Michael John, born in 1954, studied history and political science in Vienna. In the course of his studies, he turned to economic and social history and received his doctorate in 1980. He then worked as a freelance historian in Vienna, with Amnesty International and Ökista Austria, as a social worker and househusband. In 1985 he returned to work as a historian at the Institute for Social and Economic History at the University of Vienna.
 
Since 1986 at the Institute for Social and Economic History of the Johannes Kepler University Linz, since 1993 as university assistant, in 2000 habilitation, since February 2001 associate university professor. He completed a visiting professorship at the University of Salzburg as well as teaching positions at the Central European University, Budapest and the Slovenian Academy of Sciences in Ljubljana. Head of the Institute for Cultural Economics and Cultural Research at the JKU. Relevant experience abroad in the field of research and academic contacts (including England, Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, South Africa, Denmark, Slovenia, Hungary, USA, Israel).
 
Special commitment in the field of applied history (exhibitions, lectures, teacher training, dissemination of research results in social and economic history in the field of culture and popular education); winner of the State Cultural Prize in Vienna and Upper Austria (2003). Various activities in the field of scientific community services, such as co-editing the journal "Zeitgeschichte" as well as chairing or participating in expert commissions (among others, Historical Commission on "Aryanisation" and Restitution, Investigation Commission Wilhelminenberg, Home Children Commission of the Ombudsman Board).

Main research interests: Urban social history; popular culture; economic history of the 20th century: labour market; economic history of the 19th and 20th centuries (minorities); migration and expulsion; emigration; oral history - narrative and in-depth interviews; National Socialism: "Aryanisation", restitution, forced labour; history of youth welfare and home education.

Research projects: Project of the Austrian Future Fund and the National Fund "Das Wiener Kinderheim Hohe Warte in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus und der Nachkriegsjahre. Localisation and Reconstruction." (Project management, together with Marion Wisinger; until the end of 2017). Project management of the research project "Responsibility and Reappraisal. Investigation into the reasons for and conditions of violence in Caritas institutions in the Diocese of Linz after 1945" (co-project leader Marion Wisinger, until 2018/2019). Book project " Vom nationalen Hort zur postmodernen City. On the History of Migration and Identity in the City ". Migration and integration in Linz, 20th and 21st century, project from the research unit's field of science, as part of the print series of the Archive of the City of Linz 2010 - 2016. "Das Wiener Kinderheim Hohe Warte in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus und in den Nachkriegsjahren. Verortung und Rekonstruktion", Österreichischer Zukunftsfonds, Austrian National Fund, project management together with Marion Wisinger, 2014 - 2018. "Verantwortung und Aufarbeitung. Untersuchung über Gründe und Bedingungen von Gewalt in Einrichtungen der Caritas der Diözese Linz nach 1945", commissioned research Caritas Oberösterreich, project management 2016 - 2019. 1968ff in Linz und Oberösterreich, project from the scientific field of the research unit, 2011 - 2018. Forschungen zur Sportgeschichte, project from the scientific field of the research unit, 2010 - 2018. Oberösterreichische Landesausstellung 2021 (Konzepterstellung), scientific processing of the provincial exhibition in Steyr "Adel - Bürger - Arbeiter" together with Herta Neiß, 2017-2018.