Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Nemec

Co-director of the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine, Chair for the History of Medicine

Charité - University Medicine Berlin
Thielallee 71
14195 Berlin

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Expertise

Birgit Nemec has been Professor of the History of Medicine at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine at Charité since 2021. In her research and teaching, she is particularly interested in the role of patients and activists in the negotiation of knowledge and practices in the recent history of pregnancy and reproduction. Methodologically, she is also concerned with inclusive formats of research collaboration, particularly with patient:ing and affected groups. A second focus of her research and teaching is on material and visual cultures of science, the history of urban spaces, and memory politics. Her first book, Norm und Reform. Anatomische Körperbilder in Wien um 1925, was published by Wallstein in 2020. She is a member of the Junge Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Current research projects

Birgit Nemec is currently (co-)director/PI of two research projects.

The DFG/AHRC project "Riskante Hormone" / "Risky Hormones, pregnant patients and the contested science of birth defects: the rise and fall of hormone pregnancy tests in the FRG and UK, 1950-81" aims to reappraise the transnational history of hormone pregnancy tests, together with affected groups.
project homepage: https://riskyhormones.org

Risikokinder. Eine Wissenschafts- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte von Schwangerschaft und Reproduktion (Children at Risk. A Scientific and Social History of Pregnancy and Reproduction) examines the changing concepts of risk and related practices of prevention in the context of pregnancy and reproduction in the Federal Republic of Germany, including the perspectives of migrants and activists.

Research focus

History of pregnancy and reproductive medicine
History of new social movements and patient activism
History of environment, health and congenital malformations
History of human genetics, genetic counseling and genetic diagnostics
History of collections, images and objects in medicine and science
Politics of knowledge; city and politics of memory

Selected publications

Dron, H. und Nemec, B. (2021) The Environments of Reproductive and Birth Defects Research in the U.S. and West Germany (c. 1955–1965). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science – accepted.

Nemec, B. und Olszynko-Gryn, J. (2021) Schering’s Duogynon and the Post-Thalidomide Debate Over Iatrogenic Birth Defects in West Germany. Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2021.09.003.

Nemec, B. (2020) Norm und Reform. Anatomische Körperbilder in Wien um 1925. Wallstein.

Bäumel, S.; Hanne; L.P. Tytgat; Nemec, B. et.al. (2018) Fifty Percent Human – How art brings us in touch with our microbial co-habitants. In: Microbial Biotechnology 11 (4), S 571–574.

Nemec, B. und Zimmer, F. (2019) Wie aus Umweltforschung die genetische Pränataldiagnostik entstand. NTM 1/2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00048-019-00207-w.

Nemec, B. (2020) Unerledigte Anliegen, Replik: Alarm. Cache 01: Gegen-Wissen (Herausgegeben von Nils Güttler, Niki Rhyner, Max Stadler), Zürich, Intercom, V/104–105.

Nemec, B.; Moser, G. (2017) Counselling, Risk and Prevention in Human Genetic Early Diagnosis in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Petermann/Harper/Friedman/Doetz (Hg.), History of Genetic Counselling, Heidelberg: Springer.

Nemec, B. (2015) Anatomical modernity in Red Vienna. Julius Tandler’s textbook for systematic anatomy and the politics of visual milieus. In: Sudhoffs Archiv 1/2015, S 44–71.Curriculum Vitae Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Nemec.

Vita Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Nemec

Birgit Nemec studied History and Cultural Studies in Vienna and Rome and was a fellow in the graduate program 'The sciences in historical, cultural and philosophical contexts' at the University of Vienna as well as a research fellow and lecturer at the Medical University of Vienna. She spent longer visiting research periods at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin, the Department for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and the Chair for the History of Science at Humboldt University Berlin. From 2014 to 2021, she was a research associate at Heidelberg University and a fellow in the Brigitte Schlieben Lange Program. In April 2021, she followed the call as Professor of History of Medicine at the Charité. She has been a member of the Junge Akademie der Wissenschaften since 2020.

Her main research interests are
I: in the history of reproduction,
II: in the history of collections, images and objects, and
III: in the history of politics of knowledge.

In her first book (Norm und Reform, Wallstein 2020), she explores the role of anatomical body images in struggles over hegemony, bodily norm, and social reform around 1925. Currently, she is interested in the role of patients and activists in the negotiation of knowledge, concepts, and practices in the New History of Reproduction. She is head (PI) of the BMBF/DLR research group „Risikokinder. Eine Wissenschafts- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte der Schwangerschaft und Reproduktion“ ("Risk Children. A Scientific and Social History of Pregnancy and Reproduction.") Together with Jesse Olszynko-Gryn (Glasgow) she leads the DFG/AHRC collaborative project "Risky Hormones, Pregnant Patients and the Contested Science of Birth Defects: The rise and fall of hormone pregnancy tests, 1950-1980s".

Verbundprojekt „Risky Hormones, Pregnant Patients and the Contested Science of Birth Defects: The rise and fall of hormone pregnancy tests, 1950-1980s“.