Prof. Dr. Karen Wagels

• Psychology in social work
  • Reflection of psychological concepts and knowledge production
  • Subject orientation in science and practice of social work
  • Social work as work with psychological crises
• Qualitative methods of empirical social research

• Discourse, Subjectivity and Body
• gender and queer studies
• critical whiteness and working class approaches

• German Society for Social Work DGSA
• Section Gender and Queer Studies in Social Work, German Society for Social Work DGSA
• Section Women's and Gender Studies, German Sociological Association DGS
• Commission for Women's and Gender Studies in the German Society for Folklore DGV
• Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterstudien / Gender Studies Association e.V.
• Working Class / Poverty Class Academics WCPCA, Mailing List Germany

• since 2022: Co-Head of the Bachelor of Social Work program
• 2021 - 2023: Representative for Research and Doctoral Studies, Department of Social Work
• 2019 - 2021: Dean of the Department of Social and Health Sciences
• 2018 - 2019: Vice Dean for Studies and Education
• Liaison lecturer of the Hans Böckler Foundation
• Education and Science Trade Union GEW

Monograph

Wagels, Karen (2013): Geschlecht als Artefakt - Regulierungsweisen in Erwerbsarbeitskontexten. Bielefeld: transcript.

Book editions

Herrera Vivar, María Teresa / Rostock, Petra / Schirmer, Uta / Wagels, Karen (eds.) (2016): On heteronormativity. Debates on social relations and conceptual approaches. Forum Women's and Gender Studies, Volume 45. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot

Scheich, Elvira / Wagels, Karen (eds.) (2011): Körper Raum Transformation - gender-Dimensionen von Natur und Materie. Forum Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Vol. 32. Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Journal articles

Wagels, Karen (2016): Bringing bodies into text. On the conceptualization of queer perspectives in employment contexts. In: Amelang, Katrin / Bergmann, Sven / Binder, Beate / Vogel, Anna-Carolina / Wagener-Böck, Nadine (eds.): Body Technologies. Berliner Blätter - Ethnographische und ethnologische Beiträge, special volume, 58-67.

Wagels, Karen (2014): "Reflecting on oneself" - failure and success of different references in social work. In: Tuider, Elisabeth / Busche, Mart (eds.): Queerfeldein durch die Soziale Arbeit. sozialmagazin. The journal for social work, issue 3-4, 68-73.

Book contributions

Wagels, Karen / Weiler, Barbara (2018): 'Optimize yourself!' - 'Let yourself be challenged! Inquiries into current (self-)conditions and processing methods in the field of study and education under conditions of quality management. In: Götzelmann, Arnd (ed.): Two and a half anniversaries. The Departments of Social and Health Care at Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences and its history since 1948. Norderstedt: BoD.

Wagels, Karen (2014): 'Wieviel Weiblichkeit gesteh' ich mir selbst zu?' - TransFormationen mit und am Femme-Körper. In: Sabine Fuchs (ed.), Femme! radical - queer - feminine. Berlin: Querverlag, 159-172 (2nd ed.).

Wagels, Karen (2013): Beyond a thinking of binary gender - structure and dynamics of gender from the perspective of grounded theory. In: Bereswill, Mechthild / Liebsch, Katharina (eds.): Geschlecht (re)konstruieren. On the methodological and methodological productivity of women's and gender studies. Forum Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Vol. 38. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 80-97.

Wagels, Karen (2010): Storytelling - Interests, arenas and interfaces in the production of ErKenntnis. In: Dege, Martin / Grallert, Till / Dege, Carmen / Chimirri, Niklas (eds.), Können Marginalisierte (wi(e)der)sprechen? On the political potential of the social sciences. Giessen: Psychosozial Verlag, 79-94.

Wagels, Karen (2009): Visible and self-evident? On the mediality of the body in employment contexts. In: Simon, Michael / Hengartner, Thomas / Heimerdinger, Timo / Lux, Anne-Christin (eds.), Bilder - Bücher - Bytes. On the mediality of everyday life. Münster: Waxmann, 491-498.

Wagels, Karen (2008): "He had a position, and I had none." Regulating modes of gender in gainful employment contexts, in: Marburger Gender-Kolleg (ed.), Geschlecht Macht Arbeit. Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Political Intervention. Work - Democracy - Gender, Volume 7, Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 136-151.

Wagels, Karen (2008): Gender as political terrain - on scientific intervention in a conceptual regime. In: Haug, Christoph / Maier, Rudi / Schröder, Berit (eds.), Kampf um Teilhabe. Actors, places, strategies. Hamburg: VSA, 58-69.

Wagels, Karen (2008): Sub/Versions of Gender - on the political use of a photo exhibition, in: Ernst, Thomas / Gozalbez Cantó, Patricia / Richter, Sebastian / Sennewald, Nadja / Tieke, Julia (eds.), SUBversionen - zum Verhältnis von Politik und Ästhetik in der Gegenwart. Bielefeld: transcript, 198-214.

Sülzle, Almut / Wagels, Karen (2008): Re- and Deconstructions of Gender, in: Marburger Gender-Kolleg (ed.), Geschlecht Macht Arbeit. Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Political Intervention. Work - Democracy - Gender, Volume 7, Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 102-106.

Reviews

Wagels, Karen (2013): Depression and its gender subtext - an interdisciplinary study. Review of Nadine Teuber: The gender of depression. "Femininity" and "masculinity" in the conceptualization of depressive disorders. In: querelles-net vol. 14, no. 1 (2013). URL: www.querelles-net.de/index.php/qn/article/view/1048/1098 (28.01.2017)

Wagels, Karen (2010): Review of Rainer Bartel / Ilona Horwarth / Waltraud Kannonier-Finster / Maria Mesner / Erik Pfefferkorn / Meinrad Ziegler (eds.): Heteronormativity and Homosexualities. In: Feminist Studies, Issue 1.

Wagels, Karen (2008): Traversals - the work of subjectivity. Review of Renate Lorenz / Brigitta Kuster (2007): sexuell arbeiten. In: querelles-net, No. 24, March 2008. URL: www.querelles-net.de/index.php/qn/article/viewArticle/599/607 (28.01.2017)

since 2016

Professor of Psychology in Social Work, Department of Social and Health Care, Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society

2011-2016

Institute for Social Work, Department of Human Sciences, University of Kassel

2012

Doctoral Prize of the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Marburg

2011

Doctorate (Dr. phil.), University of Marburg

2009-2011

Department of Gender, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University

2007-2009

Teaching assignments at the Universities of Marburg, Kassel and Bielefeld

2004-2007

Interdisciplinary research training group on gender relations in the field of tension between work, politics and culture, University of Marburg, funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation

2002-2012

Lesbian Information and Counseling Center LIBS e.V., Frankfurt am Main

2002-2005

Further training in systemic counseling and therapy, ISTUP Frankfurt am Main

1997-2002

German Institute for International Educational Research DIPF, Frankfurt am Main

1996-2000

Postgraduate studies in education and international developments, University of Frankfurt am Main

1860-1994

Study of Psychology, Universities of Bonn and Heidelberg