Dr. Tamara Schwertel
Profile
Tamara Schwertel is a research associate at the IMVR, where she heads the Q&Q Lab for qualitative and quantitative methods at the Chair of Medical Sociology. Her expertise lies particularly in qualitative research methods with a focus on interpretive and reconstructive approaches, including Situational Analysis (Adele E. Clarke), Reflexive Grounded Theory, Ethnography, Objective Hermeneutics, and the Documentary Method. She is also engaged in the further development of methodological approaches, especially arts-based methods and participatory designs. In addition to methodological development and consulting, Tamara Schwertel serves as Research and Teaching Coordinator at the Faculty of Medicine. From May 2024 to August 2025, she was a (digital) Visiting Scholar at the Usher Institute and the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society in Edinburgh.
Tamara Schwertel studied sociology, political science, and philosophy in Frankfurt, Paris, and Lyon. She subsequently worked as a research associate at the Chair of Empirical Social Research at the University of Siegen. She has extensive teaching experience across various disciplines, including sociology, educational sciences, medicine, midwifery science, science and technology studies, and health services research. Her teaching activities have taken her to Frankfurt, Mainz, Munich, Vienna, and Innsbruck.
Her doctoral research focused on deep brain stimulation, examining the organization of care from historical, collective, and individual perspectives. She was a member of the interdisciplinary Research Training Group Life Sciences – Life Writing at the University Medical Center Mainz and an associate member of the Research Training Group Doing Transitions in Tübingen. In 2022, she was a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, & Society at the University of California.
Her research interests include the further development and study of qualitative methods in the social sciences, organizational and institutional dynamics, the history of medicine and science, the role of gender, the development of health and neurotechnologies, as well as the emergence and significance of patient organizations and communities.
For collaboration inquiries in the field of qualitative and mixed-methods projects, please contact tamara.schwertel@uk-koeln.de
- Science, Technology, and Medicine Studies
- Qualitative Methods
- Sociology of health and medicine
- Feminist Theories, Gender, and Diversity
- Neurotechnologies
- Schwertel, T. (2025). Umkämpfte Gehirne. Eine Situationsanalyse der Tiefen Hirnstimulation als Therapieverfahren. Bielefeld: Transcript.
- Schwertel, T., Baumgartner, R. & Offenberger, U. (hg.) (2025): Situationsanalyse: Zu Aktualität und Verwendungsweisen eines Forschungsprogramms (Sonderheft). ZQF – Zeitschrift für Qualitative Forschung, 26(1-2025). https://doi.org/10.3224/zqf.v26i1
- Schwertel, T. (2025): Navigating Hopes and Fears. The Socio-Technical Impact of Deep Brain Stimulation in Healthcare. In: K. T. Heckes, M. Lorke, M. Siegler und K. Wrona (Hg.): Soziotechnische Transformationen im Sozial- und Gesundheitswesen. Kollaborativ, divers, barrierefrei und sozialräumlich. 1. Auflage. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, S. 100-117.
- Schwertel, T. (2023). Clarke Meets Haraway. Relationale Maps, Werden-mit-anderen und die Bedeutung von Relationen in Situationsanalysen. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum / Qualitative Social Research, 24(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-24.2.4071
- Baumgartner, R.; Evans-Jordan, S. B.; Leger, M.; Schwertel, T. & Urbanczyk, M. (2023). Mapping together. Reflektionen einer situationsanalytischen Interpretationsgruppe. In: Gauditz, Leslie; Klages, Anna-Lisa; Kruse, Stefanie; Marr, Eva; Mazur, Ana; Schwertel, Tamara; Tietje, Olaf: Die Situationsanalyse als Forschungsprogramm. Wiesbaden: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38714-3_19
- Friese, C., Schwertel, T., Tietje, O. (2023). On Creative Flexibility and its Burden. In: Gauditz, Leslie; Klages, Anna-Lisa; Kruse, Stefanie; Marr, Eva; Mazur, Ana; Schwertel, Tamara; Tietje, Olaf. Die Situationsanalyse als Forschungsprogramm. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38714-3_3
- Gaedicke, S. & Schwertel, T. (2023). Situationsanalyse als Katalysator einer feministischen Public Sociology. In: Gauditz, Leslie; Klages, Anna-Lisa; Kruse, Stefanie; Marr, Eva; Mazur, Ana; Schwertel, Tamara; Tietje, Olaf: Die Situationsanalyse als Forschungsprogramm. Wiesbaden: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38714-3_10
- Gauditz, L.; Klages, A.-L.; Kruse, S.; Marr, E.; Mazur, A.; Schwertel, T.; Tietje, O. (Hg.) (2023). Die Situationsanalyse als Forschungsprogramm. Wiesbaden: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38714-3
- Burner-Fritsch, I.; Schwertel, T. (2023). Of Researchers and Supervisors. Ethical Issues in Supervising Student Researchers in Qualitative Health Research and the Role of Reflexivity. International Journal of Qualitative Methods.
- Offenberger, U., Baumgartner, R., Schwertel, T., Tietje, O., Evans-Jordan, S. B., & Kimmerle, B. (2023). Editorial: Social Worlds, Arenas, and Situational Analyses: Theoretical Debates and Experiences From Research Practice. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 24(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-24.2.4085
- Offenberger, U.; Schwertel, T. (2022): Qualitative Gesundheitsforschung, Science and Technology Studies und Situationsanalyse. Einsichten aus der Forschung zur Tiefen Hirnstimulation. Zeitschrift für Qualitative Sozialforschung, 2(2022). https://doi.org/10.3224/zqf.v23i2.04
- Abd-Al-Majeed,R.; Berg, P.; Brehm, A.; Jentsch, S.; Kaufhold, C.; Monecke, M.; Schwertel, T. & Witzel, H. (2020). Szene und Affekt. Die Bedeutung der Gruppe in der Tiefenhermeneutik. In: Menschen. Zeitschrift für gemeinsames Leben, Lernen und Arbeiten 4-5 (43), S. 25–29.
- Schwertel, T. (2020). Difficulties in the trajectories: an investigation of care structures for refugees suffering from tuberculosis in Germany. In: F. Steger, M. Orzechowski & G. Rubeis (Hg.): Migration and medicine. Originalausgabe (Angewandte Ethik. Medizin), S. 217–234.