Kerstin Palm

Kerstin Palm was appointed Professor of Natural Sciences and Gender Studies at the Department of History of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2013.

She studied Biology, Philosophy and German Studies and completed a doctorate with a case study on the problem of the acidification of lakes caused by »acid rain« (entitled »Phytoplankton in Huzenbach Lake, a Dystrophic Cirque Lake in the Northern Black Forest«). She wrote a professorial dissertation in the field of cultural science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin entitled »Modes of existence – Fragments of Cultural History in the Biological Concept of life 1750–2000«.

In April 2008 she became an associate member and in April 2014 a full member of the ZtG (Centre for Trans-disciplinary Gender Studies) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In 2010, she became a founding member of the Gender Studies Association of Germany.

Her research interests are the history of epistemology relating to the natural sciences, from the perspective of gender; particularly the cultural history of natural scientific and technological concepts (life, energy, the body, matter) as informed by theories of gender; gender epistemology, theories of materiality (concepts of embodiment theory and plasticity in research on the brain, epigenetics and epidemiology, biological incorporations of sociality, New Materialism); theories and practices of trans- and interdisciplinarity; and gender theory in the curriculum of natural sciences and technology (gender theory-informed biology education).