"There's still a lot to do"

Dr. phil. Torsten Linke is an agricultural machinery mechanic and professor. Since March 2020—and thus a brand-new addition to our HSZG—he has been teaching in the Bachelor degree programme in Social Work at the Görlitz campus. With his areas of expertise—individual social case work, professional ethics, and social management—he is a good fit for the position.

Born in 1972 in Eisenach, in western Thuringia, Linke grew up in the former GDR and graduated from a polytechnic high school. Then came the political upheaval, and for Linke, training to become an agricultural machinery mechanic seemed like a predetermined path in life. It wasn’t until he worked as a vocational-technical instructor from 2000 to 2001 that he came into contact with educationally disadvantaged youth and thus moved closer to his true calling. “That’s when I realized there was still a lot to be done,” says Linke. At the time, his work with the young people exposed him to their social problems and a wide variety of life experiences.

Shaped by these experiences, Linke began studying the Diplom degree course in social work and social pedagogy at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences in 2002. “Addressing and solving problems requires practical skills,” says Linke. “Social Work is hands-on—if I had only ever worked in academia, I wouldn’t have gained the valuable experience that helps me in my work today.” During his studies, he spent two years working in residential youth care in Leipzig. The certified social pedagogue completed his studies in 2007. Linke then began working in outpatient youth services in Leipzig, where he served as a social worker and team leader until 2014.

He remained loyal to Merseburg University of Applied Sciences and began his part-time master’s program in Applied Sexology in 2010. In 2013, upon completing his studies, Linke received an award for the good Master's thesis in the Department of Social Work, Media, and Culture.

Until 2016, Linke taught at his home university in Merseburg: he served as a lecturer with a specified function and taught in the bachelor’s degree programmes in Social Work and Cultural and Media Education. From 2016 to 2020, he worked as a research assistant in the BMBF-funded research project “Protection of Children and Adolescents from Sexual Traumatization” in Merseburg. At the same time, he worked on his doctoral dissertation at the University of Kassel. Awarded a summa cum laude, Linke’s PhD thesis on “Sexual Education in Child and Youth Welfare” was recently published by Psychosozial-Verlag. Since early March 2020, Linke has been a professor at the HSZG. It’s a good thing that Dr. phil. Torsten Linke enjoys hiking. Hopefully, that means he’ll stick around for quite a while. After all, we have mountains here in the border triangle. A warm welcome!