Prof. Dr. Karen Wagels
Professorship for Psychology in Social Work
C1.237
karen.wagels@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 hwg-lu.de
Teaching areas
- Psychology in social work
- Reflection on psychological concepts and knowledge production
- Social inequality in the field of trauma research
- Subjectivity in the science and practice of social work
- Qualitative methods of empirical social research
Research Perspectives
- Discourse, Subjectivity and Body
- gender and queer studies
- critical whiteness and working class approaches
Scientific networks
- Liaison lecturer at the Hans Böckler Foundation
- German Society for Social Work DGSA
- Section Gender and Queer Studies in Social Work, German Society for Social Work DGSA
- Section for Women's and Gender Studies, German Sociological Association DGS
- Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterstudien / Gender Studies Association e.V.
- Education and Science Trade Union GEW
Self-government
- 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
Publications
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.
Book contributions
Wagels, Karen (2025): Practice research, pragmatism and vulnerability. A subject-theoretical search for traces in Jane Addams. In: Ehlert, Gudrun / Liebsch, Katharina / Neuber, Anke (eds.), Changing perspectives: questioning the self-evident. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 271-282. URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-49227-4_21 (08.12.2025).
Wagels, Karen (2025): (Queer) subjectivity, partiality and privilege in settlement - an intersectional perspective on professional engagement. In: Dimbath, Oliver / Hoffmann, Nicole (eds.): Crossing lines... - Interdisciplinary and cross-field border crossings using the example of Jane Addams. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, 70-89.
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.
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.
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).
Activities
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
1986-1994
Degree in Psychology, Universities of Bonn and Heidelberg