Sociology of evaluation
Sociology of education
Human differentiation
Qualitative methods (including ethnography and expert interviews)
03/2022
Master’s degree.
Title of thesis: Virale Einsamkeit
Soziologische Perspektiven auf die emotionale Kultur der Corona-Pandemie.
2019-2022
Program of study in Sociology (Master’s degree), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
12/2019
Bachelor of Arts.
Title of the thesis: Von Menschen und Zimmerpflanzen. A materiality-theoretical ethnography of human-vegetal relationships.
2016-2019
Program of study in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology (Bachelor of Arts), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
since 2025
Academic staff member at the Institute of Sociology, JGU Mainz, research unit Sociology of Knowledge and Education, Qualitative Methods
since 2022
Academic staff member in the DFG project “Universitäre Urteile. Die Bewertung studentischer Leistungen in den Ingenieurs- und Geschichtswissenschaften”Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
2021-2022
Graduate assistant, CRC 1482 Human Differentiation (subproject: C03), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
2019-2022
Graduate assistant, Institute of Sociology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Reviews and conference contributions
Kölsch, F. (2023): Ein gemeinsamer Blick auf die Vergangenheit und in die Zukunft. Bericht von der Sektionstagung Methoden der qualitativen Sozialforschung vom 22. to June 23, 2023 at the University of Mainz. In: Soziopolis. Link to the article
Journal Articles
Kölsch, F. (2025): Before (e)valuating: student testing in History and Engineering. In: British Journal of Sociology of Education (mit Herbert Kalthoff). Link to the article
Kölsch, F. (2025): In the engine room of differentiation. In: Austrian Journal of Sociology 50, 44 (with Herbert Kalthoff). Link to the article
Scham und Schweigen. Seminaraffekte und universitäre Anerkennung. Research Colloquium Theoretical Empiricism, Institute of Sociology, University of Mainz, 18.07.2024.
Geschichte darstellen. Research Colloquium Theoretical Empiricism, Institute of Sociology, University of Mainz, 11.05.2023.
Seminar: Research Workshop I+II Ethnographies of Education (SoSe 2024, WiSe 2024/25)
Seminar: Methods of qualitative empirical social research (winter semester 2022/23, winter semester 2023/24, winter semester 2024/25, winter semester 2025/26)
Tutorial: Introduction to the Technics Department of Studying (winter semester 2020/21)
Project seminar: Qualitative research (summer semester 2025, together with Svenja Wassenberg)
Seminar: Research workshop: Observing educational practice (winter semester 2025/26)
Seminar: Communication and Interaction (SoSe 2024, SoSe 2025)
Seminar: Equality and difference in school and teaching (winter semester 2023/24)
Seminar: Sociology of Higher Education (summer semester 2023, together with Herbert Kalthoff)
Tutorial: University judgments (winter semester 2021/22, summer semester 2022)
BA colloquium (summer semester 2024, winter semester 2025/26)
German Sociological Association(Section Methods of Qualitative Social Research and Education)
University teaching is currently viewed primarily as a place of academic education and the acquisition of competence. The focus of empirical higher education research is therefore on the validation and didactic improvement of teaching. In contrast, the doctoral project takes a look at the university examination process and understands examination and evaluation as an organized practice of self-observation and observation by others. Particular attention is paid to the socio-material and affective dimensions of human evaluation.
The project explores how university examination settings are structured, how the interplay between subjectivation and objectification unfolds in practice, and how examinations produce, differentiate, and classify their human objects of knowledge as organizational artefacts. In this regard, the project conceptualizes examinations and evaluations as “natural candidates for a medium of university education” (Stichweh). Methodologically, the research draws on ethnographic traditions that foreground the embodied positioning of the researcher as an epistemic instrument. Conceptually, it establishes a dialogue between educational sociology, evaluation studies, and organizational sociology.
