Mara Hasenjürgen has been a teaching and research fellow in the joint project "Improving reception conditions for people seeking protection, those entitled to protection and those temporarily entitled to protection" in the Chair of Sociology for Social Work at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg since December 2025. In the sub-project "Scientific Support", she is researching the conditions for success and failure of decentralised accommodation for refugees in Brandenburg.

She studied social sciences at the Ruhr University Bochum (B.A.) and the University of Amsterdam (M.Sc. research) and graduated with an ethnographic research project on border demarcation and voluntary welcome work. In addition to her academic work, she has several years of practical experience in civil society organisations. Her work focuses on political communication, climate-friendly mobility, labour market access and reception conditions for refugees.