Katharina Urbann

Dr. Katharina Urbann is a Research Fellow in the Department of Sign Language and Audio Pedagogy at Humboldt University of Berlin's Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences within the Faculty of Cultural, Social and Educational Sciences. She has established herself as a leading researcher in deaf education, sexual violence prevention, and multilingual education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Her research interests focus on prevention of sexualized violence against children and adolescents with hearing impairments, sex education for people with hearing impairments, foreign language teaching with students with hearing impairments, and language education for newly immigrated deaf and hard-of-hearing students. She leads the 'Sign Language in the Foreign Language Classroom' (SiLC) research group and works on the 'Digital protection against sexualized violence against children and adolescents with hearing impairments' (DigGaH) project.

Dr. Urbann's recent publications (2023-2025) demonstrate her expertise across multiple domains, with a strong focus on digital sexual violence against deaf/hard-of-hearing youth, culturally responsive teaching for deaf multilingual learners, and bimodal-bilingual education approaches. Her work spans empirical research, educational resource development, and practical classroom strategies.

Her scientific contributions include:

• Investigations into digital sexual violence against deaf and hard-of-hearing adolescents
• Development of culturally responsive teaching strategies for deaf multilingual learners
• Research on English language learning among deaf students
• Creation of sex education materials specifically designed for children and adolescents with hearing impairments
• Analysis of communicative competence as a factor in preventing digital sexual violence

As an educator, Dr. Urbann supervises academic theses and teaches courses on bimodal-bilingual education, sex education for hearing-impaired students, and language education for newly immigrated deaf and hard-of-hearing students. She offers specialized sign language consultation hours for students and maintains an active research agenda with numerous international collaborations.