwenck’s research lies at the intersection of cultural and political sociology. She is particularly interested in how cultural understandings, be they transnational or locally specific, shape political behaviour.

Her monograph Flexible Authoritarianism. Cultivating Ambition and Loyalty in Russia (published by Oxford University Press) shows how winners of globalization come to support authoritarianism.

It received the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book in the Sociology of Culture in 2024
(American Sociological Association) and an honorable mention of the Council for European Studies in the framework of its European Studies Book Award in 2026. It was further shortlisted for the 2025 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award in Political Sociology (American Sociological Association).

Anna Schwenck’s more recent work investigates how musics, visuals and performances may lend political claims plausibility. The two special issues Sounds in Times of War and Political Song and Its Futures theorize the connection between culture and politics beyond sociology’s dominant focus on transatlantic societies.

Her new project explores the situational meanings of cultural consumption and aesthetic practices in structurally disadvantaged regions. Building on her earlier work, the project inquires into how actors ideals of a good society are shaped by the relationship between dominant recognition norms,  perceived recognition chances and the availability of meaningful alternatives.