Cultural Anthropology of body and health in history and the present day
Subjectivation processes and cultural systems of order
Self-testing and self-monitoring
Digital Culture, Popular Media, Guidebooks
Jewish Culture and History
Education
2017: Adjunct Professor for Cultural Anthropology, University of Basel
2009: Venia Docendi for Cultural Anthropology, University of Basel; Habilitation thesis: “The architecture of a modern Jewish identity. Medicine and doctors in German Judaism of the reform era (1750-1850)”
1995: Dr. rer. soc., Eberhard-Karls University Tübingen; PhD thesis: “Smallpox vaccination and traditional society in early 19th century Württemberg”
1994: PhD Fellowship at the German Historical Institute, Washington D.C.
1990–1993: PhD grant from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, Stuttgart
1987: Magister Artium in Historical and Cultural Anthropology and Political Science at the Eberhard-Karls University Tübingen; Master’s thesis: “Health associations and the medicalization process. The Homeopathic Association of Heidenheim 1888-1945”
1978–1987: Studies in Historical and Cultural Anthropology and Political Science at the Eberhard-Karls University Tübingen
Academic Research Experience
From 2014: Academic Associate in Popular Culture Studies at the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Zurich
2012: Academic Associate at Bern University at the Institute for the History of Medicine in the project “Centenary of the Swiss Society for Surgery”
2011–2013: Academic Associate at the Leopold-Franzens University Innsbruck, Institute of History and European Ethnology in the project “Historia Morborum”
2007–2011: Academic Associate in the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Zurich, implementation of the NF project “Healthy lifestyles in the 20th century” (with interruptions)
2006–2006: Academic Associate at the Institute for the History of Medicine at Bern University (Project: “200 years of the Society of Physicians of the Canton”)
2004–2005: Academic Associate at the Brain Research Institute at the University of Zurich. Project Leader “Walter Rudolf Hess Archive” located at the Institute and Museum for the History of Medicine at the University of Zurich
2000–2004: Academic Associate at the Institute and Museum for the History of Medicine at the University of Zurich. Leader of the third-party funded project “Bircher-Benner Archive”
1995–2006: Academic Associate at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart, in the DFG financed research project “Judaism and medicine as a result of the Enlightenment”
Museum Experience
2012–2014: Academic Associate at the Museum for the History of Medicine at the University of Zurich in the area of special exhibitions (suspended 11/2012 to 08/2014)
2009–2010: Guest Curator at the Swiss National Museum, Landesmuseum Zürich, for the special exhibition “Magic mountains. Switzerland as energy centre and sanatorium”
2007–2008: Academic Associate and Curator of the exhibition project “From greenhorn to white coat – 175 years of medical studies at the University of Zurich” at the History of Medicine Archives
2006–2012: Freelancer at the Naturmuseum Winterthur, participation in exhibitions
1999–2001: Guest Curator at the Museum of the History of Medicine, University of Zurich, complete realisation of the exhibition “Adored – Cursed – Exploited. The importance of animals for human health”
1995: Freelancer for the German Hygiene Museum, Dresden, in the exhibition project “Diseases make history” on the history of smallpox
