Katja Höglinger

Katja Höglinger is a doctoral researcher and research assistant at the Chair of Education for Physical and Complex Disabilities, Institute for Special Education, Faculty of Human Sciences, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg. Since October 2021 she has held positions of increasing responsibility, serving since 2024 as academic advisor, internship coordinator, and appointed examiner for the First State Examination in Special Education (focus on physical disabilities).

Her educational background includes:

• 2021 – First State Examination for Teaching Special Education (focus on Physical Disabilities), with distinction
• 2021 – Bachelor of Arts in Education and Upbringing for Special Educational Needs, with distinction
• 2016–2021 – Studies in Special Education (physical disabilities), secondary-school didactics (German, English, Protestant religion)

Research & teaching interests centre on pedagogy in illness, salutogenesis, and the intersection of education, psychology and medicine for children and adolescents with chronic or complex conditions. She explores the invisible dimensions of chronic illness, ethical differentiation between pedagogical and therapeutic action, and resource-oriented health promotion in schools and clinics.

Research projects:

• SaLeO (2022–) – participatory doctoral project on salutogenic educational action in the continuum of health and illness, funded by the German Rheumatism Foundation (project prize €10,000)
• Pb-KuS (2023–) – development of a D-A-CH-wide curriculum for “Pedagogy in Illness and Hospital-School Pedagogy”, funded by Movetia; she leads a scoping review on the impact of chronic illness in school contexts

Scientific awards & scholarships:

• Project Prize, German Rheumatism Foundation (2024)
• German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung) scholarship (2019–2021)

Teaching & supervision: Since 2022 she organises the chair’s teaching and examinations, supervises bachelor theses, and directs the free continuing-education programme “Pädagogik bei Krankheit” with lecture series at JMU Würzburg, PH Ludwigsburg and LMU München. She also coordinates the working group “Children and Adolescents with Neuromuscular Diseases”.

Memberships: STARS – Society for Theory and Research on Salutogenesis; DGfE – German Society for Educational Science.