Johanna Knebel

Profile

I´m a thrid-year postgraduate researcher (PGR) in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. My research focuses on inclusive, accessible, and meaningfu sexuality education by exploring how people with learning difficulties can be actively involved as peers in its design and delivery.

My PhD is funded by the ESRC through the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP). As part of this programme, I completed an MA in Social Research (Interdisciplinary) with distinction in 2023, following a first-class MA in Disability Studies in 2022. My studies have been supported by scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Leeds Excellence Scholarship for International Students.

Drawing on my professional experience in special education, I approach my work through a disability studies lens. This interdisciplinary perspective allows me to connect research and practice across German- and English-speaking contexts and bridge the fields of special education and disability studies.

I’m also an active member of the Centre for Disability Studies (CDS) at Leeds, where I served as a postgraduate researcher representative (2023–2025). In this role, I have been passionate about building community among PGRs—locally and globally.

Research interests

My Research

My doctoral research explores the involvement of adults with learning difficulties as peers—such as peer counsellors—in sexuality education in Germany. The goal is to strengthen the evidence base for sexuality education for and by people with learning difficulties and to examine how practice can align with disabled people’s rights to sexuality education, as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Articles 23 and 24).

In Germany, people with learning difficulties are often excluded—not only from accessing comprehensive information about sexuality and relationships but also from shaping the knowledge that informs sexuality education. Traditionally, sexuality education has been delivered by non-disabled professionals to passive recipients with learning difficulties. This exclusion is rooted in ableist assumptions that people with learning difficulties are cognitively and sexually incapable.

Peer-led approaches challenge these assumptions by positioning people with learning difficulties as active sexual agents and experts in their own lives, echoing the principle of the Independent Living Movement: “Nothing about us without us.” My research aims to disrupt ableism, essentialism, and hierarchical knowledge structures in sexuality education.

How I Work

To capture the experiences and perspectives of peer counsellors with learning difficulties and their non-disabled co-workers, I use an adapted dyadic interviewing approach (Caldwell, 2014) combined with creative and visual methods. I have conducted joint interviews and focus groups with participants from peer-led sexuality education projects in Germany. Guided by a shared epistemological approach, data collection and analysis were co-created with participants using a “go-along” method to ensure meaningful collaboration.

My research interests

• Feminist Disability Studies
• Feminist Epistemology
• Gender Studies
• Sexuality Studies
• Sexuality Education
• Inclusive Education
• Incluisve Reserch
• Creative Methods

Qualifications

• M.A. Social Research (Interdisciplinary), University of Leeds
• M.A. Disability Studies, University of Leeds
• M.A. Special Education, University of Erfurt

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Disability Studies
• Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies