Paul S. Ruppel has been working as a research associate at the Chair of Social Theory and Social Psychology at the Faculty of Social Science at Ruhr University Bochum since April of 2014. Part of this time he has also spent as lecturer for special tasks. He is a temporary research associate at the Hans Kilian and Lotte Köhler Centre for Social and Cultural Psychology and Historical Anthropology (KKC).
Since December of 2023, he has been lecturer for special tasks at the section of Social Psychology and Social Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Science at Ruhr University Bochum.
Paul S. Ruppel is a psychologist (German Diplom). He studied psychology at Free University of Berlin (2003-2009) and University of East London (2006). As a research associate at the Institute for Qualitative Research at the International Academy Berlin (2009-2014), he led numerous workshops and seminars on qualitative research methods. He also acted as a methodology consultant for national and international research projects from the broad spectrum of the social, human and cultural sciences. Additionally, he was involved in the Berlin Method Meeting Qualitative Research, the largest event on qualitative research methods in the German-speaking countries, for over eight years; first as an assistant and later as co-organizer. For several years he was coordinator of the NetzWerktstatt in which doctoral students using qualitative methods work on their theses in virtual groups according to the peer-to-peer principle.
Together with Prof. Dr. Jürgen Straub, Paul S. Ruppel has been organizing the Master Class: Qualitative Methods of Social Research and Cultural Analysis at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen since 2017. He is a member of the KKC Junior Research Group Image Hermeneutics.
In his courses, he works with his students on social and cultural psychology and social theory topics, focusing, amongst other issues, on questions of climate awareness, ecological action, identity, performance and qualitative methodology. A research-orientated, methodologically reflective and interdisciplinary approach to teaching is a particular concern of his.
In his doctoral thesis, Paul S. Ruppel uses a qualitative methodological approach based on grounded theory methodology and relational hermeneutics to analyze questions and challenges of ecological action. The working title of his dissertation at the Faculty of Social Science at the Ruhr University Bochum is "Air travel in times of climate change as a polyvalent practice" (first supervisor Prof. Dr. Jürgen Straub, external second supervisor Prof. Dr. Günter Mey).
Main areas of research and interest:
Qualitative research, cultural psychology, identity research, climate change and mobility.
Paul S. Ruppel has been co-editor of the Journal für Psychologie since 2006 and part of the editorial board of cultura & psyché: Journal of Cultural Psychology since 2020. From 2016 to 2020 he was Associate Editor at Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research.
As a secretary, Paul S. Ruppel is a member of the board of the Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie (Society for Cultural Psychology), a member of the coordination team of the Netzwerk Lehrwerkstätten qualitative Forschung (Network of Teaching Studios for Qualitative Research), a member of the organizational team of the Netzwerk der Methodenzentren im deutschsprachigen Raum (network of method centres in the German-speaking countries) and a member of the Ernst Reuter Society.
Reviewer activities for, among others:
A list of publications by Paul Sebastian Ruppel can be found here.
Wednesdays 12:00 - 13:00 in room GD E1.223.
Pre-registration by email at paul-sebastian.ruppel@rub.de is requested.
Paul Sebastian Ruppel
Ruhr-University Bochum
Faculty of Social Science
Chair of Social Theory and Social Psychology
Universitätsstr. 150
Building GD E1.223
D-44801 Bochum
E-Mail: paul-sebastian.ruppel@rub.de
Copyright © 2025
Last update: Apr 14, 2025
