Josef Schaubruch studied music, German, philosophy/ethics, and educational sciences at Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg, Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, and Mainz University of Music, qualifying as a secondary school teacher. During his studies, he taught percussion for many years and worked as an event assistant at Mainz State Theater.
After passing his first state examination (with distinction), he received a scholarship from Leuphana University in Lüneburg. Here he began his dissertation on the semantics of liveness in electronic dance music performances under Prof. Dr. Michael Ahlers (Lüneburg), Prof. Dr. Johannes Ismaiel-Wendt (Hildesheim), and Prof. Dr. André Doehring (Graz). He subsequently spent a long time conducting field research and working as an active musician in club culture scenes, playing numerous gigs at home and abroad, releasing recordings, and publishing on topics related to popular music. He completed his dissertation while doing his legal clerkship at the Wiesbaden teacher training college.
After completing his second state examination, he worked as a teacher at a high school in Hesse and as a lecturer for various teaching positions at the Mainz University of Music and the University of Paderborn. He is currently employed as a research assistant in the Department of Music Education at the Mainz University of Music, where he works with Prof. Dr. Valerie Krupp on the third-party funded project KuMuS-ProNeD, which focuses on teaching development and consulting in the context of digital learning and teaching in music education. He regularly offers the teaching concepts developed in this project in continuing education courses and workshops for teachers (e.g., on the artistic repertoire of DJs, live acts, and VJs).
His main areas of interest in teaching and research are popular music, (post)digital music practice, and music education.