Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, Medien- und Wissensgeschichte des Verhaltens

In spring of 2021 I was a guest of the History of Science Department at the world-famous Princeton University as a Visiting Student Research Collaborator (VSRC). Due to the Covid-19 pandemic my stay had to take place online. In spite of the unusual situation, it yielded a number of important experiences and successes.

I am currently doing a doctorate at the Humboldt University of Berlin, studying the media history and history of knowledge of behaviour. I am focusing on German-language behavioural biology in the 1950s and ‘60s and am investigating the extent to which natural sciences contexts were not only the site of academic biology debates around the natural foundations of behaviour, but also the extent to which this research also took place in a socio-political context. I am interested in analysing the research techniques and media that were used to develop knowledge about the nature of behaviour that was apparently universally applicable, and how that knowledge was soon transferred from animals to humans.

The basis of my work is archival research into the papers of the East German biologist Günter Tembrock (1918–2011). During my three-month research stay in Princeton I principally worked on evaluating Tembrock’s historical drawings, films and photographs for my topic area.

Hwa Ja Götz, MfN 2020

Detail of a log book by Günter Tembrock on the behavior of red foxes

My virtual stay at Princeton University was focused on deepening my knowledge of the history of science and to develop my international research profile. My stay was supported by Prof Erika Lorraine Milam, a renowned expert in the field of the history of biology. Her publications have also engaged with the political contexts of 20th century behavioural biology. Furthermore, her professional activities create a bridge between the history of science in Germany and North America. Amongst other things, she has been a fellow of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin several times over.

In Prof Milam's colloquium and also in the seminar programme run by the History of Science Department for all PhD students, I gained weekly insights into the Institute's current research projects. Thanks to the instruction and inspiration from Prof Milam and the research projects of the other PhD students, I developed my research into a paper in English. My colleagues proofread my paper in detail and provided helpful advice. My draft text benefited greatly from this feedback, in terms of both style and methodology.

In addition to the PhD programme I attended public guest lectures, book presentations and the Institute's annual conference. I was inspired by the high technical standards and professional management of these events, which were held exclusively online. I also got to experience a very pleasant and beneficial climate for discussion during the events. I will integrate some of the rhetorical and technical elements from this excellent interaction into my future projects. My research project also benefited to a very great degree from the intensive discussion of issues such as the international contexts of the history of biology.

I will continue to collaborate with Prof Milam after my stay. As soon as September this year she will chair a panel I am organising at the joint annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Technikgeschichte (GTG) and the Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Wissenschaften, der Medizin und der Technik (GWMT) in Vienna. I expect to make a second visit to Princeton (in person this time) in the near future.

Privat

Sophie Gräfe carried out her stay at Princeton virtually

I am grateful to Prof Milam for her personal supervision of my thesis project during my stay, which not only considered academic issues but also always made allowance for the challenges of academic work under the prevailing conditions of the pandemic. After all, academic work has been hit hard by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Offices, libraries and archives were inaccessible for months at a time. Trips for conferences and research had to be cancelled. Professional networking could only take place on the phone, in email inboxes or in video conferences. The department at Princeton did its utmost to compensate for the loss of the social components of natural sciences research by always allowing plenty of time for small talk during events and providing opportunities to share ideas about our personal work situations.

I would like to thank Dr Wolfgang Knapp for supporting my research stay and all the staff at the DAAD-Stiftung for their friendly administration of my application and scholarship.