Prof. Dr Judith von der Heyde has been appointed Professor of Social Education with the focus on Diversity Education at the Department of Educational Sciences. She previously held a professorship for Social Work and Diversity at the Fliedner University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf. 

Von der Heyde studied educational science and philosophy at the University of Osnabrück, where she completed her doctorate in educational science in 2017. She then worked as a research assistant until 2023. During this time, she held deputy professorships in Osnabrück and at the University of Duisburg-Essen before she was appointed to Düsseldorf in 2023. 

Her research focuses on diversity and aspects of inequality, particulary from a gender perspective. Specifically, she deals with the topic of sexuality as an educationally relevant variable: How, for example, can sexual education succeed in a diverse society? What role does materiality play in the form of human and non-human bodies, how do young people educate each other in this field and how are the topics of sexuality and gender connected as categories of inequality? Von der Heyde’s interests are bundled in concrete questions about professionalization processes in social pedagogy with a focus on diversity education.