Research

  • Sociology of the body and sexuality
  • Sociology of knowledge
  • Methodology of qualitative social research, Qualitative methods, esp. Ethnography
  • Theories of practice, interactionism
  • Human differentiation research (esp. gender and dis/ability)

Project management

People with disabilities are often socially excluded from the field of sexuality. Their desire and the way society deals with it are also problematized in socio-educational and activist discourses as ‘disabled sexuality’ (in the sense of socially prevented sexuality). The sub-project analyzes sexual education advising and support services for people with disabilities as a field of “sexual human differentiation” that responds to this circumstance. From a sociology of knowledge perspective, it asks how sexuality is produced as an ability in sexual education discourses and practices and how this is linked to the categorization of bodies and persons as ‘disabled’ or to undoing disability. To this end, the production, communication and application of various forms of knowledge related to sexuality and disability will be examined ethnographically and through discourse analysis.

Project management

The task of the project is to develop and implement formats of responsive science communication for the Collaborative Research Center 1482: Human Differentiation. The sub-project accompanies research processes and processes their results in order to make them publicly communicable. With podcasts and local discussion groups, it establishes formats for communication with the non-scientific public. In addition, it monitors and analyzes the SFB’s impact on the public and conducts an internal resonance analysis. In this way, it contributes to the SFB’s self-reflection and the optimization of its public communication.

Monograph

Boll 2019 Autopornography Cover

Autopornography. An autoethnography of mediatized bodies . Berlin: De Gruyter 2019.

Edited Volumes

Unexpected un/abilities. The flip side of body-sociological competence orientation . Special Issue of the Austrian Journal of Sociology, 44 (3) (2019) (with Philip Lambrix)

Articles in specialist journals

(* with double blind peer review)

* Psychosocial Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children with Chronic Health Conditions in Germany – A Qualitative Interview Study. BMJ British Medical Journal open Aug 13;15 (2025) (with Sophie Lukes, Tim Schäfer, Elena Dessauer, Christiane Diefenbach, Michael S. Urschitz and Florian Hammerle)

Re-orientations in sociological methods training. Additions to a debate from the perspective of qualitative social research . SOZIOLOGIE, 53 (1) (2024): Pp. 46-59 (with Tobias Röhl and Daniela Schiek)

* Meet “Me” in the Field(-notes): The Selves and Self-Relations of Autoethnography. Qualitative Inquiry 2023

* Body Boundary Work: Praxeological Thoughts on Personal Corporality. Human Studies 43 (2020): 585-602 (with Sophie Merit Müller)

* Unsuspected un/abilities – Editorial. Austrian Journal of Sociology 44 (3) (2019): 261-267 (with Philip Lambrix)

Chapters in Edited Volumes

(* with double blind peer review)

* Sexual Independence as Collective Performance in Sex Education and Assistance for Disabled People. In: Backhausen, E./Kreuser, M./Wihstutz, B. (eds.): Independence and Collectivity. Configurations of Dis/ability Performance. London/New York: Routledge (i. E. 2025) (with Miriam Brunnengräber)

Forms and degrees of human differentiation in Social Pedagogy and activist helping relationships. In: Hirschauer, S., Hofmann, P., Friedrichs, A., Schabacher, G. (eds.): Human differentiation in comparison. Weilerswist: Velbrück (2025) (with Heike Drotbohm)

Researching with the body: from approaches and/or applications. In: Poferl, A./Schröer, N. (eds.): Leib-Körper Ethnographie. Explorations on body-being and body-having. Essen: Oldib 2023, pp. 19-38

Becoming ‘(Ab )Normal’: Normality, Deviance, and Doing Life Course Transitions. In: Walther, A./Stauber, B./Settersten, R. Jr. (eds.): Doing Transitions in the Life Course – Processes and Practices. Springer 2022, pp. 169-183

“Changes” of bodies with disabilities in sexuality-related discourses. In: Meuser, M./Keller, R. (eds.): Die Körper der Anderen: Body Knowledge III. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2022, pp. 139-160 (with Miriam Brunnengräber)

“Pornography. In: Gugutzer, Robert/Klein, Gabriele/Meuser, Michael (eds.). Handbook of body sociology. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2022, pp. 345-357

* Picture Me Naked. Embodying Images On Screen and Off . In: Abidin, C./Cambre, C./Warfield, K. (eds.): Mediated Interfaces: The Body on Social Media. London: Bloomsbury 2020, pp. 247-262

Un/doing Differences. On the theory and empiricism of a research program. In: Hirschauer, S. (ed.): Un/doing Differences. Practices of human differentiation. Weilerswist: Velbrück Science 2017, pp. 7-26 (with Stefan Hirschauer)

Media-bound lifeworlds and observing with different eyes. In: Schröer, N./Kreher, S./Poferl, A./Hinnenkamp, V. (eds.): Lebenswelt und Ethnographie. Essen: Oldib 2012, pp. 411-424

Visual items and the (re)production of immediacy: In: Hägele, U./Ziehe, I. (eds.): Visuelle Medien und Forschung, Visuelle Kultur, vol. 5, Münster: Waxmann 2011, pp. 219-231 (with Larissa Schindler)

Miscellanies and reviews

On the way to the queer phase of life. In: DJI Impulse 1/2018: 10-12

Social practices with skin and hair. Everyday semiotics and the practical ontology of bodily peripheries . In: Sozialmagazin. The journal for social work 42 (1-2) (2017): 20-26

Review of Benkel, T./Akalin, F. (eds.): Soziale Dimensionen der Sexualität, Gießen: Psychosozial: In: Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung 23 (4) (2010): 393-396

Review of “What does normal mean? On the relationship between sexuality and society”. SWS-Rundschau issue 3/2008. in: Journal for Sexual Research 22 (4) (2009): 375-378

(the 7 most recent)

(the 2 most recent)

in the current semester:

  1. Kolloquium: BA/MA-Kolloquium Körpersoziologie
    Instructor: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Tobias Boll
  2. Kolloquium: Das Spektrum der Mainzer Soziologien
    Instructor: Prof. Dr. Petra Ahrweiler; Blanca Luque Capellas; Jun.-Prof. Dr. Tobias Boll; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sascha Dickel; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marina Hennig; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stephan Hirschauer; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Herbert Kalthoff; Prof. Dr. Natascha Nisic; Univ-Prof. Dr. Gunnar Otte
  3. Seminar: Corporeal Orders: Embodiment, Social Difference, and Inequality
    Instructor: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Tobias Boll
  4. Vorlesung: Einführung in die Körpersoziologie
    Instructor: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Tobias Boll

SoSe 2026