Dr. Nicole Kirchhoff

Current activity
Academic co-worker in Department 8 of the Faculty of Sociology, "Sociology of Gender Relations" (AG Prof. Dr Diana Lengersdorf), coordination and implementation of the interdisciplinary profiling programme, "Diversity, Health and Care" at the Medical Faculty of Bielefeld University

University education:
2005-2012 Studied Educational Science and Sociology at TU Dortmund University, specialising in adult education/professional development (Prof. Dr Sigrid Nolda) and sociology of gender relations (Prof. Dr Michael Meuser)

Degrees:
2021 (doctoral) thesis "Body images and image bodies as a social practice of young people" (Supervisors: Prof Dr Sylka Scholz, Friedrich Schiller University Jena; Prof Dr Diana Lengersdorf, Bielefeld University)
Grade: magna cum laude

2012 Diploma "The new father. Images of a changing figure" Grade: very good (1.3)

Publications:
Kirchhoff, Nicole/Khislavski, Grigori (2026): (Image) knowledge and violence. A sociological examination using the example of images of the Ukraine war. In: Benkel, Thorsten/Coenen, Ekkehard (eds.): Knowledge and Violence, Weinheim (ed.).

Kirchhoff, Nicole (2025): The ambivalent fascination of thinking life from its end. In: Benkel, Thorsten/Meitzler, Matthias (eds.): Yearbook for Death and Society. Weinheim/Juventa, pp. 202-204.

Kirchhoff, Nicole/Freymüller, Nadja/Kirchner, Babette (2025): Seriously ill? Negotiations on the emergence of 'extreme bodies' in adipogenic contexts. In: Gugutzer, Robert/Benkel, Thorsten: Extreme bodies. A body-sociological diagnosis of the times, Bielefeld.

Kirchhoff, Nicole (2025): Visual knowledge in showing and seeing: On the Return of Combat-Ready Masculinities in Mass Media Images of the Ukraine War. In: Reißmann, Wolfgang/Venema, Rebecca/Autenrieth, Ulla/Brüggen, Niels: Visual Literacy. Visual literacy in digital media, Cologne, pp. 234-260

Kirchhoff, Nicole (2023): War as a field of 'bodies in a state of emergency'. In: Journal Netzwerk Gender Studies NRW, pp. 78-80

Meuser, Michael & Kirchhoff, Nicole (2019): Cultures and practices of the body. In Stephan Moebius et al. (eds.): Handbook of Cultural Sociology, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Euteneuer, Matthias & Kirchhoff, Nicole (2018): Montages as a medium for socio-pedagogical research into everyday family worlds. An exemplary discussion of visual research approaches in social work. In Deutsches Jugend Institut (ed.): On the way to the object in the research field of child and youth welfare: Methodological challenges in qualitative research. Munich: DJI.

Kirchhoff, Nicole (2018): "We are gangsters": Body images as products of representation and perception in performances of gender. Weinheim Basel, pp. 872-884.

Kirchhoff, Nicole/Zander, Benjamin (2018): "Appearance is not important!" On the relationship between body images and body practices in the production of gender by male and female adolescents. In: Gender. Journal for Gender, Culture and Society, Issue 1, pp. 81-99

Zander, Benjamin & Kirchhoff, Nicole (2016). Sportive orientations and body cultures of young people - methodological approaches, initial results and didactic benefits. In D. Wiesche, M. Fahlenbock, & N. Gissel (Eds.), Sportpädagogische Praxis - Ansatzpunkt und Prüfstein von Theorie: 28th Annual Conference of the dvs Section for Sport Pedagogy, 30 April-2 May 2015 in Bochum (pp. 261-270). Hamburg: Feldhaus.

Kirchhoff, Nicole (2016): Talking about the body as an action problem for pupils. On the expansion of group discussions through collages and photographic self-presentations. Journal for Qualitative Research (ZQF), 17 (1-2), 107-131.

Kirchhoff, Nicole (2012): Father images in photography - father images in couple interviews. Dichotomy of a figure in the negotiation process. Journal Netzwerk Gender Studies NRW No. 31, pp. 49-52.

Teaching (in short form):
Since October 2013 teaching at the Universities of Bielefeld, Dortmund, Bielefeld, Cologne, Graz and at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Munich. Specialisations: Qualitative research methods (esp. visual sociology), body, gender, family, childhood and youth as well as migration.

Extra-university activities:
Since 06/2024 Head of a (supervised) dialogue group in psychosocial primary care (Lüdenscheid)

2005-2009 Head of a (supervised) counselling group in psychosocial primary care (psychiatric-psychotherapeutic specialist practice Dr Volker Budde/Lüdenscheid)

2003-2007 Museum education and public relations work in the city's museums and the Lüdenscheid Municipal Gallery

2000-2013 Freelance work in the print media (e.g. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Westfälische Rundschau)

1998-2000 Editor at the Westfälische Rundschau (specialising in culture/medical and socio-political reporting)

1995-1997 Editorial traineeship at the publishing house of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (Essen)

1991-1994 Freelance work for the Westfälische Rundschau, the Kieler Nachrichten and the Hamburger Morgenpost