The title of her thesis was "Ein gelernter österreichischer Triumph: Sozialanthropologische Perspektiven auf Geschichtsbilder der 'Osmanischen Bedrohung' im Wiener Volksschulunterricht" (An 'Austrian Triumph well acquired': Historical imagery of the 'Ottoman Threat' in Vienna's primary school education through perspectives from Social Anthropology').

Johanna Witzeling, who had taken her magisterial degree in UVienna's social anthropology with Sabine Strasser in 2005, was a junior staff member at ISA between 2008-2012, when she first participated in a City of Vienna Jubilee Fund project in which Andre Gingrich served as PI, and from where she then switched to an Academy-funded DOC.team application which was granted in 2009. That DOC.team project focused on "Turks in front - and inside - of Vienna: On modes of communicating and representing the 'Ottoman Threat' in Austria". The DOC.team also included two other doctoral projects by Judith Pfeifer (Political Sciences) and Silvia Dallinger (Sociology), who also was ISA's junior staff member during the same period. For social anthropology Johann Heiss (since 2009) and Andre Gingrich (since 2010/11) served as members of the DOC.team advisory group. In itself, the DOC.team was part of a wider collaboration between ISA and IKTW (i.e. the Academy's institute for cultural studies and theater's history), largely masterminded by Johann Heiss for ISA and Johannes Feichtinger for IKTW. That collaboration inter alia resulted in the publication of two volumes (in German, co-edited by Feichtinger and Heiss) on the myths, memories, and traditions surrounding the so-called Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. Johanna Witzeling also was a contributor to one of these two volumes. In 2012 Johanna Witzeling and Silvia Dallinger reveived the City of Vienna's Advancement Award in the field of Public Education (Förderpreis der Stadt Wien im Bereich der Volksbildung) for their contributions to this DOC.team project.