• Social history as political history. Werner Conze and the reorientation of West German historiography after 1945 (Ordnungssysteme 9), Munich 2001 more...
• 1968 - A rift in history? Social upheaval and the 1968 movements in West Germany and Sweden, Konstanz 2005 more...
• An eternal downfall. The apocalyptic population discourse in the 20th century, Bielefeld 2007 more. ..
• The Romanticism of Rationality. Alva & Gunnar Myrdal - Social Engineering in Sweden, Bielefeld 2010 more...
  (English translation: Alva and Gunnar Myrdal: Social Engineering in the Modern World, Lanham/MD et al. 2014 [Paperback 2016] more...)
• Biographies. Read - tell - research, Frankfurt/Main, New York 2012 more...
• In Search of the Nordic Man. German racial anthropology in the modern world, Bielefeld 2015 more...
• Henning von Rittersdorf: The German Destiny. Memories of a racial anthropologist. A docu-fiction, Bielefeld 2021 more...
• Landscape and nation. Rhine - Dalarna - England, Bielefeld 2022 more. ..
• "Heroic modernity". Ambivalence of an epoch, Bielefeld 2025 more...
• Hand grenade or drawing pencil. On the ambivalence of modernism, Hamburg 2025 more...

• (Together with Jan Eckel): Neue Zugänge zur Geschichte der Geschichtswissenschaft, Göttingen 2007 more...
• The Order of Modernity. Social Engineering in the 20th Century, Bielefeld 2009 more...
• From "Volk" to "Population". Interventionist population policy in the post-war period, Münster 2015 more...
• (Together with Thomas Alkemeyer, Nikolaus Buschmann): Diagnoses of the Present. Cultural Forms of Social Self-Problematisation in Modernity, Bielefeld 2019 more...
• The performance. Performance in science, Bielefeld 2019 more...

• Imaginary field shafts? "1968" in Sweden and West Germany, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen 2, 2005, pp. 202-223 (also online)
• "I see what you don't see". On the theoretical foundations of historiographical work, in: Eckel, Jan/Etzemüller, Thomas (eds.): Neue Zugänge zur Geschichte der Geschichtswissenschaft, Göttingen 2007, pp. 27-68
• Hjorthagen 1937: Reading a photograph as a metaphor for modernity, in: Budde, Gunilla/Freist, Dagmar/von Reeken, Dietmar (eds.): Geschichts-Quellen. Bridging the gap between historical studies and historical didactics. Festschrift for Hilke Günther-Arndt, Berlin 2008, pp. 45-55
• Social engineering as a behavioural theory of the cool head. An introductory sketch, in: Etzemüller, Thomas (ed.): Die Ordnung der Moderne. Social Engineering in the 20th Century, Bielefeld 2009, pp. 11-39
• "Swedish Modern". Alva and Gunnar Myrdal outline a normalisation society, in: Mittelweg 36 18, 2009, H. 6, pp. 49-63
• "Leisure should create harmonious people": "ambivalent modernity" and the social engineering of everyday life. The "Fritiden" exhibition in Ystad in 1936, in: Historical Anthropology 19, 2011, pp. 372-390
• Romantic Rhine - Iron Rhine. A river as an imaginary landscape of modernity, in: Historische Zeitschrift 295, 2012, pp. 390-424
• The "Vf." as a biographical paradox. How does one become a "scientist" and (how) can this be observed?, in: Alkemeyer, Thomas/Budde, Gunilla/Freist, Dagmar (eds.): Selbst-Bildungen. Social and cultural practices of subjectivation, Bielefeld 2013, pp. 175-196
• Image disorders? Hellen Keller and eugenics, in: Bergermann, Ulrike (ed.): Disability trouble. Aesthetics and image politics with Helen Keller, Berlin 2013, pp. 175-193
• The biographical paradox - or: when does a biography cease to be a biography?, in: Non Fiktion 8, 2013, pp. 89-103
• Did modernity have a "Janus face"? A critical examination from a (Northern) European perspective, in: Hachtmann, Rüdiger/Reichardt, Sven (eds.): Detlev Peukert und die NS-Forschung, Göttingen 2015, pp. 112-125
• Moving into the "true". Self-representation in the academic world, in: Merkur 69, 2015, H. 797, pp. 31-43 (also in: Eurozine, Oct. 2015, as well as reprinted in: Deutscher Hochschulverband [ed:] Glanzlichter der Wissenschaft. An almanac, Heidelberg 2016, pp. 41-49)
• Things as images of themselves. The example of Brasilia - materialised space and visualised practical instruction, in: Visual History 2016
• Ambivalent metaphorics. A critical review of Zygmunt Bauman's "Dialectic of Order" (1989), in: Zeithistorische Forschungen 14, 2017, pp. 177-183 (also online)
• Social engineering, version: 2.0, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte
• Brasilia as an experimental space and Gesamtkunstwerk, in: Böschen, Stefan/Groß, Matthias/Krohn, Wolfgang (eds.): Experimentelle Gesellschaft. The experiment as a dispositive of the knowledge society, Baden-Baden 2017, pp. 269-289
• "Poor lunatics", pseudoscientists and Friedrich Kittler. The anti-academic as a function and inner attitude, in: Mittelweg 36 26, 2017, H. 4-5, p. 70-87
• What could be true. A plea for a fictional empiricism, in: Merkur 72, 2018, H. 835, pp. 17-28
• Diagnosing the present means making something visible as something. Perception, visualisation and intervention in figures of modernity, in: Alkemeyer, Thomas/Buschmann, Nikolaus/Etzemüller, Thomas (eds.): Gegenwartsdiagnosen. Cultural Forms of Social Self-Problematisation in the Modern Age, Bielefeld 2019, pp. 105-126
• "It's the performance, stupid". Performance → Evidence: The performance in science, in: Etzemüller, Thomas (ed.): Der Auftritt. Performance in science, Bielefeld 2019, pp. 9-43
• (Together with Roman Eichler) "Still photography is a method of conference analysis", in: Etzemüller, Thomas (ed.): Der Auftritt. Performance in science, Bielefeld 2019, pp. 203-233
• Instrument for coping with the world. The group between heavy and cybernetic modernity, in: Mittelweg 36 28/29, 2019/20, issue 6/1, pp. 22-43
• Almost, public, tweet science: Appearance and image of scientists in the wake of the virus, in: INDES 10, 2020, H. 3, p. 19-31
• "My God, that was the happiest year of my life". The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as milieu and revelation. On the ethnography of an anti-university institution, in: Meyer, Daniel/Reuter, Julia/Berli, Oliver (eds.): Ethnografie der Hochschule. On research into university practice, Bielefeld 2022, pp. 251-273
• Reality is almost the novel ... But why don't academics actually write their own poetry? The example of a docu-fiction, in: WerkstattGeschichte 31, 2022, no. 86, pp. 103-114
• Biography as (paradoxical) construction, in: Klein, Christian (ed.): Handbuch Biographie. Methods, Traditions, Theories, Stuttgart ²2022, pp. 81-89
• Revolution or displacement? The new as staged non-new. A case study from the perspective of the sociology of science, in: Jäger, Friedrich/Voßkamp, Sabine (eds.): Wie kommt das Neue in die Welt? Interdisciplinary creativity and innovation, Berlin, Heidelberg 2023, pp. 213-228
• The course book of the German Federal Railway. Life-style tactics in the ponderous modern age, in: Merkur 77, 2023, H. 888, pp. 30-43
• Democracy in the interwar period - the tale of a European failure. An irritated intervention, in: Merkur 78, 2024, H. 897, p. 5-16
• Unloved, cold, heroic modernity. Decisionists and social engineers, in: Merkur 79, 2025, H. 911, p. 5-15
• Die Archivalie als Briefroman!, in: Krüger, Christine G./Meifort, Franziska/Witkowski, Mareike (eds.): Korrespondenzen aus der Vergangenheit. Letters as historical sources, Göttingen 2025, pp. 245-254
• Inclusions/exclusions. Melvin D. Williams' "Enthnography of an Anthropological Institute" as a dense description of social processes in science - or: Can the microphysics of science be better reflected in fictional texts?, in: Rieger-Ladich, Markus et al. (eds.): Rhetorik der Inklusion, Praxis der Exklusion. Self-observations of educational science, Weinheim 2026, pp. 377-389

• 56 reviews in FAZ, HPB, HSK, HZ, IASL-Online, NPL, Sehepunkte, VSWG, ZfG and others
  

• Cultural history of modernity (late 18th to 21st century)
• scientific research
• Biographical research
• Theory and history of historical science

Ongoing projects:

• The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. A historical-scientific-sociological study, 1978-2020 (since 2024) more...
• Political Cultural History of Scandinavia (since 2024) more...
• Performance and Subjectivisation in Science: Cognition as a Social Process (since 2013) more...
• Participation: Focus group "Diagnoses (in) the present", Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (since 2021) more...
• Participation: "Ambivalent educational advancement - cultural and social science approaches in dialogue", funded by the "Exploration Fund" of the University of Tübingen for the preparation of a joint project (since 2024)

Completed projects:

• The implementation of a new truth. The establishment of social history in West German historiography (1995-2000) more...
• "1968" in West Germany and Sweden (2000-2002) more...
• "I see what you don't see". On the theoretical foundations of historiographical work (2002-2007) more...
• The eternal downfall. The matrix of the population discourse (2002-2007) more...
• A normalisation society and its architects. The Swedes Alva and Gunnar Myrdals (2004-2009) more...
• Organisational thinking and social engineering as a reaction to modernity. Northwest Europe, 1920s to 1950s (2006-2010) more...
• Introduction to Biographical Research (2009-2012) more...
• "Population": The "population question" and the social order of society, ca. 1798-1987 (2009-2014) more...
• The subject of football (2011-2015) more...
• Co-applicant: Research Training Group "Self-Formations. Practices of Subjectivation in Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspective" (2010-2019) more...
• Co-applicant: Transformation through Community - Processes of Collective Subjectivation in the Context of Sustainable Development (TransGem) (2019-2023) more...
• Imaginary landscapes: Landscapes as projection surfaces for social concepts of order and the future, ca. 1750-2010 (2010-2024) more ...
• Participation: Doctoral programme "Shaping the Future" (2019-2024) more...
• Co-applicant: DFG network "Diagnosing (in) Modernity" (2022-2025) more...
• Imagination and Intervention: On the History of Modernity (2004-2025) more...

The anthropology of science is located somewhere between the sociology of science and science studies. It is a perspective that looks at scientists as actors, but not as autonomous "great thinkers", but as subjects in the sense of subjectivisation theory. Since my dissertation, the title of which is a study in the sociology of science, I have used small case studies to illuminate the eminently important role that the social plays within science. It is still held in low esteem by the protagonists of the field, for example conformism, the compulsion to perform, the unconditional belief in the cause. Such dispositions make scientists function without them really being able (or willing) to see through them.

• Social history as political history. Werner Conze and the reorientation of West German historiography after 1945 (Ordnungssysteme 9), Munich 2001 more...
• The "Vf." as a biographical paradox. How does one become a "scientist" and (how) can this be observed?, in: Alkemeyer, Thomas/Budde, Gunilla/Freist, Dagmar (eds.): Selbst-Bildungen. Social and cultural practices of subjectivation, Bielefeld 2013, pp. 175-196
• Moving into the "true". Self-representation in the academic world, in: Merkur 69, 2015, H. 797, pp. 31-43 (also in: Eurozine, Oct. 2015, as well as reprinted in: Deutscher Hochschulverband [ed:] Glanzlichter der Wissenschaft. An Almanac, Heidelberg 2016, pp. 41-49)
• "Poor lunatics", pseudoscientists and Friedrich Kittler. The anti-academic as a function and inner attitude, in: Mittelweg 36 26, 2017, H. 4-5, pp. 70-87
• (ed.) The performance. Performance in academia, Bielefeld 2019 more...
• "It's the performance, stupid". Performanz → Evidenz: Der Auftritt in der Wissenschaft, in: Etzemüller, Thomas (ed.): Der Auftritt. Performance in science, Bielefeld 2019, pp. 9-43
• (Together with Roman Eichler) "Still photography is a method of conference analysis", in: Etzemüller, Thomas (ed.): Der Auftritt. Performance in science, Bielefeld 2019, pp. 203-233
• Fast, public, tweet science: Appearance and image of scientists in the wake of the virus, in: INDES 10, 2020, H. 3, pp. 19-31
• "My God, that was the happiest year of my life". The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as milieu and revelation. On the ethnography of an anti-university institution, in: Meyer, Daniel/Reuter, Julia/Berli, Oliver (eds.): Ethnografie der Hochschule. On research into university practice, Bielefeld 2022, pp. 251-273
• Revolution or shift? The new as staged non-new. A case study from the perspective of the sociology of science, in: Jäger, Friedrich/Voßkamp, Sabine (eds.): Wie kommt das Neue in die Welt? Interdisciplinary Creativity and Innovation, Berlin, Heidelberg 2023, pp. 213-228
• Inclusions/exclusions. Melvin D. Williams' "Enthnography of an Anthropological Institute" as a dense description of social processes in science - or: Can the microphysics of science be better reflected in fictional texts?, in: Rieger-Ladich, Markus et al. (eds.): Rhetorik der Inklusion, Praxis der Exklusion. Self-observations of educational science, Weinheim 2026, pp. 377-386