Supervising field: Prof. Dr. Kerstin Palm, Institut für Geschichtswissenschaft, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

At German universities, psychology is assigned to the natural sciences, which goes hand in hand with research with a strong quantitative-experimental orientation. While psychological knowledge is increasingly influencing public discourse, a scientific-theoretical, historical and social location remains largely absent in academic psychology. In this seminar, we placed psychological knowledge in the context of social power relations.

After an introduction to postcolonial, queer, and feminist perspectives on psychology, participants worked in small groups to develop their own research projects in which they addressed a construct from psychology (such as intelligence, trauma, attachment, etc.). Based on the Lübeck model of Psychological Humanities, approaches from the natural sciences, cultural studies, social sciences and the humanities could be linked to create space for a power-critical reflection. This can also include pop cultural approaches (for example podcasts) and research in community-based projects (for example counseling).

Contact: Hanne Oeltjen, oeltjenh@hu-berlin.de