Paul Distler, M.A.

Paul Distler is a research associate at the Chair of Visual Communication and Media Sociology at the Institute of Media Research at Chemnitz University of Technology. His teaching includes the theory, history, and practice of photography. As part of his doctoral research, he investigates the negotiation of personhood through a sociological analysis of the visual imagery of 'dementia'.

Studies in Sociology at the University of Vienna and Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. MA thesis on the role of embodiment in visual expression and perception (supervised by Prof. Dr. Roswitha Breckner).

2019 – 2021
Teaching Assistent at the Institute for Psychology of Emotion, Cognition and Methods, University of Vienna.

2021 – 2023
Lecturer at the Institute of Psychology of Cognition, Emotion and Methods, University of Vienna (“Introduction to Qualitative Methods”; co-taught with Dr. Julia Riegler).

since 09/2022 
Research Associate at the Chair of Visual Communication and Media Sociology, Institute of Media Research, Chemnitz University of Technology.

Sociology of Knowledge, Visual Sociology, Sociology of the Body and Medicine, Cultural Psychology

Since 2023: Development and Conduct of the Doctoral Research Project „Negotiating Personhood“ (Working Titel), supervised by Prof. Dr. Michael R. Müller 

Based on the assumption that the idea of the ‘person’ is “fluid, delicate, precious” (Mauss), the overarching research focus of this dissertation project is on how personhood is socially negotiated at its boundaries. To explore this interest, the typification of ‘dementia’ is used as an empirical reference point, Schütz’s pragmatic theory of the lifeworld serves as the foundational sociological theory, and a research approach grounded in the sociology of knowledge and image hermeneutics is adopted. More specifically, the goal is (a) to reconstruct typical “frames” (Goffman) – that is, typical patterns of interpretation and the practices of their apllication – through which the socio-categorical status of 'person' is socially thematized and presented in contemporary visual worlds on 'dementia'; as well as (b) to theoretically describe these frames with regard to their role in the social negotiation of personhood when it becomes fragile and precarious. This objective is pursued through a contrastive research design that combines an analysis of advertising and illustrative images with an analysis of visual data from the social worlds of neuroscience and the visual and performing arts.

Journal-Articels (peer-reviewed)
2023, Learning to Teach Qualitative Researching. Perspectives for a Balancing Act in Times of Institutionalization and Neoliberal Study Conditions (orig. Qualitativ Forschen lehren lernen: Perspektiven für eine Gratwanderung in Zeiten von Institutionalisierung und neoliberalem Studienbetrieb). Journal für Psychologie, 31(2), 19–41. https://doi.org/10.30820/0942-2285-2023-2-19 (with Riegler, J., Hametner, K., Wrbouschek, M. und Slunecko, T.)

Book-Chapter
2023, We Remain Silent about Subjective Experience? A Student Attempt at Strengthening Interpretative Research in Psychology (orig. Vom subjektiven Erleben schweigen wir? Ein studentischer Versuch der Bestärkung interpretativer Forschung in der Psychologie). In: Widerstehen & Widersprechen. Beiträge zur vierten under.docs-Fachtagung zu Kommunikation, hrsg. von J. Paintner, N. Grohs, D. Schmid, B Metzler. p. 61-78. Wien: Danzig & unfried.

Review
2025, Review: Qualitative Research with People with Dementia: Contributions from the MethodenForum Witten 2021 (orig. Rezension: Qualitative Forschung mit Menschen mit Demenz. Beiträge aus dem MethodenForum Witten 2021). hrsg. von S. Teupen, J. Serbser-Koal, F. Laporte Uribe, C. Dinand und M. Roes. In: Zeitschrift für Qualitative Forschung, 26(2), https://doi.org/10.3224/zqf.v26i2.11

Conference Report
2024, Section Conference ‘Technicalization of Knowledge’ of the Section Sociology of Knowledge 18.-19.03.24  (orig. Sektionstagung „Technisierung von Wissen“ der Sektion Wissenssoziologie), In: Soziologie. 2024, Vol. 53 Issue 4, p. 476-478 (mit Tietz, S. und Zielke, T.)

2025, Organisation of the Session „Anthropocene Imaginaries. Visualizing the Anthropocene in Digital Media“ at the 5. ISA Forum “Knowing Justice in the Anthropocene” in Rabat, Marokko, 9.07.25 (with Sonnenmoser, A. and Zielke, T.)

German Sociological Association; Austrian Sociological Association; Sociology of Knowledge Section (GSA); RC57 Visual Sociology (ISA)

Conference Presentations

2026, Liminal and Numinous Framings: On the Religious Function of Visual Forms in the Social Imagery of “Dementia.” (orig. Liminale und numinose Rahmungen. Zur religioiden Gebrauchsfunktion visueller Formen in der sozialen Seh- und Bildwelt von 'Demenz') presentation at the open conference of the GSA Section “Sociology of Religion”, University of Leipzig, 16.06.2026

2025, Dementia and the ‚Problem of Personality in the Social World‘, presentation at the VII. Conference of the International Alfred Schutz Circle for Phenomenology and Interpretive Social Science, Universität Wien, 24.04.2025

2025, Natures of the Anthropocene: An Analysis of a Digital-Participatory Image Cluster, presentation at the 5. ISA Forum “Knowing Justice in the Anthropocene”, Rabat, Marokko, 9.07.2025 (with Anne Sonnenmoser und Thore Zielke)

2024, Dementia and Personhood: On the Social Imagery of Vulnerable Personality (orig. Demenz und Person-Sein. Zur sozialen Bildwelt vulnerabler Personalität), presentation at the Congress of the Swiss Sociological Association 2024, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Basel, 11.09.2024

2023, "The Lived Body" and Pictoral Embodiments. On the Involvement of the Body in Visual-expressive Acts and Perception Processes (orig. Leib-bildliche Verkörperungen. Zur Involvierung von Leiblichkeit in bildmedialen Ausdruckshandlungen und Wahrnehmungsprozessen), presentation at the Congress of the Austrian Sociological Association 2023, WU Wien, 03.07.2023