Victoria Paul

Victoria Paul is a Research Fellow at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, affiliated with the interdisciplinary Graduate College (GRK) Life Sciences – Life Writing Research Program. Her PhD project, supervised by Prof. Dr. Norbert W. Paul, examines chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) through an applied phenomenological lens, focusing on the ethical implications of chronic illness and the interplay between medical expertise and patient experiences.

• Background: Studied Comparative Literature and Philosophy at Free University of Berlin and University of Oldenburg, with a focus on German Idealism
• Experience: Former teaching assistant in philosophy, student assistant at Hannah Arendt Archive, and empirical research assistant at MPI for Empirical Aesthetics

Her work bridges phenomenology (notably Edmund Husserl's theories of the lived body) and medical theory to explore how chronicity reshapes identity formation, symptom perception, and medical practice in Western industrialized societies.