Prof.in Dr.in Josephina Schmidt

• Since April 2025: Professor of Theories and Methods of Social Work in the Social Work program at Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (AGN)
• 2023: Ph.D. from Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Institute of Educational Science, Department of Social Pedagogy; dissertation title: Women in Social Psychiatry—A Reconstructive Study on Social Work with Long-Term Residents; advisors: Prof. Dr. Petra Bauer (University of Tübingen), Prof. Dr. Sandro Bliemetsrieder (Esslingen University of Applied Sciences)
• 2021–2025: Social worker at the Social Services Office of the State Capital of Stuttgart, focusing on policy issues and the quality of social work
• 2018–2021: Social education worker at the Caritas Association for Stuttgart, social psychiatric residential facility
• 2016–2017: Formative evaluation of the project “Achtung!? An initiative of the Ludwigsburg Police Headquarters against extremism and radicalization”
• 2016–2018: Research Assistant, Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, “Digitization of Higher Education” project
• 2015–2025: Teaching assignments at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, and Ludwigsburg Protestant University of Applied Sciences
• 2014–2016: Research assistant, Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, project “Participation in Social Psychiatry”
• 2013–2014: Studied Social Work, Master of Arts, Esslingen University of Applied Sciences
• 2010–2012: Social worker at Bruderhausdiakonie Reutlingen, social psychiatric services
• 2007–2010: Bachelor of Arts in Social Work, Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, Stuttgart

Bachelor's Degree in "Social Work"

• Methodological Professionalism II (Module Coordinator)
• Reflection on Practice (Module Coordinator)
• Advanced Theories of Social Work (Module Coordinator)
• Applied Social Research I and II
• History and Theories of Social Work
• Health and Social Work
• Social Work in Social Psychiatry
• Case Work in Social Work
• Theory-Guided Case Analyses
• Legal Guardianship in the Context of Social Work: Legal Foundations, Self-Determination, Planning, and Professional Practice

Master’s Program in “Research-based Practice Development in Social Work”

• Social Organizations and Social Management (Module Coordinator)
• Reconstructive Concept Development
• Research-Based Practice Development I
• Political Action in Social Work

• Reflexive and Reconstructive Social Work
• Reconstructive Social Research
• Methodological Approaches in Social Work
• Theoretical Foundations of Social Work
• Gender Issues in Social Psychiatry
• Women-Specific Support in Social Work
• Participation of Social Work Clients
• Concept Development
• Digitalization of Higher Education
• Professionalization of Social Work
• Case-by-Case and Client-Centered Approaches
• Quality in Social Work

• March 2026: Social Work Cares. The Current Significance of the Profession and Discipline. Event as part of the lecture series “Social Work and Responsibility,” Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg.
• February 2026: Participation and Empowerment. Approaches to Emancipatory Social Work. Lecture and workshop at the symposium organized by Stuttgart’s social services department on prostitution/sex work, hosted by the Public Health Department of the State Capital of Stuttgart.
• December 2025: Women in Social Psychiatry. Social Work and Feminist Perspectives. Lecture in the series: Focus on Equal Opportunity—21 Days Against Violence, organized by the City of Stuttgart, Department of Equal Opportunity.
• Oct. 2025: Women in Mental Health Crises—Constructs, Realities of Life, and Social Work. Keynote address at the fall reception of the Catholic Women’s Social Service (Sozialdienst katholischer Frauen e.V.) in Augsburg.
• July 2024: Gender Studies in Social Psychiatry. Lecture and workshop marking the 10th anniversary of the Working Group on Qualitative Social Research in Social Psychiatry at Ulm University Hospital.
• February 2024: Professional Issues in Social Work in the Context of Fragile Housing in Cases of Domestic Violence. Presentation at the academic conference “Fragile Housing: Precarious Living & Homelessness in Times of Multiple Crises” (wolokon), Ohm University of Applied Sciences, Nuremberg.
• November 2021 and October 20, 2022: Emancipation and Gender Issues in Housing Programs in Social Psychiatry. Online expert discussion hosted by the German Society for Social Psychiatry; for more information, visit: https://www.dgsp-ev.de/tagungen/fachgespraecheonline/vergangene-fachgespraecheonline/emanzipation-und-geschlechterfragen-in-wohnangeboten-der-sozialpsychiatrie.html
• March 2021: Understanding Crises in Relationships—Suggestions for the Professionalization of Social Work Using the Example of Long-Term Residents in Social Psychiatry. Presentation at the 2021 annual conference of the DGfE Commission on Social Pedagogy, “Social Pedagogical Professionalization in Crisis?”, as part of the panel “Relational Crisis Management—Thinking About Social Pedagogical Professionalism Reciprocally” by Petra Bauer; Erfurt.
• November 2019: Forum “Participation in Social Psychiatry”; Social Pedagogy Day at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, together with Petra Bauer, Sandro Bliemetsrieder, Harald Metzger, Bärbel Nopper, Athanasios Tsirikiotis, and Moritz Puppel;
• June 28–29, 2019: “Reflexive Normativity in Reconstructive Social Research: The Case of a Dissertation Project in the Participation-Centered Field of Social Work with Women in Social-Psychiatric Residential Facilities.” Research workshop at the conference “Inclusion Research Between Normativity and Empiricism—Demarcations and Bridges” organized by the Inclusion Research Working Group of the German Society for Educational Science, Freiburg.
• May 2019: Participation in Social-Psychiatric Fields of Action. Insights into a research project. Keynote address at the symposium “Participation in Community Psychiatry” at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, together with Sandro Bliemetsrieder and Athanasios Tsirikiotis.
• April 2019: Digitalization of Higher Education with a Focus on the Professionalization of Social Work. Panel presentation at the DGSA Annual Conference “Changes in the Working World—Social Work in Times of Globalization, Digitalization, and Precarization,” Stuttgart, co-presented with Athanasios Tsirikiotis.
• January 2019: Participation in Social-Psychiatric Fields of Practice. Event held as part of the Psychiatric Continuing Education Series of the Center for Psychiatry in Southern Württemberg, Weissenau, together with Sandro Bliemetsrieder
• Jan. 2019: Shared Experiences in Care Work Among People with Experience of Mental Illness, Social Workers, and Researchers—Insights from a Doctoral Project. Lecture as part of the public lecture series at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences: Ethical Aspects of Contemporary Issues. Focus topic: Care. Care from an ethical perspective.
• September 2018: Social Work with Women in Social-Psychiatric Residential Facilities—Insights from a doctoral project. Presentation at the Federal Congress on Social Work; Bielefeld.
• September 2018: The Digitalization of Higher Education and the Perspective of Social Work: Opportunities and Barriers for Educational Processes. Workshop at the Federal Congress on Social Work; Bielefeld, together with Verena Ketter and Athanasios Tsirikiotis.
• June 2018: Participation in social-psychiatric contexts. Keynote address at the symposium “Teilhabe konkret” organized by the Association for the Promotion of Social Psychiatry (Verein zur Förderung einer sozialen Psychiatrie e.V.); Pfleghof Esslingen, together with Sandro Bliemetsrieder.
• April 2018: Formative Evaluation of the “Achtung?!” Prevention Program: Qualitative Methods and Goal Development. Workshop presentation at the event: “Evaluation of Deradicalization Measures: Determining the Effects of Prevention Against Violent Extremism,” organized by the Competence Center for the Coordination of the Prevention Network Against Extremism in Baden-Württemberg (KPEBW) and the German Society for Evaluation (DeGEval), Social Services Working Group; KPEBW Stuttgart, in collaboration with Athanasios Tsirikiotis.
• September 2017: Critical Practice in Social Work in Social Psychiatry. Panel presentation at the 7th Symposium on Clinical Social Work; Catholic University of Applied Social Sciences Berlin.
• June 2017: Power Structures and Protection Strategies in Services for People with Mental Health Challenges. Workshop at the symposium “Sexualized Violence in Educational Contexts and Social Work Institutions: Risk Analysis, Power Structures, Protection Strategies”; Esslingen University of Applied Sciences.
• April 29, 2017: Human Rights and Critical Professionalization in Social Work: The Case of Social Psychiatry. Panel presentation at the DGSA Annual Conference on Social Work and Human Rights; ASH Berlin, together with Sandro Bliemetsrieder, Katja Maar, and Athanasios Tsirikiotis.
• March 2016: Reconstructive Case Workshops as a Method of Understanding for a Reflexive Social Psychiatry. Workshop at Forschungswelten 2016. International Scientific Congress on Applied Nursing and Health Research, Munich, together with Sandro Bliemetsrieder and Athanasios Tsirikiotis.
• October 2015: Case reconstruction on participation in the field of social psychiatry. Workshop at the 9th Federal Congress on Social Work. Darmstadt, September 30–October 2, 2015, Topic: Politics of Circumstances – Politics of Behavior: Contradictions in the Shaping of Social Work, Darmstadt, in collaboration with Sandro Bliemetsrieder, Katja Maar, and Athanasios Tsirikiotis.

Editors

Tsirikiotis, Athanasios; Schmidt, Josephina; Ketter, Verena (eds.) (2023): Digital Higher Education? – Educational Processes of Students and Faculty in the Age of Digitalization. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.

Hawel, Marcus; Gerbsch, Elisa; Junker, Leon; Nastold, Friederike; Schmidt, Josephina; Seefelder, Stefan; Werner, Franziska; Wimmer, Christopher (eds.) (2020): WORK IN PROGRESS. WORK ON PROGRESS. 10 Years of Contributions to Critical Scholarship: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Doctoral Student Yearbook 2020. Hamburg: VSA Verlag. Bliemetsrieder, Sandro; Maar, Katja; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (eds.) (2018): Participation in Social-Psychiatric Fields of Action. Reflections and Research Report. Available at: https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/43546/work-in-progress-work-on-progress-9

Bliemetsrieder, Sandro; Maar, Katja; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (Eds.) (2018): Participation in Social-Psychiatric Contexts. Reflections and Research Report. Available at: https://hses.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/612

Books

Schmidt, Josephina (2024): Women in Social Psychiatry. Understanding Case Histories from Multiple Perspectives. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Schmidt, Josephina (2026): Desire, Limits, Relationships. Thoughts on Women’s Sexuality in Special Living Arrangements from a Feminist Perspective. In: Social Psychiatric Information. Journal of Critical Psychiatry since 1970. 1/2025, Vol. 55, pp. 18–22.

Schmidt, Josephina (2025): How Does a Woman Become a Permanent Resident? A Reconstructive Study from Social-Psychiatric, Feminist, and Social Work Perspectives. In: Sozialpsychiatrische Informationen. Journal of Critical Psychiatry since 1970. 1/2025, Vol. 55, pp. 43–47.

Tsirikiotis, Athanasios; Schmidt, Josephina (2023): Subjectification (Research) in the Context of Homelessness and Homeless Assistance. In: Borstel, Dierk; Brückmann, Jennifer; Nübold, Laura; Pütter, Bastian; Sonnenberg, Tim (eds.): Handbook of Housing and Homelessness. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-35279-0_75-1

Tsirikiotis, Athanasios; Schmidt, Josephina; Hille, Julia; Bauer, Petra (2023): Crisis in Relation—Crisis Vulnerability in the Context of Social Pedagogical Working Alliances. In: Commission on Social Pedagogy: Professionalization in Social Pedagogy in Crisis? Weinheim and Basel: Beltz Juventa.

Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2023): “Because I think to myself, (…) that we’ll only meet somewhere in a virtual dream”—Shared Perspectives Among Higher Education Stakeholders. In: Digital Higher Education? – Educational Processes of Students and Faculty in the Age of Digitalization. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 29–70. Available at: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4803-4/digitale-hochschulbildung/

Tsirikiotis, Athanasios; Schmidt, Josephina (2023): Digital Higher Education as a Way of Illuminating Spaces of Possibility – Theoretical Connections to the Empirical Findings of the DISTELL Project. In: Digital Higher Education?—Educational Processes of Students and Faculty in the Age of Digitalization. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 71–126. Available at: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4803-4/digitale-hochschulbildung/

Schmidt, Josephina; Guthier, Johanna; Marxer, Anke (2021): Developing Self-Determined Programs to Structure Daily Life—Process and Results of Concept Development in a Special Residential Setting in Social Psychiatry. In: Social Psychiatric Information. Journal of Critical Psychiatry since 1970. Psychiatrie-Verlag, pp. 56–62.

Schmidt, Josephina; Marxer, Anke; Guthier, Johanna (2021): Participatory Further Development of Daily Structuring Programs—Insights into the Concept Development Process for an Inpatient Residential Setting for People with Mental Illness. In: ergopraxis. Journal of Occupational Therapy, 11–12/21, Thieme-Verlag, pp. 42–45.

Gerbsch, Elisa; Junker, Leon; Nastold, Friederike; Schmidt, Josephina; Seefelder, Stefan; Werner, Franziska; Wimmer, Christopher (2020): Introduction: Critical Left-Wing Scholarship in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Hawel, Marcus & Editorial Collective: Elisa Gerbsch, Leon Junker, Friederike Nastold, Josephina Schmidt, Stefan Seefelder, Franziska Werner, Christopher Wimmer (eds.): WORK IN PROGRESS. WORK ON PROGRESS. 10 Years of Critical Scholarship: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Ph.D. Student Yearbook 2020. Hamburg: VSA Verlag, pp. 9–20. Available at: https://hses.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/612

Schmidt, Josephina (2020): Other Women? Relational (Self-)Reflection on Equality and Difference Using the Example of the Doctoral Project “Women in Social-Psychiatric Residential Homes.” In: Hawel, Marcus & Editorial Collective: Elisa Gerbsch, Leon Junker, Friederike Nastold, Josephina Schmidt, Stefan Seefelder, Franziska Werner, Christopher Wimmer (Eds.): WORK IN PROGRESS. WORK ON PROGRESS. 10 Years of Contributions to Critical Scholarship: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Doctoral Student Yearbook 2020. Hamburg: VSA Verlag, pp. 51–67. Available at: https://hses.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/612

Kerle, Anja; Schmidt, Josephina; Ober, Nadine; Bliemetsrieder, Sandro; Weise, Marion (2019, peer-reviewed): Poverty as a Central Problem for Early Childhood Education Organizations? In: ElFo—Research Contributions on Early Childhood Education, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 42–52. Available at: http://unipub.uni-graz.at/download/pdf/4585326?name=2%202019 

Ketter, Verena; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2018, peer-reviewed): The Digitalization of Higher Education from a Social Science Perspective. The “DISTELL” Research Project. In: Barbara Getto, Patrick Hintze, Michael Kerres (eds.): Digitization and Higher Education Development. Proceedings of the 26th Conference of the Society for Media in Science e.V. Münster: Waxmann-Verlag, pp. 84–92. Available at: https://www.pedocs.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=17022  

Bliemetsrieder, Sandro; Maar, Katja; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2018): Human Rights and the Critical Professionalization of Social Work: The Case of Social Psychiatry. In: Spatscheck, Christian; Steckelberg, Claudia (Eds.): Human Rights and Social Work. Conceptual Foundations, Fields of Action, and the Implementation of a Real Utopia, Book Series: Theory, Practice, and Research in Social Work, Vol. 16. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich, pp. 283–296.

Bliemetsrieder, Sandro; Maar, Katja; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2018): Reconstructive Case Workshops as a Method of (Power-)Reflective Social Work—Using the Example of Social Psychiatry. In: Participation in Social-Psychiatric Fields of Action. Reflections and Research Report, pp. 128–159. Available at: https://hses.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/612

Bliemetsrieder, Sandro; Maar, Katja; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2018): Participation as a Critical Framework for Social Work in Social-Psychiatric Settings. In: Participation in Social-Psychiatric Contexts. Reflections and Research Report, pp. 270–354. Available at: https://hses.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/612

Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2018): Reconstruction—Participation—Emancipation? Reflections on Research Methodology and Ethics in the Project “Participation in Social-Psychiatric Contexts.” In: Participation in Social-Psychiatric Contexts. Reflections and Research Report, pp. 356–393. Available at: https://hses.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/612

Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2017): Those with Visions… Initial Insights into the Data Analysis Process of the DISTELL Research Project. In: Spektrum—Journal of Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, 45/2017, pp. 25–28.

Buchheit, Frank; Neuscheler, Florian; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2017): Report on the Findings of the External, Formative Evaluation of the Prevention Program “ACHTUNG?!—An Initiative of the Ludwigsburg Police Headquarters Against Extremism and Radicalization.” Available at: www.radikalisierung.info/downloads

Ketter, Verena; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2017): The “DISTELL” Research Project. In: Spektrum – Journal of Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, 44/2017, pp. 11–13. Available at: http://www.hs-esslingen.de/fileadmin/medien/einrichtungen/Oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/Presse/spektrum/spektrum_44_web.pdf

Schmidt, Josephina (2017): Critical Practice in Social Work in Social Psychiatry. In: Julia Gebrande; Claus Melter; Sandro Bliemetsrieder (Eds.): Critically Ambitious Social Work. Intersectional Praxeological Perspectives. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, pp. 70–85.

Schmidt, Josephina (2016): Critical Social Work in the Context of Processes of Economization. A Study Using Focused Ethnography and Objective Hermeneutics. In: Wintzer, Jeannine (ed.): Qualitative Methods in Social Research. Research Examples by Students for Students. VS, pp. 155–164.

Bliemetsrieder, Sandro; Maar, Katja; Schmidt, Josephina; Tsirikiotis, Athanasios (2016): Critical Professionalization and a Human Rights Orientation. In: Arno Heimgartner, Karin Lauermann, Stephan Sting (eds.): Professional Orientations and Implementation Strategies in Social Work. Vienna: LIT, pp. 37–52.

• German Society for Social Psychiatry, Inc. (DGSP)
• German Professional Association for Social Work (DBSH)
• German Society for Social Work (DGSA)
• German Society for Educational Science, Commission on Social Pedagogy (DgfE)
• Member of the editorial board of the journal “Sozialpsychiatrische Informationen”